Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway

The coaches could each carry about 60 people, with two or three on each seat. The maximum speed was about forty mph (60 km/h), however the streets section had a 4 mph (6.4 km/h) speed limit. Trains could run at around 30 mph (48 km/h) on many sections of the track, however winter storms could slow the trains to little more than a walking pace. Trains were usually two carriages length, except during the winter timetable when one was more than sufficient; however four carriage trains which could therefore carry as many as two hundred people were sometimes run. A large collar factory at the Strand, Bideford, was responsible for a lot of traffic in the mornings and evenings. In its first six months the line carried 8,552 passengers and in May 1901 consideration was given to purchasing more carriages. The total for 1901 had been 110,647. In August 1908, some of the trains were so well patronised that some passengers had to ride on the steps. Visits from the Devon Hussars Yeomanry to Westward Ho! for several weeks' encampment at Commons Farm added significantly to takings.

Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway
Appledore Lovers' Lane Halt Richmond Road Halt Northam Beach Road Westward Ho! Cornborough Abbotsham Road Kenwith Castle Halt Causeway The Lane Halt Locomotive shed Strand Road Halt Bideford Quay Bideford North Devon Railway

Trains started from Bideford Quay on their scenic journey across the peninsula to the cliffs at Cornborough and Westward Ho!, then over the fields close to Northam Burrows, finally coming to the terminus at the port of Appledore, with its shipyards and maritime traditions.

The line was seven miles (11 km) in length when fully opened in 1908. There were eleven stations and halts which largely served visitors wishing to enjoy the bracing air along the coastline, or to swim in the clear waters.

After Bideford (Quay) was a halt at Bideford (Strand Road) Halt, which was close to the 'Yard' with the principal engine, carriage, and maintenance sheds. Chanter's Lane Halt or 'The Lane' Halt was next, followed by The Causeway Halt, which had a two-storey traditional signal box built by order of the Board of Trade who had inspected the line a month after it opened. Following on from these were Kenwith Castle Halt, Abbotsham Road Station, Cornborough Cliffs Halt with its wooden platform, Westward Ho! Station, Beach Road Halt, Northam Station (Pimpley Road) with a platform and waiting room, Richmond Road Halt with a level crossing, platform and shelter, Lovers Lane Halt with a platform and finally Appledore Station, which lay close to the Anglican church.

The railway seems to have lacked stock-proof fencing in places, clearly indicated in a postcard of a scene near Chanter's Lane. Presumably the light railway order, low speeds and cow catchers on the locomotives made this unnecessary on some parts of the line. On the same postcard the railway is mistakenly called the 'Bideford, Chanter's Lane, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway'. Substantial wood fencing is present at other sites in surviving photographs.

Two locomotives at Bideford quay, circa 1905.

Three 2-4-2 side tank engines built by Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd. of Leeds provided the motive power and they were named Grenville (works number 713), Kingsley (works number 714) and Torridge (works number 715). Protective plates or skirts were attached for safety whilst running through the 'streets' section and a form of 'cow-catcher' was fixed to the front at a later date. One engine, Torridge was put on the track facing Bideford and the other two, Kingsley and Grenville faced Appledore. The line had no turntable.

The driving wheels were of 3 ft 3 in (990 mm) diameter and the locomotives weighed 27 long tons (27 t) in full working order, capable of pulling about 95 tons (97 t) on a minimum curve of 160 feet (49 m). The 12 inches (300 mm) diameter cylinders had a piston stroke of 18 inches (460 mm) at a working pressure of 140 pounds per square inch (965 kPa). Five hundred imperial gallons (2,270 L) of water and 18 cwt (910 kg) of coal could be carried. The engine produced 6,978 pounds (31.04 kN) of tractive effort at 75% of maximum boiler pressure. The heating surface was 444 sq ft (41.2 m²) and the engine and coaches had a single automatic vacuum brake. The total wheelbase was 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m), and the coupled wheelbase 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m).

The locomotives were originally black, then repainted green, then repainted cherry red and finally painted black due to wartime regulations.[9] The dome and safety valve were polished brass. The green livery had the chimney black and lining in yellow or off white applied to the side tanks, cab sides, cab rear and wheel skirting.

Coal was stored at a 'linhay' (a lean-to shed with an open front) which stood opposite the Company's engine and carriage sheds. It was originally carried across from Bideford L&SWR Station on horse carts and tipped into railway wagons.[3]

The locomotive shed was capable of holding four locomotives and held an inspection pit. Steam and smoke was carried away from the inside of the shed by a system of wooden troughs hanging suspended from the roof over the centre of the tracks and leading, sloping upwards, to wooden chimneys. The fumes would otherwise erode the iron roof supports.[10]

The railway came under a Light Railway Order once the Appledore section was opened and this simplified the requirements for the signaling, especially as five of the crossings were controlled by 'Gatemen' and did not have crossing gates. The signaling was installed by the company Saxby and Farmer. There were no ordinary 'starters' or 'distants', but what might be termed 'homes' of ordinary semaphore type, used at a number of places on the line. Commencing from the Bideford end, signals in both directions marked the point at which the line passed from open 'street' sections onto the British Electric Traction Company property. A further signal with a side arm controlled entry to the 'yard' and the road crossing beyond. Causeway and its Level Crossing were guarded by signals on both approaches. From The Causeway, guarded by Mr. Blackmore, the line ran onwards to the station and passing loop at Abbotsham Road, which had a miniature semaphore watching over the roadway and the level crossing north of the station, with a full-size semaphore controlling the passing loop and train entry. Appledore had a small arm on the semaphore signal covering the siding points.[9] For a time a man with a red flag rode on the front of the locomotive whilst it passed through the streets of Bideford. Signal boxes were located at The Causeway Crossing, operated by Mr. Furzy and Westward Ho! operated by Mr. Spry, with signal box 'huts' at The Strand, Abbotsham Road and Appledore.

The company had around twenty-one staff, seven of whom served as gatemen at the level crossings (Clamp). In Irsha Street, Appledore, there was in 1965 a public house called 'The Rising Sun' and beforehand it had been the residence of Mr. H R Moody, the station master at Appledore. Mr. Dicker, who lived in Bideford in 1968, was one of the company workmen, based at the locomotive sheds at Bideford. Mr. Henry Sowden was the railway company manager in 1917; he had been the Superintendent from 1910–1914.

The train drivers were Mr. F. Palmer, Mr. Shephard and Mr. Hawkins. The latter two were retired Southern Railway Express engine drivers. One of the firemen was a Mr. Harris, who was also an engineer. Other firemen were Alfie Curtis and Mr. F. Bucker. Mr. Spry worked the Westward Ho! signal box. Mr. Blackmore was in charge of Chanter's Lane Halt and the signal box at The Causeway was worked by Mr. Furzy. Mr. MacLaughlan was the station master at Westward Ho!, the busiest station on the line. Track Men were Jack Shears, who lived in Northam and Ned Kelly.[9] Salaries and wages were high because of the need for Gatekeepers, etc., coming to £256 4s 0d for a six months period in 1906.

Bideford with the course of the old railway past Kenwith Castle

A BWH&R locomotive crossing Bideford Bridge in 1917.

The line was never on a firm financial footing and the situation worsened with the rising cost of coal and the effects of the First World War; additionally competition from Dymond's Horse Drawn Coach and later Motor Buses took much of the traffic off the line even in summer. Few passengers from Bideford Station at East-The-Water would trouble to change again for the B,WH&A,R at the Quay when alternative transport would take them straight to their destination for less money. Trains did not run at times suitable for manual workers and freight, apart from Westward Ho! Gasworks, had always been a minor consideration. The line could not even manage the ½% dividend of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway and eventual closure was inevitable.[12] In 1917, the Minister of Munitions requisitioned the line by Government Order for War Service and it duly closed on 28 March of that year. Grenville and Torridge were loaded onto the captured German freighter Gotterdammerung for duty in France, but the ship was torpedoed off the north Cornwall Coast and sank. The wreck was discovered in 2001 and the locomotives may be recovered for restoration as static displays.[13] Kingsley was scrapped in 1937 after having been sold by the Ministry of Munitions to the National Smelting Company. The locomotives, derailing several times, had to be run across the medieval Bideford Bridge on temporarily laid track, then running along Barnstaple Street joining up with the old L.& S.W.R.line at Bideford's Goods Yard. The operation took two days to complete. Their iron side protectors or 'skirts' were removed to reduce the weight of the locomotives.

On 29 April 1921 Blackmore's held an auction at the Works Yard in Bideford and sold the six carriages and also possibly the trackbed in separate lots. One carriage was cut in half and used on the beach at Westward Ho! near Nassau Baths as Beach Huts, whilst the others were taken to the Midlands for scrap. Some of the line's equipment was purchased for further use by Colonel H. F. Stephens, through his company Associated Railways.[4] The fate of the signal boxes is unclear (see Bits and Pieces), however the Westward Ho! box was still being used as sweet shop on its original site as late as 1970.

A section of a carriage which had been used as beach hut at Westward Ho!, close to the Nassau Baths being inspected by Roger Griffith from Grenville College in the 1960s

A set of crossing gates, believed to have originated from the B,WH&AR, were in use at Pilton in the latter years of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (1898–1935). As the L&B was narrow gauge, and the trackbed very narrow at this point, the gates overlapped when open to road traffic. These gates are now owned by the L&B and in storage awaiting restoration.

Westward Ho! did not completely vanish from the railway scene as an ex-Southern Railway 'West Country' class locomotive, number 34036, was named Westward Ho!.

The abutment of an old bridge on the embankment at Cornborough Cliffs.

Substantial cuttings and embankments, together with railway buildings remained. The carriage shed at Bideford was modified for buses by the Southern Bus Company. The locomotive sheds were in use by a local dairy. By August 2008 the former locomotive sheds had been demolished although at that time they were still visible on "Google Earth". The former carriage sheds however remain.

The gatekeeper's Cottage at The Causeway was well maintained, but there was no sign of the existence of the signal box, although a piece of rail was in place as a gate stop and some railway sleepers were being used a gate posts which could possibly have come from the railway. A level crossing gate concrete post survived at Chanter's Lane. A bridge with brick sides and iron girders existed near Kenwith Castle, together with signs of a low embankment and a cutting running through solid rock.

The old railway cutting at Kenwith Castle

Along Cornborough Cliffs the embankments and trackbed were very clear, as was the course of the line running down to Westward Ho! A bridge to create an underpass or right of way substantially survived as abutments, without the iron bridge itself however. The station at Westward Ho! remained 'almost' unaltered, apart from the missing track. The signal box was a sweet shop or 'Snack Bar'. Almost all the railway buildings have now gone (2006), apart from the 'Station Hall'.

The old signal box, still at the station, in use as the Westward Ho! bus station snack bar

Very little was visible between Westward Ho! and Appledore, however near the Anglican Church the back wall of the old station waiting rooms still stood with two chimney-breasts and fireplaces.

The railway needed a loop to run its locomotives around the train on the quay. Without a loop the company had to go to the extra expense of having two locomotives in steam at one time, even with the winter load of a single coach. Bideford Town Council refused the construction and after much argument the railway company went ahead and built the loop in defiance of the council. A court injunction forced the railway company to remove it again. The railway appealed to the Board of Trade and by May 1903 permission had been secured to re-lay the loop. Later on a fine of 40 shillings was imposed on the company for allowing its trains to remain too long on the quay. In July 1901 a complaint was made that two loaded trucks had been left at the wharf and a week later the prosecution came to the Bideford Petty Sessions Court, together with matters relating to safety on the quay, no whistle or bell and no adequate driver's seat for the engine driver to see out, leading to a 10s fine.[3]

The Town Council were always a 'thorn' in the side of the Company and the origins of the problem was the interruption to traffic which the trains on the quay caused, together with the effect that the rails and the wooden blocks had upon horse-drawn traffic and the decision to build the railway as a standard-gauge line. The carriages were unusually wide, increasing the problems of interference with road traffic.

Upon closure one box was purchased by a local farmer, Mr. Atkins. He tried to convert it into an extension to his house, however he failed and sold the box to a person in Westward Ho! who used it as a summer house. It still existed in 1968.[9]

Another box, which was for many years used as a workshop in the garden at No.7, Springfield Terrace in Westward Ho! had no connection with the B.WH.& A.R. The most likely origin is Maddaford Moor on the old North Cornwall L.S.W.R line.[14] This box was dismantled in January 2000 and removed for use on a garden railway near Newbury.[15]

• Buckie and Portessie Branch - another line requisitioned in World War I and never re-opened.

Notes

Sources

• Barber, Chips (2003). Devon's Railways of Yesteryear. Obelisk Publications. ISBN 1-903585-11-2 p. 25.
• Casserley, H.C. Light railways of Britain. Pub. D. Bradford Barton Ltd. ISBN 0-85153-321-3. p. 63.
• Clamp, Arthur. L. Motoring & Seeing Old Railways in Devon. Westway Guides.
• Smith, M. (1994). Britain's Light Railways. Pub. Ian Allan.

• Video of a simulated ride on the railway.
• The Westward Ho! History Group.
• An Outline History of the B,WH! & A,R.
• The Official Guide to the South West Path.

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