Laid these sleepers to make a nice little place to sit and watch the evening sun go down. I will put a trellis at the back and a roof over. The sleepers came from the Okehampton to Bude line which branched away from the Exeter to Plymouth line at Meldon Junction. The line was built in 1879 and made redundant in October 1966. lots of local farmers took away the sleepers when the line was wrecked to use around the farms as slurry pit walls or partitions in barns and sheds.
I got these from a local farmer who is renovating a barn and has no use for them, the condition of them is not to bad considering the age of them and they were kept inside the barn. His farther managed to get dozens of them at the time of the demolition. A lick of fence paint and I they will look fine. I may have to watch out for any tar leakage on hot days but they do look dry at the moment.
Puddles
Looking east
Looking west
It does not take me long to do five minutes work.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
I've had holidays in Bude quite a times over the years, but sadly the first time must have been a couple of years after the branch line was closed.
As my parents didn't drive , getting there involved an overnight coach journey from Cheshire to Exeter, followed by a few hours wait for the local buses to start running. Oakhampton was always a massive bottleneck so we used to arrive in Bude at about lunchtime.
One bit of interest was that there was the remains of a tramway track on running alongside the canal towards the sea lock. I think it was used to carry sand from the beach to the canal basin, but I could be wrong about that.
Part of that small railway line you mention Cheshire Lines is still there along the side of the canal at Bude and your story of the bottle neck in Okehampton reminded me of when I met the Policeman that used to live in our house.
The house is an old police house built in the village in the 1930s and the last policeman to live here moved to Canada and joined the Mounties, on a visit back to the UK he came to the house and spoke about how quiet life was living in rural Devon and his most exciting day of the week was on Saturdays during the holiday season when he had to go down to Okehampton and help direct the traffic. A museum in Bude castle has an oo gauge model of Bude station exactly as it used to be and history of the man who built the castle. He made his money by converting stage coaches to be steam driven on the roads but lost out when the railways came to Devon. As to the views from our house we can see Dartmoor from the front garden and on a clear day way into Cornwall to Bodmin Moor from the back garden, It does get a bit windy at times.
Puddles
It does not take me long to do five minutes work.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
Thanks Puddles, I thought there was still a bit of track there, but wasn't certain. I have been round the Castle Museum, but had forgotten about the model railway there. Seem to remember the guy who used to own the castle also invented some sort of electric lighting system too.
We've also had holidays in other resorts in Devon and Cornwall and travelled on the heritage line from Bodmin a few years ago.
I seem to remember it was very windy that day as we were driving
to Bodmin.
Hi Cheshire lines,The guy who lived at Bude castle loved experimenting with different gasses and invented a system for lighting using a very bright burning gas light placed in a central position in the house with mirrors placed all over the house to reflect the light into every room and I believe that’s where the saying smoking mirrors comes from. He installed the system in the Houses of Parliament but they soon got rid of it after it all went wrong and nearly burnt the place down. He also invented the gas lighting called limelight used in the theatres. I think he had a very interesting and eventful life.
Puddles
It does not take me long to do five minutes work.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
I have finished building the trellis over the sleepers, l managed to get a bundle of roofing batons so I set up the old chop saw and went into mass production. It seemed to take forever to nail them all together but the jobs done now and time to enjoy
Puddles
It does not take me long to do five minutes work.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
