Southern LBSCR Hayling Island - Havant branch & terrier 32662, 1952 12 BW photos |

We have covered many iconic branch lines in our photo sets, including Lyme Regis, Bodmin, Swanage, Cleobury Mortimer, but none perhaps equal Hayling Island, which on account on the weak timber bridge connecting the Island to the mainline remained worked by 1870s Stroudley terriers until it closed on 2 November 1963. It ran from a junction with the LBSCR at Havant due south over the bridge at Langstone to Hayling Island terminus. We see green liveried Southern electric set 3138 at Havant station which was how many enthusiasts would have arrived to savour the line. Terrier 32662, once LBSCR No 62 Martello, takes water at the column at the end of the branch platfom at Hayling Island. Jack Stretton-Ward photographed the scene from the other side and depicted his assistant Freida Pinder talking to the driver as the fireman attends to the watering. 32662 sits in the branch platform with the single coach train with carriage doors open awaiting passengers. 32662 runs round at Hayling Island, and takes water at the archaic wooden coaling stage, the fireman standing on the toolbox to trim the coal load. The terrier backs into the platform at Hayling Island and is seen near the single coach train in the platform. A close up of the cab interior shows wonderful detail and the Saltley safety valves well. We see the platform and station buildings at Hayling Island and as a finale 32662 is in the main line platform at Havant and shunts. S15 30827 running light reminds us of the more modern man line steam

A copy of these notes accompanies the set. These views are copyright; Reproduction by any means is prohibited without our prior written permission.

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Launceston & Tavistock Branches Set A 12 6x4 Colour Pix

This set of TWELVE 6x4 Colour Prints recalls the now closed GWR and Southern Railway stations at Launceston and Tavistock. We open with a portrait of the exterior of the Southern side of the joint SR & GWR Signal box at Launceston, which was built to a typical LSWR design with 4x3 windows and a set of top lights as well. An interior view of the box shows the 18 lever frame that worked the Southern station, but if the signalman turned round, he was confronted with a second GWR “Reading” frame with space for 16 levers. This worked the adjacent GWR terminus. The signal box diagram is located just above floor level, behind the levers, and the connecting spur from the GWR station to the LSWR station can be seen. A second exterior view, this time of the GWR elevation of the box shows this standard LSWR structure but fitted with a GWR name board, LAUNCESTON SIGNAL BOX. A portrait of the stone build station building includes two railway delivery lorries in the yellow livery with the Parcel Cube Arrow logo. On the left is a Scammell Townsman tractor and trailer and a Morris FG series van. Two views of the Southern station, taken from the up and down platforms show green liveried DMUs with small yellow warning rectangles, and recalls what an attractive location this was with the hills rising up immediately behind the GWR station. We visit the GWR station at Tavistock, with its three through roads and Brunellian train shed. A Saxby & Farmer Type 5 signal box was erected at the north end of Tavistock station about the time the South Devon Railway was absorbed into the GWR in 1876. It went out of signalling use in 1894 but was retained as a railway office, allowing it to survive until the line closed and the station site was redeveloped. Although the GWR station had closed by July 1966, the SR station was still open, and we look from the south end of the platforms towards the footbridge, take an elevated view from the bridge itself, and finally look at the signal box, and an impressive lattice post signal adjacent to it. A copy of these notes accompanies the set. These views are copyright. Reproduction by any means is prohibited without our prior written permission.