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Martock station. Yeovil to Taunton line.

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Cowley

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Evening everyone.

I’m wondering if someone can help me with something.
Looking at some photos and paintings of Martock station it looks like it was painted in Southern Region green colours despite being on an ex GWR line?
I’ve also seen SR moguls pictured at the station as well as ex GWR tanks both on passenger services.
Does anyone (perhaps @randyrippley) know why that was?
 
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hexagon789

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Evening everyone.

I’m wondering if someone can help me with something.
Looking at some photos and paintings of Martock station it looks like it was painted in Southern Region green colours despite being on an ex GWR line?
I’ve also seen SR moguls pictured at the station as well as ex GWR tanks both on passenger services.
Does anyone (perhaps @randyrippley) know why that was?
Could it be on one of lines in that area which swapped region at one point? I seem to recall that (in possibly 1962 or thereabouts) some lines were swapped about between the WR/SR and WR/LMR.
 

Gloster

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Off the top of my head, there was a change of regional boundaries in the 1950s (1958?) and much of the Yeovil-Curry Rivell Junction line passed to the SR, along with much of the Weymouth line south of Castle Cary. The lines went back to the WR in 1963(?).
 

Cowley

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Could it be on one of lines in that area which swapped region at one point? I seem to recall that (in possibly 1962 or thereabouts) some lines were swapped about between the WR/SR and WR/LMR.

That’s what I was wondering but I can’t seem to find anything about it.
What throws me off is the amount of photos of Panniers working on the line.
 

Peter C

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I'd not heard of the station before reading your post @Cowley - and therefore I can't give as much detail as I expect others will be able to - but I've done some surfing on the interwebs and found this: http://www.martockhistory.co.uk/research/railway.php. It's not the best page for quick research, as I've been skimming through and can't seem to work out whether the Bristol & Exeter Railway Co. built a line down to Taunton via Martock station in 1843/1844, or whether the line went to Exeter in 1844 and then to Martock later on. I've not got a good idea of geography in that area, though, so it might just be me! :)

-Peter
 

Cowley

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Off the top of my head, there was a change of regional boundaries in the 1950s (1958?) and much of the Yeovil-Curry Rivell Junction line passed to the SR, along with much of the Weymouth line south of Castle Cary. The lines went back to the WR in 1963(?).

That’s interesting and makes sense.
Actually I hadn’t even thought about the line right down to Weymouth.

I'd not heard of the station before reading your post @Cowley - and therefore I can't give as much detail as I expect others will be able to - but I've done some surfing on the interwebs and found this: http://www.martockhistory.co.uk/research/railway.php. It's not the best page for quick research, as I've been skimming through and can't seem to work out whether the Bristol & Exeter Railway Co. built a line down to Taunton via Martock station in 1843/1844, or whether the line went to Exeter in 1844 and then to Martock later on. I've not got a good idea of geography in that area, though, so it might just be me! :)

-Peter

I had a quick skim of that earlier Peter. It’s a good little article.
 

Gloster

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That’s what I was wondering but I can’t seem to find anything about it.
What throws me off is the amount of photos of Panniers working on the line.
Yeovil Pen Mill shed was transferred to the SR early in 1958, but retained panniers and small prairies, which transferred to the SR shed at Town when the GWR shed closed at the beginning of 1959. They remained there until Yeovil was taken over by the WR in 1963. It would have been logical to use the locos that staff were familiar with, but SR types out of the same shed could also be used. I think that there was a Sunday milk working that was normally a SR type.

EDIT: There would also have been locos working out of Taunton shed on the line.
 

Cowley

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Yeovil Pen Mill shed was transferred to the SR early in 1958, but retained panniers and small prairies, which transferred to the SR shed at Town when the GWR shed closed at the beginning of 1959. They remained there until Yeovil was taken over by the WR in 1963. It would have been logical to use the locos that staff were familiar with, but SR types out of the same shed could also be used. I think that there was a Sunday milk working that was normally a SR type.

EDIT: There would also have been locos working out of Taunton shed on the line.

It’s enough to make your head hurt! :lol:
 

Taunton

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It’s enough to make your head hurt!
Well, you kicked it off :)

There was a transfer of lines south of the Westbury-Taunton line in the 1950s to the Southern, which was reversed (and then some) in 1962. Didn't seem to make much difference to operations at all, but any items needing to be replaced were done Southern-style. The replacement footbridge at Maiden Newton, on the Weymouth line (still there), was another example, being Exmouth Junction concrete works' prefabricated finest ...

Locos on the Taunton-Yeovil line were supplied from both ends, the closure of the WR shed at Pen Mill and transfer of locos and turns to the Southern shed at Yeovil Town was one of the more significant changes, but the loco types remained and the Town shed commonly thereafter had half of each constituent's stock. Normally WR locos were used to Taunton, but from time to time an SR loco, I never saw anything Southern other than an N 2-6-0 class, and more often than not it was 31840 for some reason, come to Taunton. Green SR stock likewise did maybe one trip a day. On summer Saturdays, to avoid congestion by shunting across the main line layout at Taunton, the Southern N, plus stock, was commonly backed into the Taunton Down bay and did the next departure onwards to Barnstaple, the Southern getting their loco (all of which were officially allocated to Exmouth Junction anyway) back there.

The half-dozen Taunton to Yeovil trains towards the end were characterised by each train potentially being headed by a different class. I never saw a diesel on the line, either dmu or loco, but have seen several photos of a D63xx on it.

Yeovil Town shed was an oddball, accessed from the Down platform of the station (just like Taunton), for almost all of its Southern turns were east and west up on the main line, several miles away at the Junction, so there was a steady parade of light engines back and forth. It always came as a surprise to find Unmodified Light Pacifics, often more than one, on shed at this little outpost.
 
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randyrippley

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Evening everyone.

I’m wondering if someone can help me with something.
Looking at some photos and paintings of Martock station it looks like it was painted in Southern Region green colours despite being on an ex GWR line?
I’ve also seen SR moguls pictured at the station as well as ex GWR tanks both on passenger services.
Does anyone (perhaps @randyrippley) know why that was?
For a few years BR moved the boundaries so the branch was Southern controlled, hence the paint. Even Yeovil Pen Mill was green.
As for the locos, by then the Yeovil sheds had been reduced to just one (at Town station) and GW and Standard tanks, along with SR N class were used interchangeably. Taunton has written about it before

.

The half-dozen Taunton to Yeovil trains towards the end were characterised by each train potentially being headed by a different class. I never saw a diesel on the line, either dmu or loco, but have seen several photos of a D63xx on it.

Yeovil Town shed was an oddball, accessed from the Down platform of the station (just like Taunton), for almost all of its Southern turns were east and west up on the main line, several miles away at the Junction, so there was a steady parade of light engines back and forth. It always came as a surprise to find Unmodified Light Pacifics, often more than one, on shed at this little outpost.

The D63XX was probably the Evershot banker being used as an emergency stand-in - one was outbased at Yeovil. I've related before how one was rushed into service to get me and my mother home after a late running Weymouth train missed the connection at Pen Mill

The Pacifics were probably needed as spares in case of a problem on the Waterloo-Exeter route, but there was also a low-frequency Yeovil Town - Exeter service which I think routed via Exmouth (at least during the summer) which probably needed them
 
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hexagon789

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That’s what I was wondering but I can’t seem to find anything about it.
What throws me off is the amount of photos of Panniers working on the line.
Probably as much a paper exercise as anything. The other lines transferred as well I don't think saw much actual operational change if any.
 

Cowley

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Well that’s that question answered in fine style!
Thanks everyone, much appreciated.
 

randyrippley

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When discussing that line, the photos on this page are always worth a look

Its a station-by-station collection of photos
 

Cowley

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When discussing that line, the photos on this page are always worth a look

Its a station-by-station collection of photos

Yes I did have a quick look through yesterday. There’s some great photos on there.
 
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