| From Saturday 18 January and Sunday 9 February 2014 the Western main line between Exeter St Davids and Taunton was closed due to repairs to Whiteball Tunnel, track renewal and other works. Here are some photos of diversions and other traffic in that time. Sleeper trains, engineering and freight traffic (such as remains) ran in the nighttime with a roughly two hourly service between London Paddington and Exeter St Davids/Plymouth/Penzance being added to the regular South West Trains houly service (at amended times). |
| 18 January 2014 Yeovil Junction at 12.15pm |
| 12.51 |
| 22 January 2014 UP FGW diversion seen at Hardington (west of Yeovil). |
| Reliveried FGW Power Car 43163 seen at Exhibition Way, Exeter. Advertising a Rail-Fly arrangement with Singapore Airlines. (Photo courtesy Dave Tozer) |
| 23 January 2014 A first?? The Network Rail New Measurement Train (HST) enters the bay platform at Exeter Central. Not able to run to Exeter St Davids due to too many trains(!) it was terminated and worked back through Yeovil later. A full length HST would not 'fit' in the platform so is this a 'first'? (Photo courtesy Dave Tozer) |
| Later on the Yellow Peril HST had to recess in the sidings at Yeovil Junction (again due to capacity issue). Seen at Platform 3. (Photo courtesy Stuart Jackson/Network Rail) |
| FGW Power Car 43056 leads the 1C81 10.48 London Paddington to Penzance train. Held for a couple of minutes on the signal to come off the Yeovil Pen Mill branch, waiting for 1L25 10.20 London Waterloo to Exeter train to leave Platform 2. In the meantime 1L46 11.25 Exeter St Davids to London Waterloo has arrived at Platform 1. |
| Nameplate and information on 43056. |
| Power car 43189 'Railway Heritage Trust' brings up the rear. |
| 26 January 2014 In a rare move - (not completely in the middle of the night!) DBS 66046 powers an engineers train through Yeovil Junction at 21.05. Behind the engine was the Colas Kirow crane and associated vehicles followed by 31 empty Salmon and OCA wagons. |
| The crane.... |
| ....what is really looks like!.... |
| ....and associated wagon, no doubt with materials. |
| 29 January 2014 (Photo courtesy Kelvin Loader) |
| (Photo courtesy Kelvin Loader) |
| Stabled at Yeovil Junction. (Photo courtesy Adrian Childs) |
| 8 February 2014 FGW Power Car 43091 with Yeovil Railway Centre in background. (Photo courtesy Adrian Childs) |
| (Photo courtesy Adrian Childs) |
| 1 February 2014 at 14.54. The flexible signalling at Yeovil Junction is increasingly been put to use. In this photo First Great Western Power Car 43187 heads 1Z85 13.00 London Paddington to Penzance non-stop through Platform 1. Trains can use either platform in either direction and the diversions can shave a few moments off the journey time by taking advantage of this when possible. |
| The Winter weather of 2014 proved to be too much for the railways in some areas. The Dawlish Sea Wall was breached and for a short time there was no rail access to Exeter due to flooding near Bridgwater, between Taunton and Castle Cary and finally landslips near Crewkerne. It was finally decided that the latter was safe to run (using an empty FGW HST) but on late Saturday 8/02/14 and Sunday morning 9/02/14 FGW ran a shuttle service from Exeter St Davids to Axminster. Here is 150248 at Pinhoe on the 09.26 Exeter to Axminster.... (Photo courtesy Dave Tozer) |
| ....and again at Exmouth Junction on the 12.25 return. (Photo courtesy Dave Tozer) |
| 15 February 2014 Another landslip occurred just west of Yeovil Junction. Here a train for Exeter is obeying the 5mph speed restriction eventually imposed. |
| 16 February 2014 Worksite just past river bridge and alongside River Yeo, no doubt the cause of the problem. |
| Looking through the river bridge to the bridge on Yeovil Junction station approach road (white Network Rail van can be seen). |
| Piling underway. From an initial crack to a 4 foot drop the material has now slumped significantly further! |
| Further view of the slip. |
| From Newton Road. The vegetation on the bank has been cleared and some matting has been placed to enable engineers to get at the bottom of the slip to construct a retaining wall later. (Photo courtesy Brian Haigh) |
| (Photo courtesy Brian Haigh) |
| 24 February 2014. |
| 25 February 2014. Photo at Crediton, taken by Dave Tozer, showing the movement of various DCR locos from Okehampton (Dartmoor Railway) after their 'Polar Express' trains. Locos are 20142, 20189, 47769, 31459 and 47375. The 20's were hired in from GBRf. |
| BACK |
