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Portrait of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway by Chris Leigh Hard Cover
Portrait of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway by Chris Leigh
Hard cover
Copyright 1983
95 pages
Lots of photos
CONTENTS
The Story
Map
Barnstaple Town
Pilton
Snapper Halt
Chelfham
Bratton Fleming
Blackmoor
Riding the Line
Parracombe
Woody Bay
Caffyns Halt
Lynton & Lynmouth
The Locomotives
The Carriages
The Goods Wagons
The Closure
Preface
Most railway enthusiasts will profess a particular affection for one or other of the `big four' railway companies, coupled perhaps with a sneaking regard for one of that company's pre-Grouping constituents. The author is no exception, although probably somewhat less partisan than many. The English, it seems, always have a certain sympathy for the underdog and in railway enthusiasts this usually manifests itself in the form of a passion for those weak, often unneccessary and frequently tragic railway companies whose contribution to written railway history has been out of all proportion to their contribution to the Nation's transport needs. The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway was surely a prime example.
I make no apology for placing North Devon's much loved narrow gauge line high on my list of favourites, along with another `lost cause', the Midland & South Western Junction Railway. Nor do I apologise for adding another photographic history of the line to those already available, since like most L&B students today, I never knew the line as a working railway and I therefore have an insatiable appetite for photographs of it.
I have, over a number of years, sought out the L&B at its source, by walking the trackbed, by visiting the villages it served, and by taking holidays in the station buildings at Lynton and Bratton Fleming. Through the publisher's private library I have been able to trace articles about the line dating back to the time of its opening. I have also collected a set of drawings and updated some of those published in Model Railway Constructor during the early 1950s. As a result I have been able to produce a new set of drawings for modellers which are reproduced in this book.
The book would not have been possible though, unless a substantial number of previously unpublished photographs had been available, and since the L&B closed more than 45 years ago that was hardly likely. There are several notable collections of photographs of the L&BR, and examples from all of them have been seen in print. Two photographers for whom the line was a favourite subject were Frank and Donovan Box, the former having supplied notes and some illustrations for L. T. Catch-pole's excellent little book which first appeared many years ago.
I suppose every researcher must hope that one day he will come up with a real `find' and for me that moment came one morning early in 1981. A battered foolscap envelope arrived on my desk with the day's mail, so torn that the contents spilled out before I started to open it. There was a small black wallet containing cellophane envelopes, each one holding a 3iin by 2-fin negative of the L&BR, marked in the corner in black ink with the initials `F.E.B.' There was no mistaking the original Frank Box negatives, which had apparently been disposed of by a dealer and had spent 15 years in Germany!
Those photographs form the nucleus of this book, but since there were some duplicates and some others which were substandard, and because they only covered the 1930-35 period, it has been essential to call upon some other material. This includes Locomotive Publishing Co and Loco & General
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