March Meeting. The Atmospheric Railway and Railway Carriage Camping

Our March meeting - The Atmospheric Railway Pumping HouseTop of FormBottom of Form

Val Forrester started her talk by paying tribute to her late husband Richard Forrester. It was Richard, the keen industrial historian, who saved our Brunel Pumping House. He’d always been an innovator, for example, he built an autogyro in the roof of their first flat and made a flymo type lawnmower in a dustbin lid. When they first visited the Pumping House, he took Val into the cavernous room that once held the massive steam-driven pump. The floor was covered with a deep layer of… guano; from all the pigeons.

“Would you like to live here?”

 She agreed, because she really liked old buildings and, if Dick said he could replicate the atmospheric railway system, she knew he could. But unlike the Victorian William Gibbs, (the son of an Exeter surgeon, who made his fortune from the import of guano from the Pacific), Dick Forrester didn’t make a fortune from the guano floor-cover.

He converted the top of the tower into a flat, which included the promised, very beautiful kitchen. Valerie  and Dick moved in with their two sons. Valerie described the problems of simply going in and out of the flat, let alone bringing home the weekly family shop; when the only access was  - up a ladder! The family managed like this for some time until Dick built the staircase.

Dick’s clever design, for his ride-on model of an atmospheric  railway, used ordinary household vacuum cleaners to create a vacuum in a pipe. The pipe ran from one end of the building to the other. His flat-bed truck ‘train’ was propelled along by atmospheric pressure. Visitors were keen to ride the train for the whole length of the building. That exciting working model is remembered fondly by the thousands of visitors to the Forresters’ Atmospheric Railway Museum in the Brunel Pumping House.

In response to the many visitors who enquired where they might get a cup of tea, the Forresters opened a café in the tower, and served cream teas. Valerie concluded, “ I like to think that we brought something more to Starcross; that we made it worth a visit”.

Campaign to save Railway Carriage Camping at Dawlish Warren

Keen railway historian Adrian Wood kindly led the discussion. The site will close after August. The Great Western Railway Staff Association have managed to continue to operate the camping carriages for 23 years after the privatisation of the railways. All but one of the carriages now needs replacing. Could the trend for holidays in the UK in quirky accommodation and glamping be exploited;? Perhaps one of the local holiday camps might wish to add railway carriage camping to their site? Or perhaps they might purchase the original site to provide another aspect to their existing campsite? Rail Holiday in Cornwall  provide holidays in specialised glammed-up railway carriages. They  wish us well with our campaign, and have offered their advice when we need it.

Historic England have explained that portable railway carriages are not within their remit, so they had to refuse my application to list the site. (although they are keen to help if they can) This rules out Heritage Lottery and other similar funding. Historic England advised me to contact our district council. Teignbridge Planning referred

 me to their local plan, which will be the consideration for any change of use. https://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/planteignbridge  Maureen Pearce is their Team Leader, Design and Heritage. She tells me of a precedent for a listed railway carriage; in Shirwell, North Devon. This carriage, built for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897, is now a skittle alley. Here’s the online link  http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-98228-skittle-alley-30-metres-south-east-of-you#.VuvqNNDFBVc