The Tale of the Lost Railway (Part – ten)

At five thirty precisely Archie, Bertie, Bonzo, Gerry Fiennes, John Hammond and Ronald Parker assembled in  the study for pre-dinner drinks. At the request of  Archie, dress was informal.

Archie took the opportunity to address the guests and provide a little background information as to why everyone had been asked to attend.

After thanking everyone for taking the trouble to travel down to Devon Archie continued :

 "Gentlemen, back in the early years of this century, my grandfather came up with a splendid plan to build a railway between Moretonhampstead, which lies at the northern end of the branch line from Newton Abbot, to Okehampton which is distance of some fourteen  miles around the north eastern edge of Dartmoor. Such a railway would have provided a link between the old Great Western Railway to the South and the Southern  Railway to the north.
The trackbed  would,  of course,  pass largely  through our family estate.

Neither the GWR or the Southern were willing to contribute to  such a venture, even on a shared basis, and so my grandfather, Lord William Hardcastle , a railway enthusiast with an interest in civil engineering, decided to fund the venture in its entirety.

Construction of the railway would be expensive, very expensive actually, involving the building of tunnels at both ends and at Baskerville, just up the road from here. Despite the considerable expense  good old Grampy Bill, as I liked to  call him, could envisage the benefits both to local folk and, of course, to our own family and estate.

Now, the next part of the story must, for the time being, remain in this room. The railway was built but as most of it ran through the family estate parliamentary  approval was never sought or indeed, needed. The local MP, the Right Honourable Sir Barnaby Bastable was instrumental in negotiations with the GWR and LSWR to ensure that both ends of the line could be temporarily laid with the intention that approval from Parliament  would be sought retrospectively. However, The First World War intervened, the whole project was put on the back burner and trains never ran. After the  war my grandfather became involved with several  other, more urgent projects and my own father, not interested in railway matters, failed to resurrect the plan.

In around nineteen twenty  Grampy Bill, for reasons that we don't fully understand, arranged for the tunnels at Moretonhampstead, Baskerville and Okehampton to be boarded up and allowed  both sides of the track to become hidden  by thick vegetation thus creating the illusion that no railway ever existed.

Today, some fifty years since the tracks were laid,  it was, until just a few short months back, virtually impossible, without an awful lot of effort, to gain access to the track bed".

Puzzled glances  were exchanged between the various men assembled around the table. Everyone was probably thinking that the whole scheme was always likely to fail but undeterred by the quizzical faces Archie continued.

"As some of you assembled here will know, I have an insatiable interest in railways leading me to consider the possibility of reinstating the lost line. My first action was to contact my old university chum Gerry Fiennes. As COO to the British Railways Board he is in an ideal position to  ascertain whether or not  my madcap scheme stood any chance of becoming anything more than a pipe dream.

When I called Gerry his first reaction was to laugh  so loudly that I had to move the telephone away from my ear in order to avoid being deafened. However, once he realised that I was being serious rather than insanely frivolous  he said that despite it being a completely crazy idea he would give it some consideration.

There was though  a word or warning  to the effect that, as I was no doubt aware,  the adjoining railways at Moretonhampstead and Okehampton would almost certainly be  closed under BR's rationalisation plans leaving my railway completely isolated.

I replied that yes of course I was aware of that but I also wanted to purchase  the existing  Newton Abbot to Moretonhampstead line before BR ripped it up. Not only that but I would retain the existing stations and halts and build a new one at Baskerville including a railway workshop.

By the way  that's where you come in Bertie".
Bertie looked a little non plussed as Archie continued , "I'm rather taken with the idea  of running  it as a preserved railway along the same lines as those splendid chaps at the fledgling Bluebell Railway. I gather that Bonzo and yourself  have some experience of purchasing the Bobbington to Sillybury line on behalf of Poppingham Estates and Bertie, I know that you  have also been heavily involved in the building of a very reputable railway workshop as part of your splendid SPAM scheme.  A workshop facility is something that I would very much like to include, probably at Baskerville.


An artist's pencil sketch of the proposed new station and workshop facility at Baskerville

As far as the railway itself is concerned I have already taken the first steps, with  assistance from Gerry and John, towards clearing the track and wayside vegetation plus the link to the existing line at the Moretonhampstead end had also been partially reinstated.

I'm arranging for us all to visit the the line tomorrow ".

At this point Archie winked across the table to Gerry and John before continuing, "I guarantee that you'll all be in  for a very pleasant surprise when we enter the tunnel at Moretonhampstead but for now  enjoy  your meal this evening and we'll perhaps talk a little more over drinks later".

With that the group were called through to the dining room for dinner.

Link: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mrhpub.com/2026-07-jul/download.html

The French lack of interest in the game was slightly less than ours. Rice scored a cracker but barely celebrated which said it all about the match no one ever wants to play.

And in other news, Rugby Union, England beat Argentina (just) 31-24 in a very scrappy and ill disciplined game.

Well, that was an enjoyable match. Congratulations England!   

    

A write up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/cx2jl1wge2po


To break a 27 year record

Up there with cram ovett bannister

 

Not a spoiler but the difference between 3hr radio and 2hr TV was half an hour talking to David Baddiel in the interval and the radio programme actually being just 2 1/2 hrs not 3.
Ergo the show next Friday should be the prom in its entirety.

Josh Kerr broke the 27 year old mile record in London today!

3:42:66!

It was brilliant,  masterful and gutsy.