Miscellaneous Southern Artefacts
| The buffer stop is a lowly piece of railway equipment, but no less important than other, more exotic, items. Its basic function is, after all, to try to prevent vehicles running off the end of a line. The success or otherwise of this aim all depends on how hard they are hit! |
 |
This interesting and most unusual example was to be found at Watergate
Halt (originally Watergate Siding) on the grandly named North Devon and
Cornwall Junction Railway between Halwill and Torrington. There was a small
halt here, long enough for one coach, situated to the left, just out of this
photograph, and this single siding which was used by the occasional wagon for a
local farmer. Installed when the line was built by Colonel Stephens in 1925,
the siding and its buffer stop were removed shortly after it was closed to
public traffic on 2 May 1960.
photograph by Stephen Hughes, courtesy of Terry Heeley |
All photographs are copyright
return to the Southern Artefacts menu
return to picture gallery page
This page was created 5 March 2004
