7th July – A Devon Circular Trip
I can’t remember where I saw the news that a Sunday
Dartmoor bus has been re-introduced to allow folk to do a circular trip in
Devon (with a slight detour into Cornwall), but I looked up the route the bus
takes and it looked interesting, so I decided to give it a go (beats hanging
around at home which is what I’ve been doing on some Sundays recently, when
I’ve returned home on the Saturday).
A gentle walk to the station to pick up the tickets, and
on the 08:35 (ish) service to Exeter St Davids, formed of 159008 & 159005
(which is an improvement as this service always used to be a single unit which
got busy closer to Exeter), I took up a seat in the leading coach of 008 and
settled down for the long trip out west, enjoying the scenery (this might be a
local line, but I haven’t been this way for a while). I confused the Basingstoke based guard in
requesting a Devon Ranger, but after the guards changed at Salisbury the new
guard had no issues in issuing the ranger, which saved time at Exeter Central
where I popped out of the station to the nearby Co-Op for bits for lunch.
Returning to Exeter Central, it was a short wait for
150244 to roll in from St James Park on the 2nd Okehampton service
of the day. An enjoyable run (where I
made use of the USB sockets for a quick charge for my phone & tablet),
maybe one of these days the planned use at weekdays might happen, a few brushes
with bushes along the section of line from Crediton towards the disused
platform at Yeoford & the former station of Bow. Arrival into Okehampton was pretty much bang
on time allowing for some pictures to be taken as a shunter arrived from the
end of the line.
The 150 departed back towards Exeter, as I made my way to
join the queue for the route 279 bus, operated by Plymouth Citylink (bus fleet
number 65), handed over my £3 for a single to Gunnislake, and opened the
windows as it was quite warm inside. It
was a good trip towards Tavistock, swinging via some little villages (and
meeting a tractor), and some good views from the windows of the
countryside. A quick break in the
Tavistock bus station before the bus continued to reach Gunnislake, climbing
the hill to reach the station.
A short break, before 150239 arrived from Plymouth to
take a few passengers back into Devon, over the Calstock viaduct and alongside
the Tamar, this is another nice line for looking out the window. I decided to request a stop at Dockyard,
mainly as a random platform score, but mainly to waste time (due to the 2
hourly service at Grateley on Sundays).
It was an interesting walk towards Plymouth station, passing both
terrace housing and a short area of more posher looking larger houses before
the terrace housing resumed, but I was soon at Plymouth station with a couple
options to take me back towards Exeter to complete the circle.
The first was a Castle-HST set, but as that came from
Penzance it looked slightly busy, so with the arrival of another Plymouth
starter (802106 I think), I jumped onto 802114 for the run towards Exeter St
Davids, riding the coast at Dawlish (it’s on my wish-list one of these days to
walk from Dawlish Warren to Dawlish). At
St Davids I was shocked to notice that the WH Smiths only charged £4 for a meal
deal (as I had that pictured as being one of the stores which charges £5 as
there isn’t a lot of competition around the station). My final leg was in the hands of 159101 &
159003 for the run back to Grateley, the train only getting busy at
Salisbury. Once back at the station I walked
home, picking up some more litter along the way home, every little helps
keeping the village clean as some might say.
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