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Barnstaple and Ilfracombe Railway by C Maggs Soft Cover Locomotion Papers #111
The Barnstaple and Ilfracombe Railway by Colin G Maggs
Soft Cover
Oakwood PRess Locomotion Paers #111
80 pages
Copyright 1988
Contents
Introduction 5
Chapter OneEarly railway schemes 7
Chapter TwoThe line opens 23
Chapter ThreeDescription of the line 27
Chapter FourThe Great Western loop 39
Chapter FiveLocomotives 40
Chapter SixRolling stock 47
Chapter SevenPermanent way and signalling 49
Chapter EightPassenger and freight services 51
Chapter NinePrestige trains 65
Chapter TenAccidents 71
Chapter Eleven Closure 72
Appendix One L&SWR working timetable August 1874 74
Appendix Two Speed Limits 74
Appendix Three Atlantic Coast Express timings: 1936 75
Appendix Four Train Logs: 1932 and 1933 76
Appendix Five Instructions affecting Western Region Staff when working over the SR: October 1960 78
Bibliography 80
Introduction
Ilfracombe is a town with a history. Known in Saxon times as Alfreincombe, it consisted of a few waterside dwellings situated beside the harbour, which is one of the few natural havens along that coast giving shelter from the prevailing winds. In 1346 the town provided Edward III with six ships and 96 seamen to help fight the war against France. This proved to be Ilfracombe's high water mark for many a century, the town declining as Barnstaple and Bideford, having larger anchorages and better communications, took over its trade. Its decline continued down to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when it began to change from a market town and fishing port into a watering place. In the eighteen-twenties Ilfracombe was frequented for bathing and made "an agreeable summer residence". When the town deliberately set out to attract visitors in the eighteen-thirties, population grew rapidly, but its fastest growth was between 1861 and 1891 when the population doubled from 3851 to 7692 and then remained nearly static - a contrast to the continuously growing resorts of South Devon. In 1895, Murray's Handbook to Devon complained of Ilfracombe that "the railway from Barnstaple has given increased facility for reaching it; and those who desire quiet and comparative solitude will do better to pitch their tents at "Westward Ho or Lynton".
Until the coming of the railway, access to Ilfracombe was either by road with considerable gradients to surmount, or by water. Steamer services were run from various ports in the British Channel; from Bristol the trip took seven hours. Due to the lack of a commercial hinterland, coupled with the seasonal nature of the traffic, steamer services to Ilfracombe tended to be haphazard. The Great Western Railway, Midland Railway, Bristol & Exeter Railway and Bristol & Portishead Railway, operated through bookings in conjunction with the Portishead Steam Ship Company, from their stations to Ilfracombe, passengers having a choice of sailing from the Cumberland Basin, Bristol and enjoying a trip through the Avon Gorge, or travelling on by rail and boarding the ship at Portishead Pier. Within four years of the railway's arrival at Ilfracombe, steamship services had dwindled until there was only Pockett's packet from Swansea and the GWR service from Portis-head, the latter ceasing in 1884.
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