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NORTH DEVON RAIL USERS GROUP

MAGAZINE

Issue 29 Autumn 2008

Representing Users Of The Barnstaple - Exeter Line

http://ndrailusers.wikispaces.com

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Front Cover: A mosaic of previous year’s covers

Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editors nor of the North Devon Rail Users Group

Design: NDRUG

Articles, information, and letters for the next edition should be sent to: Andy Hedges, 20 Barton Meadow Road, High Bickington,

Umberleigh, EX37 9AN or e-mailed to andyhedges@gmail.com

Contents Author(s)

Andy Hedges John Phillips John Burch

John Phillips

Peter Craske/AlanClark Mike Day

John Phillips

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12 14 17 18 20 21 22

Topic Editorial Chairman’s Report Tarka Line Bus Service Developments Engineering Works The Overcrowding Situation Exploring the Line—Umberleigh Station Masters Café—at last! Help the Environment—go by rail Now the best timetable ever Visit to Exeter Maintenance Depot In Memoriam Membership Matters

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Editorial It could be all change in 2009! Discussions are taking place as to the fu-ture of the magazine in its present form. It was felt to be a little dated, was not that efficient at getting information to group members, and completely ignored the wider travelling public (and potential membership). It was also becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficient content to fill a magazine that was originally issued quarterly, this issue now being only the second one this year!

There has been feedback from members to the effect that they never hear anything from us, so are not aware of what is happening, and more impor-tantly when meetings are due to be held. These comments are true, and we hold our hands up to these shortcomings, we cannot expect you, our members, to quietly assume that things are happening concerning the line and its operation—we need to keep you informed!

The proposal is for a new newsletter which will be published more fre-quently, allowing the inclusion of more up to date and relevant information, and will be aimed at generally raising the profile of the group, and giving the opportunity to attract, in due course, a greater number of members.

Let us have your comments about the magazine and/or newsletter, both good and bad, we value your opinions.

Alongside this move there are also proposals to redesign our other public face, our website. We realise that not everyone has access to the internet (or even want it!) but an increasing number of members do, not to mention the potential members out there somewhere that need to be attracted and encouraged to join if they are users of the line.

Lastly there is the question of ‘rebranding’ the group. The acronym “NDRUG” has always be problematical, with certain other connotations that have raised their head from time to time, and whilst we shall still offi-cially be the North Devon Rail Users Group, it is felt that something a little shorter, sharper, and noticeable may be needed to provide the headlining for the new newsletter and the redesigned website. I can foresee that this will be the cause of much soul searching, discussion, and compromise be-fore we reach a satisfactory conclusion.

Andy Hedges

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Chairman’s Report

(or crystal ball gazing / blue sky thinking) As you will know from my Annual Report, the Committee is looking ahead and has agreed a number of priorities for the coming year. Work has already started on a number of those initiatives, one of which is to replace the Maga-zine with a regular newsletter aimed at keeping you better informed and, hopefully, encouraging those of you that are able, to become more directly involved. Andy has given much thought to this as explained in his editorial, therefore, I thought, as this is potentially the final edition, that I would take a look into the future at a number of potentially interesting scenarios. We are very keen to establish more ‘station friends groups’ along the line, as have been established at Crediton and Barnstaple, particularly at the smaller stations, so their hopes and aspirations are not overlooked in any future de-velopments. The Friends of Newton St Cyres has recently been established and we hope they will contact us soon to arrange a meeting. We are hopeful that we will shortly be able to take over the disused platform at Barnstaple and we have a small group of Committee members working on the production of an Action Plan and risk assessment etc. Although primarily aimed at creating a pleasant welcoming environment for passengers using the station. Our long term hope, however, is to get the platform up to a stan-dard that would one day be able to welcome excursion trains again. We hope that it will not be beyond the realms of possibility to fill out the time-table by plugging the afternoon 90 minute gap and provide a late evening and earlier morning train. As you will know from my annual report, this is one of our priorities to take forward in our ongoing discussions with First Great West-ern, Devon County Council and the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership. Ob-viously there will be financial implications and it may be that an incremental approach would be necessary. Furthermore, the present economic situation may not be the best time to be expecting any action. However, I firmly be-lieve that one should always plan for the future and have a fully prepared scheme to bring forward once conditions improve. However, on the immediate horizon is the tantalising prospect of a clock face two hourly train service on Sundays with an earlier first train, which would give a mid-morning arrival into Exeter for main line connections or for shop-ping. Allied to this will be the publication of our walks brochure. This will offer two walks from each station along the line and thanks are due to Alan Clark

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and Peter Craske for all their hard work. All the content has been finalised and we hope to go to print shortly after Christmas. Most importantly, all the funding is in place and we are very grateful to all our sponsors for their sup-port. We are now looking beyond this and how we might develop the leisure poten-tial of our line through the provision of a Sunday Bike Train. This could be achieved when Pacers are withdrawn from front line service. One coach would be partially or fully stripped of seating with bike racks installed instead. The modified unit would be attached to appropriate Sunday trains. Peter Craske has already researched a number of bike rides from each station and a brochure similar to our forthcoming walks brochure could easily be produced. We have asked the Rail Partnership to look into this because there ought to be a good case for seeking grant funding as it would be a first for a Community Railway, would be a unique (for the UK at least) facility and contribute to “the health of the nation” as well as meeting a proven demand for taking cycles on trains! Finally - and this is personal- a real bit of crystal ball gazing! Whilst we are currently benefiting fro a temporary reduction in the price of fuel, there is no doubt that longer term demand and a finite supply will drive particularly oil prices higher and higher. So I am thinking Tram Trains! This would very much depend upon the development of a simple low cost electrification sys-tem. Assuming that it comes about, I envisage tram trains starting initially from the Bus Station and Square in Barnstaple, crossing the bridge to the Sta-tion, then reverse and follow the existing route to Exmouth, where again there would be a short extension into the town centre and, possibly also the sea front. Reversal at the Railway Station would be for the trams to join up with those from the Bideford direction. Installation of a couple of additional passing loops with self activating points would increase capacity to enable two train/trams per hour to operate (one fast one stopping). Future extensions would be possible and hopefully the Paignton and Axminster lines and, perhaps also in time, the Okehampton line would be incorporated together with other rail-less routes such as to Braunton. A scheme such as this will, of course, be seen as impossible for all sorts of reasons, and will certainly not happen in the foreseeable future. But perhaps someone with vision and sufficient influence to generate the finance might make a strong enough case for it to be brought forward by 2059! And with that thought I wish you a Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year

John Phillips

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Tarka Line Bus Service Developments

I joined the North Devon Rail User Group Committee in October and have been given the task of trying to improve bus and coach links with the railway and develop further through ticketing facilities. I thought I’d start by reporting on some significant revisions to bus services at the north end of the line. With all the bus service revisions in North Devon in recent years only a small number of First Devon and Cornwall operated services actually ran to the bus stand adjacent to Barnstaple station. These were a handful of journeys on route 7 (Barnstaple – Landkey – Swimbridge - South Molton), the first Mon-day to Friday journey and the Sunday service on route 3 from Ilfracombe. From 9th December 2007 First Great Western advanced the departure time of the first Monday to Friday southbound train from Barnstaple by 10 minutes to 0700. Unfortunately the first Monday to Friday service 3 journey was not al-tered to reflect this and was scheduled to call at the station at 0655 giving customers just 5 minutes to catch the train. Often this bus would run late, es-pecially on a Monday morning, making the connection too risky and those few hardy souls that did use the service made alternative arrangements. Al-though the May 2008 rail timetable revision saw the train departure retarded by a minute to 0701, this made little difference to the connection and sadly First Devon and Cornwall didn’t take the opportunity to change their bus time-table with the Summer service revisions at the end of that month. Representations were made during the Summer and the first service 3 jour-ney was eventually advanced by 5 minutes to make a better connection with the 0701 train departure, but still making the lengthy diversion via Belle Meadow Bus station first. First Devon & Cornwall made major changes to it’s North Devon network from Sunday 26th October. The bad news for railway customers is that ser-vice 7 (Barnstaple – Landkey – Swimbridge - South Molton) was withdrawn, and with it went the 5 weekday journeys that had extended to Barnstaple Sta-tion. Services to Ilfracombe were also significantly altered, but the good news is that the extension of the first southbound Monday to Friday journey on ser-vice 3 to Barnstaple station has been retained. Unfortunately this journey has been curtailed and no longer starts from Combe Martin. It starts instead from Ilfracombe Bus Station at 0605 and links Knowle (0625), Braunton (0631) and Chivenor (0636) with the station.

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Following representations FDC made a very late route variation to this jour-ney, diverting it at Pottington via the new Taw Bridge to serve the station first (0641) and then continuing to Barnstaple Bus Station and terminating at North Devon District Hospital. This means that any intending rail passengers can now purchase tickets and make the connection onto the train with confi-dence. The connection will become even safer from December 13th and there will even be time for any intending passengers to enjoy a cuppa in Mike’s sta-tion house café as the 0701 train departure will become 0709! The service 3 variation was granted too late to be included in either the winter North Devon DCC timetable book or FDC’s own revision booklet. It is how-ever correctly shown on the FDC web site. So please pass the message and let anyone know that might find this useful. It’s certainly much cheaper than a taxi. The two hourly extension of service 3 to Barnstaple station on Sundays and public holidays has also been retained with the new timetable. This allows good connections onto all the Sunday train departures, but unfortunately the buses depart too soon to allow onward connections for rail customers arriving off all but the first train. This is something we need to try and resolve in the future. Incidentally the new FDC Manager at Barnstaple is Gary Moggeridge. He re-placed Dervla McHugh on October 13th . Dervla has transferred elsewhere within First. Gary was previously the manager at Bridport Depot in Dorset and counts the X53 Jurassic Coast service amongst his past successes. We hope to establish good relations with Gary in the near future once he’s settled into his new role. Stagecoach Devon meanwhile made some minor changes to their commer-cial service 21 (Barnstaple – Fremington – Instow – East The Water - Bide-ford) on September 1st.. This is the only trunk service that actually makes use of the special bus only road to the station. The others are the Barnstaple town service 8, 8A and 8E also operated by Stagecoach Devon, plus one col-lege day bus on service 315. The town services operate half hourly during the day with an hourly evening and Sunday service too. The good news is that on November 10th the frequency of service 21 was in-creased to every 15 minutes. This means that there are now 12 buses per hour passing through the bus only road at the station.

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Meanwhile just up the road at their new depot in Pottington, Tony Simmons, Stagecoach Devon’s dynamic North Devon Operations Manager was recently nominated for a UK Bus Award. He has additionally spent some time looking after the Stagecoach Somerset operations (formerly Cooke’s Coaches) at Whiteball. Tony is also now Vice Chairman of the Barnstaple & District Cham-ber of Commerce. There are a number of other operators of bus services adjacent to the railway, many operating services on behalf of Devon County Council with whom we al-ready have very good relations. I intend to develop communications with these operators in the hope that we can improve public transport integration still fur-ther. I would be pleased to hear from any NDRUG members on the subject.

John Burch

Engineering works close line (again) One of the biannual line closures for engineering works took place over the two weeks from the 10th to the 21st of November, with buses replacing trains during the week. Works that Network Rail carried out this time were re-railing at New-ton St Cyres and converting to continuous welded rail – approx 1¼ miles; re-sleepering sites near Crediton and Salmon Pool (this financial year 1800 sleep-ers are being replaced); re-sleepering and re-ballasting at Umberleigh; longitudi-nal bridge timber replacement at Chapleton and Salmon Pool, and flailing at various sites between Salmon Pool and Barnstaple. The replacement bus service was well planned as usual, though the operation was let down at times by the lack of driver instructions, and the reliability of some of the vehicles used. As usual the numbers travelling were less than the normal rail usage, a forty mile coach journey on winding roads not being condu-cive to retaining or attracting passengers. The next line closure as far as we can gather at the moment will be slightly more than two weeks, from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th of March 2009, and from Sat-urday 28th to Saturday 4th of April 2009. This means the line is scheduled to be closed on two consecutive Saturdays, and that there will be a train service for only 6-7 hours on Friday 27th March—confusing or what?

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The Overcrowding Situation We are all well aware of the current level of overcrowding on the Tarka Line and on lines all over the South West brought about by the increasing level of patronage and the problems caused when the transfer of the franchise from Wessex Trains to First Great Western took place. As our contribution to a campaign being spearheaded by Passenger Focus, the independent rail consumer watchdog, the fol-lowing letter has been sent by the group to the Minister of State for Transport, with copies to all local MP’s, First Great Western, Devon County Council, Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, Travelwatch Southwest, and Passenger Focus.

1 December 2008 Lord Adonis Minister of State for Transport House of Lords London SW1A 0PW Dear Lord Adonis OVERCROWDING OF LOCAL TRAINS IN THE WEST OF ENGLAND I am writing to you as a representative of passengers using the North Devon Line (also known as the Tarka Line) running 40 miles between Exeter and Barnstaple. The purpose is to emphasise the importance of our local train service, to demon-strate the high level of usage and to justify our urgent plea for additional resources. As I am sure you will agree, serious errors were made when the Greater Western Franchise was being specified in that insufficient recognition was given to the high and growing levels of usage of local trains in Devon & Cornwall. Consequently, there were not and are still not sufficient trains to meet the needs of passengers. Growth has been considerable throughout the country but no more so than on some of our local services. On the Tarka Line we have been seeing year on year increases of up to 20% or so.

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Local services in Devon (Barnstaple – Exmouth and Paignton – Exmouth) are virtu-ally all operated by just 12 Class 142 Pacer trains which are on sub-lease from Northern trains. Some were required to cover for the refurbishment of the core FGW Class 15x fleets, whilst others have enabled some heavily loaded services on the Exmouth and Paignton services to be lengthened to four cars. However, five of these will have to be returned to Northern at the December time-table change. We understand that the Welsh Assembly are minded to increase services in the Valleys network which we assume will mean that the trains currently on loan to FGW from Arriva Trains Wales will no longer be available. Add to this the proposed withdrawal of South West Trains’ service west of Exeter from De-cember next year and you can see that passengers are extremely concerned about the ability of being able to board a train, let alone get a seat, in the short to me-dium term. This perilous situation is not helped by the fact that the Class 142s are really not fit for purpose for lengthy journeys of an hour or more (uncomfortable seats, poor ride, inadequate heating), but in any event face being worked even harder in the future. However, despite heroic and successful efforts by the staff at Exeter Trac-tion Maintenance Depot, reliability again appears to be faltering – a situation that can only get worse with absolutely no spare trains as back up. A number of services on our line are consistently overcrowded notwithstanding the provision of an additional train earlier this year. Indeed the problems have become acute at certain times of the year. An example is from a survey carried out in the summer. In this case, on a train with a seating capacity of 106, there were 214 passengers (plus luggage, buggies and 2 cycles) on arrival at Exeter St Davids. The journey started with 180 persons joining at Barnstaple, and others from stations along the line. However, at Eggesford (mid way along the line) some 12 people, including a gentleman in a wheelchair, had to be left behind with further people similarly unable to board at Crediton. The next train some two hours later also had over 200 people on board, including the gentleman in the wheelchair who was only able to be accommodated by passengers being willing to shuffle around to cre-ate sufficient space.

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This sort of situation is a regular occurrence and yet even with the current level of rolling stock there is no spare capacity to strengthen these very busy trains. Indeed even last Saturday consecutive trains left Barnstaple as a single Class 142 unit with 135 and 115 people on board, added to which would be further passengers join-ing at intermediate stations. The two additional trains each way to be introduced later this month may help the situation in the very short term, but longer trains re-quiring additional rolling stock is the only effective way of ensuring sufficient capac-ity in the short to medium term. We know through contact with other user groups locally, that similar problems occur on other branch lines. Very regrettably, there is already very strong anecdotal evidence of people trying the train and then not travelling any more because of the overcrowding and this is something that it is going to be very difficult to overcome if a way cannot be found to provide adequate additional rolling stock in the very near future. As you know, it is one of the Government’s stated aims to reduce our carbon footprint, and addi-tional trains would help towards achieving this target. We do of course recognise that there is an acute shortage of trains nationally and we welcome the decision to bring forward construction of 200 coaches. However, there is no clear indication of when they will be constructed nor, indeed, where they will be allocated when built. We hope very much that some at least of these will be either directly for our area or facilitate a cascade of more and better quality rolling stock to deal with the very real capacity problems we face and speed is of the essence. We hope that you will consider the above favourably and look forward to hearing from you in due course. Yours sincerely John Phillips Chairman

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Exploring the Line (2) - Umberleigh Martyrs and Munitions. Circular route to Chittlehampton. 6.6 miles. The outbound sections are mostly along footpaths. Chittlehampton village has associations with St. Urith, a Celtic saint martyred in Saxon times. The walk includes her burial site and birthplace. Facilities: Pubs in Umberleigh and Chittlehampton. Tearooms (closed Mon, Tues, Wed. Dogs not welcome) at Umberleigh. Leave the station and for a few yards take the busy B3227 over the rail-way towards South Molton. Turn right at the footpath sign, passing below the primary school. Continue down the drive (a right of way) to South Nethercleave where it turns left and becomes a grassy footpath heading between hedges to reach a metal gate Go through the gate and across the next field making for a point on the far side two thirds of the way up the hill. Here a stile (collapsed in 2008) leads to Pitt Wood. Beyond the wood the route divides. Keep right and uphill through a plantation to reach a gate and stile. Pitt farm is on your left. Head up the farm lane to a road, where a five minute diversion a few yards down the road to your right, takes you to a wayside cross, offering superb views. Your route from Pitt Farm lane, however, lies a few yards along the road to the left, away from the cross, to Eastacott Crossroads. Here, turn right and follow the Warkleigh road for 0.2 miles to a wooden gate (and largely hidden footpath sign) in the left-hand hedge. Follow this footpath for the next 0.8 miles. Aim for the oak tree and gate on the far side of the first field. Pass through the gate and left of the cob barn. At the stile beyond, continue in the same direction with the field edge initially on your left. Be alert for a gate in the hedge, where you must change sides and continue with the hedge on your right. After several more field edges the path reaches a lane. Follow this lane left, downhill, over a stream and past cottages to Homedown Crossroads. Cross the main road with care, and later, after the lane bends left, look for an (almost hidden) footpath sign in the right-hand hedge which leads, via a passageway beneath a house, over a stream and up to Chittlehampton. Accounts of Chittlehampton’s most famous daughter, Urith (or Hieritha),

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vary. It was in the 6th (or possibly the 8th) Century that a group of hea-then Saxons (female, and perhaps urged on by the victim’s pagan step-mother) hacked to death a young Christian girl named Urith. A holy spring bubbled up at the site, and the well which caps this spring may be seen by Rose Cottage at the village’s east end. The original church was built upon Urith’s nearby burial place. Her Saint’s Day is 8th July and pilgrimages to this remote site were common until the establishment of the Church of England in the mid-16th Century, when St. Urith’s was largely rebuilt. The tower, worthy of a cathedral, is among the finest in the county. As you face the lych gate with your back to the village square, make for the square’s top right corner, where a footpath leads across three fields to a lane. Cross the lane and stile directly opposite and head down the field edge to a footbridge. Climb the hill beneath the pylons, to reach the East Stowford, Urith’s birthplace. Where the footpath meets a lane, turn left and continue for 0.4 miles. At the next junction bear right [SP Cobbaton] and continue in the same gen-eral direction. After 0.3 miles bear right again [SP Cobbaton] and just be-yond Puddlepool Mill keep left at Puddlepool Cross [SP Lower Cobbaton]. Continue for a further 0.3 miles to a T-junction [Lower Cobbaton cross]. Turn left here, immediately passing Cobbaton Combat Collection [closed Saturdays], an amazing assortment of wartime paraphernalia assembled by Preston Isaac, who admits that the collecting bug that bit him as a schoolboy has got rather out of hand! Follow the lane 0.4 miles beyond the museum. Where it bears left take a footpath (doubly signed!) in the right-hand hedge aiming for the gorse clump 200 metres left of the farm opposite. Beyond the gorse is a foot-bridge leading to an old orchard and the yard of Hawkridge Barton, a magnificent thatched building with a fine, as yet unconverted, barn. Imme-diately beyond the Barton, turn left to follow a footpath up the field edge. It’s your final climb, and from the summit, where the path emerges at Hawkridge Cross, you are rewarded with lovely views. At least three church towers are visible. Continue ahead [SP Umberleigh] and downhill. At the bottom of the hill, where the lane bends left just before a small stream, take the signed footpath in the right-hand hedge, and follow this path down to the bank of the River Taw, where the footpath turns left. The riverside path then follows the bank upstream to reach Umberleigh. The station lies to your left, just a few yards up the B3227 to South Molton.

Peter Craske/Alan Clark

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Station Master’s Café—at last! It is 6am and I am writing this in the seating area of The Station Mas-ters Café, watching BBC NEWS 24 and checking the train times on the large plasma screen (many thanks to Neil Sunderland for the cus-tomised look). After over three years of work it is an utter pleasure, something I am sure many of you thought would never come to frui-tion.

Since the last magazine we have completed the building works, and all thanks to those involved, Pearce Construction, who were the main contractors, S.Cook Electricial, Keep It Cool!, Alpha Cash Systems, and of course family and friends who put in long hours helping paint, decorate and varnish. Without them I would not be sitting here, and the rail users, and indeed general public, would not have this transfor-mation from a derelict building to what I believe to be (and judging by the large amount of feedback from customers) a truly superb facility. The middle floor, which will contain the museum, actually only had its last coat of paint a fortnight ago, and without advertising it as a meet-ing room, has already seen its first booking as a venue by the Lynton

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and Barnstaple railway for a slide show, which brought in around 25 people on a very wet and windy night for a good social night. The middle floor will be available for hire during the day and during evenings and includes a high definition projector, internet access, 100” screen, surround sound and even a next generation Sony Blu-Ray player. ( how many venues in the UK al-ready offer this ?!).

The café walls are now showing off some superb railway photographic work by local photographer Rachel Griffiths, credit cards and cash back are pos-sible and Wi-Fi will shortly be available. We are constantly looking at add-ing value to people’s visit by consistently trying to offer new products or ser-vices. We are currently working with B&Q by accepting their Diamond Card on Wednesday, which with a valid B&Q receipt gets you discount on a wide range of food and drink. Not resting on our laurels, we are currently working on the final design for the extension, which will allow us a full kitchen, a bigger seating area, and our own toilets, which I hope will provide further enhancement to those trav-elling or just visiting the station. On a personal note, I was very sad to hear of Andrew Haines decision to

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move on from Head of FGW, I have met him on two occasions and found him to be very approachable, a great knowledge of what is going on and utterly dedicated to improving the railway. Good luck Andrew and hope to see you enjoying a full English breakfast at Barnstaple one day. I have also had the pleasure of taking FGW Director James Burt on a tour of the house, which was a good opportunity to show off the line, how busy it is and some of the problems that need resolving, but also the opportunities that the line offers us. I look forward to working with James on other initiatives to im-prove and go beyond the expectations of our customers.

My final words are again to thank all those who have helped with the pro-ject, customers supporting us in the burger van and now in the house, to those who have passionately supported us and endured the sometimes tor-turously difficult roller coaster of a journey to bring the project to life. If one sentence has brought home what we have achieved it came from John Taylor of FGW Property; whilst showing around contractors for the forthcoming Barnstaple Station refurbishment he said of the Station Masters Café - “See that, that’s the quality of what I want for the station refurbish-ment”

Mike Day

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Help the environment -go by rail

The North Devon Rail Users Group is believed to be the first group of its type in the country to have produced a study of the environmental impact of the use of various modes of transport for journeys from its area. The report was commissioned by the group from the Envision partnership, a well known team of environmental consultants in the South West. Comparisons were made for a range of journeys of varying length, utilising road , rail, and even air travel, and even provided an analysis of various modes of freight transport. Copies of the report are available from the Group priced at £3 and in due course the summary results will be published on our website.

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Now the best timetable ever

Sunday December 14th sees the start of the new timetable for the Tarka Line, and it is the most comprehensive for a long time, perhaps ever!

There will now be 14 trains each way every day from Monday to Saturday, with an hourly service at the same time each hour from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. Outside of these hours the timings are not as regular due the constraints of other service requirements at Exeter.

The new timetable applies from Monday to Saturday, except the last train from Barnstaple only continues to Exmouth on Mondays to Fridays (indicated by † in the timetable opposite). The Sunday service remains virtually unchanged, there being only minor timing differences.

Pocket timetables will be available, and specific station departures will be shown on Group notice boards at certain stations.

With the two extra trains each way it is hoped that some of the overcrowding will be relieved, but the peak loadings are still likely to be the two morning trains from Barnstaple and the two late afternoon/early evening trains from Exeter. The only cure for this is the provision of extra carriages, which has been covered earlier in this issue.

First visit of “new” stock to Barnstaple 9th December 2008

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Visit to Exeter Maintenance Depot A visit to the Exeter traction maintenance depot was undertaken in Septem-ber by a joint team from the North Devon Rail Users Group and the Avocet Line Rail Users Group. The visit was at 2100 when we were welcomed to the Depot by Andy Tyne the Manager. We started in the Communications Centre with an issue of high visibility jackets, a Safety Briefing and an introductory talk about the type of work undertaken. Each night shift comprises six fitters, five cleaners and three persons em-ployed by ISS to carry out heavy cleans on up to three units each night. In addition to Andy there is a supervisor, a shunter and one or two drivers re-sponsible for moving trains around the depot where a strict 5mph speed limit applies. The aim is to have the trains formed up in the right order by about 0500 ready for that day’s operations. There are a total of 12 roads normally available, although roads one – three are owned by Network Rail who have a right to use them e.g. for the stabling of on track plant. At present, however, the track space is tightly constrained owing to the construction of a new state of the art wash plant and underframe inspection/cleaning pit. The depot is responsible for the fuelling and maintenance of the Class 142 Pacer fleet, also Class 150s up to 150249 and a number of Class 153s. Andy explained a whole host of modifications that have been made to im-prove the reliability of the Pacers (including a mini refurbish of those being retained beyond December 2008) and members congratulated the depot staff on the significant improvement in reliability that has been achieved since their introduction. Doors continue to be the most difficult problem to resolve, al-though work continues on trying to find a solution. The build up of a substan-tial stores has been of considerable assistance in improving reliability and availability of trains. The main maintenance building covers nos 7 and 8 roads and the latter has side pits in addition to a central pit. This is especially useful for changing brake pads. Each week, planned maintenance of two units takes place – a Class 142 and

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a Class 150 or 153. These are moved out of the depot at around 1700 to make room for overnight maintenance of the rest of the fleet. In addition, on the night of our visit, one Class 142 was on shed for a planned alternator change. Every effort is made to be as green as possible and recycling is at the heart of this drive. Engines are now switched off at all times except for an hour be-fore start of work to ensure heating, brake pressure etc is satisfactory. We were surprised to hear that diesel fuel (55,000 litres) is currently brought in by road, but it was explained that this frees up space for refuelling permitting a four car rake to be fuelled at the same time. We were very pleased to see the significant investment being made in terms of both human and physical resources and the overall impression was of a committed workforce with high morale. We have accepted Andy’s invitation to return once the carriage washer and inspection pit are up and running so that we can see them in action!

John Phillips

In Memoriam

It is with regret that we have to report the tragic death, on November 6th in a car crash, of Alison Langton one of the regular drivers on the line. She leaves two children. Also we have to report the passing of one of our long standing mem-bers, Babs Stuchbury of Crediton. She was a frequent correspon-dent , and her contributions will be missed.

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Membership Matters

If you know someone who you think might like to join NDRUG, please con-tact the Membership Secretary whose address is shown opposite.

New Members

We welcome:

Mr J Webber—Barnstaple Mr & Mrs B Pierce—Northam

Mr & Mrs J Nicholls—Gloucester Mr J Burch—Ilfracombe

Mr M Edmonson—Exeter Mr D Baker (Friends of Newton St Cyres)—Cowley,Exeter

Mr M Clatworthy—South Tawton Mrs G Bosence—Barnstaple

Mr S Mason—Barnstaple Mrs C Kenny—Winkleigh

Mr & Mrs T Baxter—Okehampton Mrs M Gillard—Shirwell

Committee Meetings (Members Welcome)

Wednesday 21st January—Barnstaple Station House 19:15

Wednesday 18th February—Fox & Hounds Eggesford 19:00

Wednesday 18th March—Barnstaple Station House 19:15

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Committee Members Chairman:

John Phillips Higher Living Farmhouse, Down St Mary, Crediton, Devon, EX17 6EA. j.phillips142@btinternet.com

Treasurer:

Andy Hedges 20 Barton Meadow Road, High Bickington, Umberleigh Devon, EX37 9AN. andyhedges@gmail.com

Press And Publicity Officers:

Peter Craske Blackhall Cottage, South Tawton, Devon EX20 2LP pcbcraske@yahoo.com Sally Greene 28 South Park, Braunton, Barnstaple, Devon EX33 2HT

Stations Officer:

Janet Day Toye Farm, Durrant Lane, Northam, Bideford, Devon EX39 2RL

Secretary & Vice Chairman: Tony Hill Langridge, Ingleigh Green, Winkleigh. Devon, EX19 8AT tony@hillglobal.wanadoo.co.uk

Membership Secretary:

Andy Hedges 20 Barton Meadow Road, High Bickington, Umberleigh Devon, EX37 9AN. andyhedges@gmail.com

Magazine Editor:

Andy Hedges 20 Barton Meadow Road, High Bickington, Umberleigh, Devon EX37 9AN andyhedges@gmail.com

Webmaster:

Neil Sunderland Wishbone Exeter Road Braunton, Devon, EX33 2JL neilsunderland@tesco.net

Committee Members:

Alan Clark Benslee, Morchard Road, Crediton, Devon EX17 5LR Mike Day Toye Farm, Durrant Lane, Northam, Bideford, Devon EX39 2RL Phil Simkin Puffing Billy, Railway Station, Torrington, Devon EX38 8JD George Harris 5 Chichester Road, Barnstaple, Devon EX32 9EH John Burch Avercombe, 28 Belmont Road, Ilfracombe, Devon EX34 8DR Justin Beament Glebe Cottage, Down St Mary, Crediton, Devon EX17 6DX

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© Authors And Publishers, North Devon Rail Users Group, 2008