The Anonymous Widower

Dawlish Station And The New Sea Wall – 4th July 2023

These pictures show Dawlish station and the new sea wall.

Note.

  1. It is a high quality sea wall.
  2. I particularly liked the hand-rails which seemed to be made from an expensive sea-proof metal.
  3. There was a busy fish and chip shop, by the station, but I don’t think they did gluten-free fish and chips.

You can still walk all the way to Dawlish Warren, as I did in Walking Between Dawlish And Dawlish Warren Stations. A guy in the station said it would take me about thirty minutes.

July 4, 2023 Posted by | Food, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Exeter St. Davids To Dawlish – 4th July 2023

I took these pictures as I travelled between Exeter St.Davids and Dawlish stations.

This OpenRailway map shows the route of the line between Exeter St. Davids and Plymouth stations.

Note.

  1. The line is shown in orange.
  2. Exeter St. Davids station is at the top of the map.
  3. The blue arrow marks the position of the new Marsh Barton station, which opened to the public today.
  4. Stations in order from the North on the line are Starcross, Dawlish Warren, Dawlish, Teignmouth and Newton Abbot.
  5. The line follows the Western bank of the River Exe to the sea.
  6. On my view, it is one of the most spectacular rail lines in the UK.

But the sea can get very angry, as I saw in An Angry Sea At Dawlish.

July 4, 2023 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Taunton To Exeter St. Davids – 4th July 2023

I took these pictures as I travelled from Taunton station to Exeter St.Davids station.

This Google Map shows a section of the M5 North of Collumpton.

Note.

  1. The proximity of the M5 motorway to the railway, in some pictures and the map.
  2. There is space to plant large numbers of trees between the motorway and the railway.
  3. There are high voltage overhead electrical cables running along the same corridor.
  4. Collumpton services are also placed between the motorway and the railway.

I believe that with good landscaping, it would be possible to improve the motorway and railway corridor, between Taunton and South of Collumpton.

This OpenRailwayMap shows the track between Wellington and Collumpton, between Taunton and Exeter.

Note.

  1. The black line is the railway between Taunton and Exeter.
  2. The blue arrow in the North-East corner of the map indicates the position of the proposed Wellington station.
  3. Collumpton is in the South-West corner of the map and has also been put forward for a new Collumpton station.
  4. I talked about the reopening of these two stations in Reopening Of Wellington and Cullompton Stations.
  5. The M5 to the North of Collumpton runs closely alongside the railway.
  6. According to Real Time Trains, it takes just under ten minutes to go the thirteen miles between Wellington and Cullompton.

I believe that by using partial electrification, good engineering and innovative landscaping, that sufficient electrification can be erected between Taunton and South of Collumpton, that would ensure the following.

  • Trains would leave Taunton going East with enough charge to travel the 89.6 miles to Newbury.
  • Trains would leave Taunton going North with enough charge to travel the 51.7 miles to Patchway via Western-super-Mare and Bristol Temple Meads.
  • Trains would leave Cullompton going South with enough charge to travel the 32.9 miles to Okehampton.
  • Trains would leave Cullompton going South with enough charge to travel the 36.6 miles to Paignton.
  • Trains would leave Cullompton going South with enough charge to travel the 60.4 miles to Plymouth.

Note.

  1. I’ve added Okehampton, as I feel that if Dawlish had another encounter with Poseidon, Okehampton with its proposed Parkway station on the A30 could be the terminus for coaches to and from Cornwall.
  2. Charging could be needed at Okehampton and Paignton.
  3. Charging at Okehampton and Paignton, wouldn’t be needed, if the battery-electric trains had enough range  to do the return trip.

Electrification of Plymouth and Penzance stations, as I outlined in Thoughts About Electrification Through Devon And Cornwall, would enable battery-electric trains to bridge the gap of 79.5 miles, between these two stations.

Conclusion

It looks like some miles of sympathetic electrification and landscaping between Taunton and South of Cullompton, is the key to running battery-electric train to Devon and Cornwall.

 

July 4, 2023 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Go-Ahead Adds 20 FC Buses To Gatwick Fleet

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on electrive.com.

I described my ride on these buses in My Second Ride In A Wrightbus Single-Decker Hydrogen Bus.

I am publishing this post for this key paragraph on the electrive.com article.

When the order was placed in 2021, Martin Harris, Managing Director of Brighton & Hove and Metrobus, already specified why hydrogen buses were now being used for the first time: “We run services 24 hours a day, with hilly terrain, heavy passenger loads and duty cycles well in excess of the national average at up to 370 miles per day. Those provide really challenging conditions for any technology but we concluded that hydrogen provides the most efficient replacement for our diesel buses.”

It is interesting to note, that the hydrogen buses in Birmingham, Dublin and Liverpool are used on longer routes.

July 4, 2023 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | 1 Comment