2nd December 1983

The winter sun glints on the side of 33108 as it passes Axminster Gates and the Old Brushworks, on the 14.15 Exeter St. Davids to London Waterloo. I can hear the Sulzer engine rasping as it powers away after leaving the station, a sound I was very familiar with at this time, along with the more powerful English Electric throb of the Class 50s. The soundtrack of my life at this time! The former Axminster Gates box, seen to the right, was removed when the line was redoubled at this point, and now resides in a garden near Chard Junction.