9th Jan 2010

South West Trains Class 159s, nos. 159021 and 159006 head away from me at Cloakham, east of town, at 13.09 on the 12.26 Exeter St. Davids to London Waterloo. Right-hand running you'll notice. There has been plenty of snow these past few weeks and my notes this day remind me that it was minus 2 degrees Celsius! The "dynamic loop" had not long been open, and I was surprised that the concrete blocks either side of the line here had survived. They were part of the War Department's "Stop Line", and should the German invasion have been imminent rails would have been put into the groves of these blocks, spanning the tracks and stopping their military using the railways to move their tanks. At least, for a short while...