The Falmouth branch buyout

[thecanadianrail]

Just after the second world war many industries and businesses took a hit on how well they were doing due to the lack of demand from the war effort, and the whole Falmouth branch line in UK was not immune to this. The line was put up for sale shortly after the war. Meet Andy Tedson (fictional name, no clue if it's a real person), a bomber crew member from the USAAF (US army air force). He, like many was stationed in the UK for the war and again like many met someone while in service which they made a family with. Not all went back home as in the case of Andy, he decided to stay in the UK to build his family with his new wife. Andy always had a passion for the railway and when he heard news of the Falmouth branch going up for sale he wasted no time gathering money to buy the line in hopes of building on a dream. After a very large bank loan later he soon acquired the line. Now being American he preferred the locos and rolling stock from back home which generally were much larger and hauled more tonnage which is what he really liked. So Andy decided that's what his line would run, US built engines and stock. Now shipping of these items were not going to be cheap and new rolling stock would be way out of his price range. So it was decided that everything would be bought used and he would need to convince an investor or two to help out with the acquisition of these items. Two engines were acquired for relatively cheap, an old 0-2-0 tank engine from a logging railway out of Virginia which would be perfect for working the docks and small jobs around the new yard, and a 2-8-0 consolidation acquired from the AT&N for everything else. The AT&N engine was in excellent shape and wouldn't need to be repainted out of the old livery because he decided to name his railway the Andy Tedson & North railway. All the old rolling stock was acquired from the NP but were in bad shape. Among the purchased were several boxcars ranging in sizes, a few tank cars, a pair of flatcars, 4 gondolas, a set of coal hoppers, a pair of passenger cars, and a single old warn down caboose.

The line was in bad condition and needed some repair to become operational, these would have to be done asap in order to do any revenue services. Along with those repairs some adjustments had to be done to the line in order to accommodate the new rolling stock such as trim back some of the platforms.


You will be able to follow my progress on this almost like a story and watch things change over time, kind of inspired by what "the angry Welshman" has done on his YouTube channel. I will have some pictures up sometime during or after a weekend once I get settled in at my new temporary home for work... In a camp back in the middle of the bush lol... Hopefully there is cell service and Internet! (otherwise it will have to be when I come into town the odd days)