Great Western Coffee Shop

Hello all - is there anyone who can give me some information on this line or anywhere I can find it?

I am a Plymouth boy (in exile!) and my Father recalls his Father taking him on this train many moons ago, I think the line is long gone (Beeching?) but I would be interested in any more information on it.

Many thanks

Youtube is a useful resource for this.  You'd be surprised at the last use of the first part of the Cattewater branch, as far as the River Plym - I found a youtube video taken in May this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeoxfLWFF58

The first bit above is doubling back alongside the line towards Mount Gould, the train would have reversed near the site of Friary I expect.  The disused Laira bridge over the Plym is still there, Google Earth (or other satellite view) shows track on the bridge, but isolated from both sides.

There's another video here of a trip from Plymouth Friary back to Mount Gould Jn, the track limit is just on the other side of the bridge to where the station was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVHs-STeoNc

There's some relevant stuff in the middle of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBBb4pXHg4A

and there's info about Friary on the disused stations website:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/plymouth_friary/

Hope this gives you a starter for your research...

Paul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnchapel_Branch

It closed to passengers in 1951, so Beeching cannot be blamed for that one.

I grew up in Plymstock and spent many an hour walking along the disused trackbed.

The 'definitive' history is in Tony Kingdom's book 'The Turnchapel Branch'.  Long OOP but can be got secondhand online.
Middleton Press 'Branch lines around Plymouth' also covers this one (warning - contains material contributed by yours truly  ::) )

The Laira Railway bridge is currently being refurbished for an extension to the foot/cycle path.  The rails were removed by the Plym Valley Railway at the start of this work. more on this here: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/plymotionlairarailbridge and here: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/newsandviews/newspage/newsreleases.htm?newsid%3D315630


pb (reporting live from Plymouth  ;) )

..also a good lot of old pictures & info courtesy of the members of the CRS

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/turnchapel-branch.html

So did I!  :o ::) ;D

.....and me, from 1978 till 1991 anyway!!!

and we all escaped!

I still get back from time to time, my folks still live there, and there is always Argyle and a few pints on the Barbican to look forward to!

Another source of info and photos is the excellent book by Bernard Mills published within the last year "Backtracking Around Friary, Laira and the Plym", published by Pen & Ink Publishing.

Well that's spooky. I was in Waterstones Taunton earlier today and there was a copy of that book on sale. I had a quick thumb through.

Also, here's an article about the book from the Plymouth Herald from earlier this year:

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Bernard-s-happy-tolive-parallel-universe/story-20430380-detail/story.html

Blimey, how many Plymothians are hanging round here?  Add me as another Plymstock (Oreston) boy; I have the book about the branch somewhere.

Me too!  Living in Bedfordshire now, but originally from Plymouth; and was in Plymstock last week!

Count me in (Although technically I'm actually an import as I wasn't born there ::)).

@TaplowGreen, please check your PMs

noted many thanks will be in touch

I have a copy of a DVD recently purchased from AARCHIVE of the" Plymouth to Turnchapel & Cattewater Branch" which may be useful. This company also produces DVDs of other lines in and around Plymouth, which may be os use to others. I mam not connected to this company in any way, so offer it as information not a "plug". I also am a refugee from Plymstock and now live in Nailsea as well as one of your other members.

As a fellow Plymstock refugee (albeit originally from Devonport!) I would be very interested.

May I offer you a very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, charlie!

Chris from Plymstock (born in Devonport)  ;D

Forever banished to Nailsea!  ;D

The route of the old line has recently had work done to upgrade to a high quality cycle/walk way across Laira bridge, so no longer lies derelict. The dates in the herald for last uses I suspect are incorrect,

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/laira-rail-bridge-open-public-new-cycle-walking/story-26547513-detail/story.html

I can very vaguely recall a China clay train chugging over Laira bridge, probably late 1970s?

TG: I'd be surprised if it had been clay...more likely cement.




Edit note: Quote marks fixed, for clarity. CfN.

Wikipedia suggests freight used it in the 90s, no source provided though, so being Wikipedia may lack accuracy

I'd take Anthony Kingdom as the expert on this.  In his Plymouth to Turnchapel Railway book, he says that cement traffic to Plymstock ended in February 1987.  The bridge over The Ride was demolished in early 1994, Laira Bridge was fenced off then and the track was lifted east of the bridge that October.

..........any relation to Isambard?

No..but his granddaughter was a school friend of my daughter, will that do? I. 😀