Prototype Tim Mills' Photos

[oldravendale]

With a name like Dudley Dimmock he'd have to be dapper, wouldn't he? Bet he wore a bow tie as well and probably a boater in the summer...

My mention above of my one and only visit to the S & D prompted me to think about the motive power. Seaton to Seaton Junction M7 0-4-4T. Seaton Junction to Templecombe Bulleid Merchant Navy. Templecombe to Templecombe S & D Ivatt 2-6-2T. Templecombe to Bournemouth West BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0. Bournemouth West to Bournemouth Central Standard Class 4 2-6-4T. Bournemouth Central to New Milton Bulleid Light Pacific. No wonder it's an experience I never forgot!

The view from the train being hauled by an unidentified GWR 2251 0-6-0 approaching Templecombe S & D on 8th June 1962.



Two views of 57XX 4691 on a Baileygate to Templecombe train at Templecombe S & D on 8th June 1962. The loco was allocated to Templecombe S & D from February 1961 and withdrawn in September 1964. (SLS). It was scrapped at Bird’s, Risca (WHTS) in September1965 (BR Database).





Brian

 

[AJC]

Hi Brian, I do like the S&DJR images, especially the 2251 (the Churchward tender narrows the field, but not enough!), as I'm not sure that I'd ever seen that angle on the approach to the S&D platform at Templecombe LSWR before: it took a bit of placing and peering at maps to make sense of it. The tin chapel-type building is shown on the OS as a Reading Room, presumably paid for by the parish: both it and the embankment are gone now, of course.

Adam

 

[John Palmer]

The first of the two pictures of 75071 shows the locomotive taking water at Blandford rather than Sturminster Newton. The second picture does indeed show departure from the S&D platform at Templecombe; the locomotive can be seen to have just entered the crossover to attain the Up line towards Bath. The subsequent shot of the unidentified 2251 class shows the same train being piloted into Templecombe Upper from Templecombe Junction, 75071 being at the rear of the train for this manouevre.

The train seems likely to be the 3/40 Up Mail from Bournemouth West to Bristol; this is suggested by the vans immediately behind the 2251, at least one of which probably be will be for attachment to the Bristol-Newcastle Mail at Mangotsfield. The importance of this connection was such that the 3/40 Up was accorded precedence over all other trains on the S&D single line sections.

The first of the two pictures of 4691 on the afternoon Bailey Gate-Templecombe 'Milkie' appears to show the train being taken up the Templecombe Junction-Templecombe Upper spur, as it is travelling on the Down line; presumably an out-of-view pilot is attached to the milk tanks at what had been the rear of the train for the journey north from Bailey Gate. The second shot of 4691 is representative of non-gangwayed stock's last gasp on Templecombe-Evercreech-Highbridge 'Branch' services, individual ex-GWR vehicles having displaced B-Sets, which had themselves started to displace ex-LMS 2-car sets from 1959 onwards. These 'Branch' sets also covered the daily Templecombe to Bailey Gate and back milk train workings, the set concerned then being stabled overnight at Templecombe prior to an 8.15 departure to Evercreech and, ultimately, Highbridge on the following day.