Travelling On Tarka’s Train (3)

fbb read the play as part of the “A” Level English course at Northampton Grammar School – but can remember little about it except that the WW1 dugout collapses around the actors at the end of the play. fbb remembers thinking that a collapsing dugout (and rebuilding it for the next performance) would be quite tricky for the play’s producer.

Thankfully the fbbs experience of journey’s end at Barnstaple threatened no collapse, just a very pleasant lunch in the station caff’s garden.

We left our (b)log of the journey at Copplestone, so here, yet again, is the list of possible stops as per the GWR timetable.

Fom Copplestone to Barnstaple, ALL stops are request except Eggesford, which we will get to in due course.

And so to Morchard Road …

… which is a good 2 1/2 miles from Morchard Bishop. There is an hostelry, The Devonshire Dumpling …

… once with a much more distinguished pub-like mame …

… a few cottages and the station just off the main road.

The station buildings are in much better condition than they were (above) in railway ownership …

… and nature’s greenery has improved the experience for the very few passengers requesting a stop.

Lapford …

… once had a goods yard.

… the hints of which are still there today.

The yard is now home to a “logistics” company.

But with no rail connection, of course.

Eggesford is the last compulsory stop en route, but Eggesford itself is not much more than a hamlet …

… with an awkward T junction on the roads and a garden centre! Eggesford Barton …

… and the now-demolished Eggesford House … 

… were the main reason for station and the somewhat isolated church.

But we see here why the station still exists.

It is the last point at which trains can pass until the terminus at Barnstaple. The whole signalling process in now electronic using “Tokenless Block Technology”. The technical detail is beyond fbb but as his train approached the level crossin there was a strange lavatory chain thingy dangling horizontally from a board …

… followed by a compulsory stop board with push button.

This the driver pressed to operate the level crossing. A white light called the train into the platform where the driver alighted and unlocked a little cabin …

… waved cheerily at the arrival from Barsntaple …

… went into his little box and did exciting electronic things, locked up and off the fbbs trundled.

fbb thinks, once the control of the Exeter signalman is left behind, there are no signalling staff for the Barnstaple line; just stuff controlled from a series of big tin boxes and tall aerials.

And so to Kings Nympton (map, bottom left) …

… which is even further from its village (map top right).

It is a bit of a craze at the moment. First Bus buys Ensign; GoAhead buys Dartline and Pulhams, AND NOW …