Author Archives: Scout

In May, 2020, the scout penned a note to Nick Simmons, C.E.O. of Roadpeace, the road crash victims’ charity. “Peace returned to the roads briefly in early spring. I took to cycling on what would normally have been busy roads … Continue reading →

Again, photographs kindly lent by Richard Holladay have prompted the scribe to go through the files and the scout to saddle up, this time to prepare a feature on the other East Dartmoor branch line. Richard has provided a set … Continue reading →

Several years before his journey on the Exe Valley train, the railway’s friend, Richard Holladay had photographed what were soon to become the ruins of the Teign Valley Branch. Again, the scout has gone back, as near as possible, to … Continue reading →

Innocent Mass-Observation of rural life in 1944 The same kind neighbour responsible for RAMBLES AROUND EXETER also loaned the scribe Exmoor Village, a distillation of what observers had recorded when they stayed in Luccombe towards the end of the war. … Continue reading →

June, 2018 A reason, if one were needed, to visit Oswestry, the headquarters of the former Cambrian Railways, was provided by the railway’s motor trolley having been stationed there when new from the Wickham factory in 1949. Two more reasons … Continue reading →

In his capacity as the railway’s Procurement Officer, the scout once went to view park and garden machinery being sold off by Torbay Borough Council from its yard in Westhill Avenue. This turned out to be the former tram depot, … Continue reading →

More on turnpikes There are six turnings leading to South Zeal off the old A30, the first and last marking the extent of the turnpike bypass of the village. This is a road along which the scout has driven the … Continue reading →

The railway’s friend, Richard Holladay, kindly sent some photographs that he had taken from the window of an Exe Valley train when he was a lad, which must have been not long before the service was withdrawn, in October, 1963. … Continue reading →

Viewing the new £40-million D.M.U. maintenance depot nearing completion at St. David’s brought back memories of Newton Abbot’s diesel depot, the ruins of which the scout scavenged. From the general purpose to the monofunctional The new work occupies the sites … Continue reading →

When the utilicon worked to Holsworthy in November, the opportunity was taken to stop at some places on the Bude Branch (covered in Item 31 on the C.R.S. pages) and the scout resolved then to return to Halwill Junction in … Continue reading →