You forget the Drummond Greyhounds (T9), real runners with a small load, and worked on the parts of the ACE (Atlantic Coast Express) onto the withered arm when it split up at Exeter until the WC and BB appeared, and some drivers still wanted the T9s. One of my wishes was that back in the day as a child I could have ridden the ACE to Padstow for holiday. I did the run to Ilfracombe when I was 17 but by then the Great Western had taken over. And had a Swanage and Hayling Island at 10 and 12. The Hayling Island branch with its Brighton Terriers was great fun. I got a couple of footplate runs during that holiday.
The withered arm should never have been closed, it should have been made into the main route into Cornwall due to the problems at Dawlish so well illustrated recently with the line closed for 6 months after a storm. But politics from way back at grouping still prevailed and the Great Western made sure Beeching closed it by removing traffic.
Anyway so much for the smell of steam, coal smoke and oil
Thank you for your BMU comments, there is no surprise, it is not NVA specific. Paul Messenger uses his one with a load of Naim stuff and loves it.
