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Devon/Cornwall Rover 25-29 Aug 2014 - Day 2 of 5

837 views · Published 5 September 2014 · 28:12 · Indexed 20 October 2026

Channel: spark001uk · 2014 · People & Blogs

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Day 2 (the first day of my 3 day d/c rover) had much the same drizzly bleak start, but it did perk up. I headed out of Penzance on the ten o'clock (1A83). Once at Newton Abbot I decided to jump off and pop down to Paignton for a look, just managed to catch the XC down (1V47).

Walked down to Paignton seafront for a beer, came back to the station an hour later intending to go back up on the 1415 Pad HST (1A87), and discovered chaos had descended! 
The 1313 to Exmouth was still in the platform, the pacer had a 153 on the back, on which a braking system circuit breaker had failed, and the brakes were jammed on. As far as I was told, they had detached it but couldn't leave it in the platform as everything has to depart from there (due to only having the one facing crossover to the north of the station), and they daren't send the pacer out in case it was needed to shove the 153 down to the yard. Eventually a fitter managed to get the brakes off, and it was sent down the yard. So, several delays and a couple of cancellations later, the pacer went, then the XC came back in from the yard and went, making way for the HST which had gone north to wait beyond the crossover. Finally left Paignton on the HST about 50 late, and headed up to Exeter, then back down to Dawlish.

Got to Dawlish, and due to part of the wall still being worked on, I had to walk up the Exeter road and down Rockstone bridge in order to access the open seawall. Spent an hour or so there taking some photos and video, including the earlier failed 153361 cautiously making its way to Exeter yard, then headed back to the station to catch a down XC (1V59) to Newton and changing for the 1C87 back down to Penzance. Although it seems to eat a big chunk of time to travel to and from Penzance, I have to say it's nevertheless quite an enjoyable ride, plenty of time to lay back and relax.

Anyway, back at Penzance I arrived in time to get some shots of the up sleeper departing, which this night had 57604 "Pendennis Castle" providing traction, still in its GWR green.
I was going to take a short trip on it, but decided to round off the evening in town instead!

Part 3 next... stay tuned.

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