Talk:Haytor Granite Tramway

Templer family
This Haytor Granite Tramway is one interesting entry. I'm intrigued by the Templer family, who were so heavily involved in the enterprise and in the surrounding area at that date. And I'm ignorant of the details behind their various businesses, and of the economics involved. I hope someone will write an entry on George Templer or on the family. They seem most interesting, especially given that they appear to have lost much of their early fortune, moved away, and apparently returned (from what I read here) to have another go at it. Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 22:16, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Illustrations
I tried to add a couple more photographs and something has affected existing ones. Can someone fix this and if they have time, explain what happened. Incidently, I wrote most of this article. Rosser Gruffydd 21:11, 15 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Have a look now. The number part of the filenames had been deleted, so I've restored them according to the 'history'.
 * OK now? (Don't think I can explain what happened though....) -- EdJogg (talk) 22:05, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Some queries
Firstly, many thanks for writing this article. Although not part of the development history, this oddity deserves to be better known.

The article states that at turnouts "the wheels were guided by wooden "point tongues" of oak". Please could you reference that important information as MC Ewans suggests metal and Harris avoids identifying a material. The statement in the article is very explicit so a reference would be welcome. Is "point tongues" jargon used on the Haytor tramway?

I think the analysis of trains of 12 wagons and 18 horses needs caveating. As far as I can see MC Ewans is interpreting two old doggerel verses. The first, Thomas Taverner, relates to the opening day and a drag from Holwell Tor. The branch from Holwell involves an uphill climb for about 1/2 mile before joining the mainline which descends continuously. I venture that a reference to an opening day (special?) event on a short stretch in the quarry area is being inappropriately extrapolated to apply to the whole line.

Similarly, MC Ewans equation of 12 wheels to equate to 12 cars seems very week. Is there any other stone quarry that ran trains of 12 wagons on a plateway? The gradients to Bovey Tracey are very steep to control such a load. In its latter days the Bicslade tramway in the Forest of Dean used 2 4 wheel wagons to support a wooden bed which carried stone. Could close coupled wagons be mistaken as one wagon? That is speculation but I think some caveats are needed.

Is any light available on operational methods? Ewans makes no references to intermediate stables but 10 miles at about 2 mph would suggest some are needed.

Mileposts 3 & 4 are still extant as at September 2010. I failed to see 6. I will try and upload a picture.

Crantock (talk) 22:50, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Encyclopedic Style
There are a number of style issues in this article that make me nervous. The introduction goes round the houses before revealing what was unique here; the plates were "were hewn from irregular blocks of solid granite" [as opposed to what other method of using granite?] We contradict ourselves about whether the point tongues were oak or metal. We repeat the gauge several times.

Under "Construction" we get "The construction is unique, the closest possibly being the Weedon Stoneway". We are mixing up construction as "the act of building the thing" with "the physical design of the track". Unique, or not unique? How similar is Weedon, anyway? Identical? Or what? And does it help the uninformed reader to be told that the Weedon one "was built at great expense as a mail coach route by the Turnpike Commissioners who were in competition with the newly constructed London & Birmingham Railway." And "The only other comparable tramway known to exist was a very short 3 ft gauge limestone line at Conisbrough, near Doncaster." There is a link for Conisbrough and Doncaster, but they just take you to description of those towns. Wikipedia guidelines recommend not putting in links unless the reader is likely to want to follow them up. Most people reading about the Haytor tramway would not need to follow a link to read about the population, industry and culture of Doncaster.

And as for electrification ... yes, there it is in Thomas's book, page 58, but unreferenced. "A 1905 scheme ..." Does that mean that two blokes were in a pub in 1905 and after several flagons of cider, one of them said "We should electrify that there tramway" and the other bloke agreed? I think this needs to be toned down a bit.

And "A small power station ... was used by the potteries until falling into ruins." What potteries?? And the power station was built mainly to power the electric trams? That is just not believable and it discredits the tone of the article. Afterbrunel (talk) 07:07, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Bovey Tracey Potteries
I remember them well - http://www.kalendar.demon.co.uk/pountbovey.htm Rosser Gruffydd 17:05, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

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