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 The Tivvy Bumper Revisited 7 December 2003

Jon Tooke reports...

After watching the packed Santa train depart from Platform Two at BL headed by no no 7820 and tailed by 33048, the punters for the "Pastie Puffer" made their way to Platform One in readiness for the departure of no 5542 and autocoach no 178 for the trip along the entire length of the WSR. With pairing of loco and autocoach, this train recreated the type of service that was used on the Exe Valley line in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The loco was manned by Ray Lee and Richard Jones, with Trevor Barnett in charge of the controls in the autocoach. With Jon Tooke as the guard, ably assisted by Steve Huddy.

With most of the seats taken, the train set off to Norton Junction for the first part of the trip. En route, a raffle was held and lucky winners were given a short footplate ride between stations. Other on-train raffles were held for other prizes during the journey.

From Norton it was back to Lydeard then onto the normal length of the WSR, first stop was Crowcombe Heathfield, which saw many of the pax making good use of the facilities because there were none on the autocoach itself! At Crowcombe Heathfield we crossed the Santa train which was laying over in the 'up' platform whilst Santa entertained the younger visitors.

Onwards to Williton where a well received pastie and warm drink were taken by the passengers, those who had the time also photographed the autotrain from every possible angle! In the yard at Williton, D7018 was spotted on the new concrete apron awaiting attention from the DEPG members.

The next station stop was Blue Anchor, and more photos were taken, and after a short break it was non stop to Minehead which saw the train arrive only a few minutes down on its booked time. Here, the passengers had about an hour to shop, visit the local hostelries, take the sea air, and take even more pix!

14.00 hours saw a right time departure from Minehead with the first booked stop being Blue Anchor. We were booked to wait here for 15 minutes so that the lunchtime Quantock Belle train could cross us. The Quantock Belle seemed very packed but due to the extreme coldness outside, all the windows inside were steamed up on it! Many more pix were taken here by the passengers from the autotrain.

Next stop was Washford. Here a couple of 'run pasts' were arranged, and with photographers along the length of the platform, the autotrain firstly set off back towards Blue Anchor, and after a short pause ran non stop through the station towards Watchet. Then the train repeated the operation in the opposite direction. Those who didn't wish to partake in the photographing nipped to the Washford Inn to partake in something else!

At Doniford, the train posed for the photographers once again, depicting a country service at a country wayside halt.

After a quick exchange of tokens at Williton, Stogumber was passed with Crowcombe Heathfield being the next booked stop while we waited for the last Santa train of the day. Coffee was again served by John Wood, which was gratefully received to combat the cold by all the travellers.

All too soon, we arrived back at Bishops Lydeard, where all the passengers said they'd had a thoroughly good day out and they look forward to the next 'jolly' on the autotrain.

Many thanks must go to John Wood and his team for all their hard work and organising the event.