The South Devon and Tavistock Railway linked Plymouth with Tavistock in Devon; it opened in 1859. It was extended by the Launceston and South Devon Railway to Launceston, in Cornwall in 1865. It was a broad gauge line but from 1876 also carried the standard gauge (then referred to as narrow gauge) trains of the London and South Western Railway between Lydford and Plymouth: a third rail was provided, making a mixed gauge. In 1892 the whole line was converted to standard gauge only.
The line closed to passengers in 1962 although sections at either end were retained for a while to carry freight traffic. A short section has since been reopened as a preserved line by the Plym Valley Railway.
History The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway, a horse-worked line, had been constructed to bring minerals from quarries near Princetown to Plymouth; it opened on 26 September 1823.
The South Devon Railway (SDR) built its line from Exeter to Plymouth, opening to a temporary station at Laira Green on 5 May 1848. It extended to its Plymouth terminus at Millbay on 2 April 1849 for passengers, with goods traffic starting on 1 May 1849. Continuous rail transport from Plymouth to London was now possible.MacDermot, page 227
Promoters in the important towns near the Devon–Cornwall border developed schemes to connect their region to the new railway main line, including an early Launceston and South Devon Railway, but that proposal expired in 1846; there were also competing schemes, including a Plymouth, Tavistock, Okehampton, North Devon and Exeter Railway for a line connecting with the London and South Western Railway.
It was the South Devon and Tavistock Railway which obtained its act of Parliament, the (17 & 18 Vict. c. clxxxix), on 24 July 1854, authorising construction of a line from Tavistock to a junction with the South Devon Railway east of Plymouth; the track gauge was to be the broad gauge, , and authorised capital was £160,000 with borrowing powers of £53,600.
As well as serving the connected communities, the line had the strategic purpose of blocking incursion by competing narrow gauge companies, sponsored by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). However, in the final stage of getting the bill passed, it was in the Lords committee stage. Anthony says
There was period of anxiety in May, when it was rumoured that the House of Lords would compel the Company to introduce a clause for the narrow gauge to be adopted over the whole of the line, and even to carry it into Plymouth.
The Lords did not, in fact, insist on the narrow gauge being laid throughout, but at the last moment, when the Bill came before Lord Reedsdale, he, without receiving any evidence upon the subject, and "by the immense authority he possessed in such matters", forced into the Bill a clause, that should a narrow gauge line ever connect itself with the Tavistock branch the Company would be obliged to admit the narrow gauge upon their system.Anthony, pages 27 and 28
The Crimean War was in progress at the time, and the start of construction was delayed until September 1856. The chief engineer, A. H. Bampton, died a few months after the start of work, and the services of Isambard Kingdom Brunel were called in. The works were heavy, with three tunnels and six timber viaducts on stone piers.
The line was opened to passenger traffic on 22 June 1859, and for goods on 1 February 1860; it was worked by the South Devon Railway (SDR); trains from Tavistock joined the SDR main line at Tavistock Junction and ran to their Plymouth terminus at Millbay, a distance of 3½ miles.Distance taken from
Extension to Launceston
The (25 & 26 Vict. c. cxi) empowered an independent company to extend the broad gauge line from Tavistock on to Launceston. In contrast to the South Devon and Tavistock line, there were no engineering works of any difficulty, and the line opened to passengers on 1 June 1865, and for goods in October 1865. The Launceston line too was worked by the SDR from the outset.
The South Devon and Tavistock Railway merged with the South Devon Railway (SDR) on 1 July 1865 under the South Devon Railway Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. cclv). The Launceston company was absorbed into the SDR on 31 December 1873 under powers in the Launceston and South Devon Railway Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. xli). The South Devon Railway, in turn, amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the Bristol and Exeter Railway on 1 February 1876. The combined company was called the Great Western Railway.
Connecting lines LSWR to Lidford
Meanwhile, the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) had been extending its westward route from Exeter, and with the intention of reaching Plymouth it encouraged a nominally local company, the Devon and Cornwall Railway (D&CR), to obtain powers to build a line to Lidford (called Lydford from 3 June 1897). The D&CR opened its line to Okehampton on 3 October 1871, and continued construction towards Lidford, opening the line to there on 12 October 1874. The D&CR line was worked by the LSWR.
The station at Lidford was in fact a two-platform terminus, and at first there was no rail connection between the D&CR and the former Launceston and South Devon line (now part of the SDR itself). However under the clause inserted by Lord Reedsdale in the company's acts of Parliament, the South Devon was compelled to lay a third rail to make mixed gauge, so as to carry the LSWR's standard gauge trains over its line to Plymouth (the Millbay terminus and Sutton Harbour).
The D&CR planned to build a new line from Marsh Mills to new stations in Plymouth and Devonport, by-passing the SDR main line, but the SDR managed to block the application by undertaking to enlarge the Millbay station and improve the Sutton Harbour line. In the following parliamentary session the D&CR re-applied for powers to build independent lines at Plymouth, and this led to an agreement to facilitate separate goods accommodation at Plymouth for the D&CR, and to provide a new Plymouth station at North Road.
From 17 May 1876 LSWR trains ran from Exeter to the D&CR Devonport station over the SDR line from Lidford via Tavistock Junction.
Princetown Railway
The upper portion of the old Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway was taken over by the Princetown Railway, which opened a passenger line on 11 August 1883. This was standard gauge and connected with the Tavistock line at Yelverton Siding, but passenger trains on the branch used Horrabridge station as the connecting point until 1 May 1885, when Yelverton passenger station opened.
Trains and rolling stock running from Plymouth to the Princetown line used the standard gauge rail, laid for the LSWR, as far as Horrabridge.
LSWR independent route to Plymouth The LSWR opened its independent lineThe line was constructed by the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway but worked by the LSWR to Plymouth on 31 May 1890, after which its trains no longer used the South Devon line. The new route closely followed the South Devon route from Lydford most of the way to Tavistock, then swinging west to approach Plymouth from the west. The standard gauge north of Yelverton was little used for the next two years, but on 20 May 1892 the entire Launceston to Plymouth line, along with all the other remaining broad gauge lines, was converted to standard gauge.
Another LSWR line reached Launceston on 21 July 1886, offering the town a more direct route to London via Okehampton and Exeter.
After nationalisation Following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, steps were taken to consolidate the railways in the area. The South Devon station at Launceston was closed to passengers on 30 June 1952 and passenger trains used the former LSWR station.
The Princetown branch closed entirely on 3 March 1956.
The last passenger trains were scheduled to run from Launceston to Plymouth via Tavistock on 29 December 1962, the "closure" taking effect from the following Monday, 31 December. In the event heavy snow falls put an end to any celebrations: the 18:20 train from Plymouth reached Tavistock after midnight, and the 19:10 Tavistock to Plymouth was stranded at Bickleigh overnight.
Goods traffic continued to and from Lifton until 1964, serving a dairy there; trains reached Lifton via the LSWR line as far as Lydford. After 1964 Lifton was served by a trip from Launceston; it was finally withdrawn on 28 February 1966.
A new east to north connection to the branch was laid at Tavistock Junction to allow trains of china clay to shunt from the yard there to the china clay works at Marsh Mills.
The line today Much of the old line is now used for the Plym Valley Cycle Path (part of the National Cycle Network route 27), almost as far as Clearbrook.
A section of the line from Marsh Mills to Plym Bridge is operated as a heritage railway known as the Plym Valley Railway.
Locomotives Broad gauge The Great Western Railway Leo class 2-4-0 was tried on the line before opening but found unsuitable.
On opening the South Devon Railway 4-4-0ST Corsair and Brigand were used on passenger traffic. From the opening to Launceston, Giraffe and Castor of the same type were transferred in. Goods traffic was handled by 0-6-0STs Dido and Ajax, followed by Bulkeley.
From 1878 the GWR Hawthorn class engines Melling and Ostrich were in use, followed by several member of the 3541 class of 0-4-2ST, based at Millbay. The last broad gauge train on the line was 4-4-0ST no 2134 Heron.
LSWR engines On the opening of the mixed gauge, the LSWR 318 Metro type 4-4-0 tank engines were used, but they were found to be unsuitable and were replaced by the 0298 class of Beattie Well tanks.
When Drummond's large LSWR M7 class 0-4-4 tank engines were introduced in 1897, several of the class were allocated to work semi-fast passenger services between Exeter and Plymouth. However they were withdrawn from these duties after a high-speed derailment near Tavistock in 1898, following criticism by the Board of Trade inspector about the use of front-coupled locomotives on fast services. As a result, the class was transferred to stopping services, and the London suburban lines.
After gauge conversion Dean type 35XX tank engines were employed on the line, followed by 3521 class rebuilt 4-4-0 tender engines.
When railmotors were introduced on GWR branches, they worked on these lines as far as Tavistock. They were replaced later with class 517 type engines fitted for auto-train working. From the 1920s the 45XX and 44XX type were dominant.
Viaducts The Tavistock section of the line involved traversing difficult terrain, and there were six large viaducts on the route. These, and a bridge, were designed in timber by Brunel. All built in 1859, from south to north they are:
Name Mileage Length Number of spans Longest span Rebuilt Spans in rebuilt structure Cann Viaduct 2 m 15 ch 324 feet 7 62 feet 1907 6 Riverford Viaduct 2 m 65 ch 372 feet 6 65 feet 1893 5 Bickleigh Viaduct 3 m 37½ ch 501 feet 8 65 feet 1893 7 Ham Green Viaduct 4 m 27 ch 570 feet probably 10 65 feet 1899 6 Tavistock Turnpike Road 8 m 71 ch 66 feet 1 66 feet not known 1 Magpie Viaduct 9 m 46 ch 300 feet 6 60 feet 1902 4 Walkham Viaduct 10 m 14 ch 1101 feet 17 66 feet 1910 15
The viaducts were of the type classified as Continuous Laminated Beam. There were three longitudinal beams supporting the deck; these were in turn supported by the fans of four raking timbers springing from stone piers. On reconstruction the viaducts were built as stone arches.
The turnpike bridge was probably a King Through Truss, in which a timber A-frame provides the compression members, with wrought iron tie bars underneath; this design gives the best (least) depth of construction.
Mileages are mile post mileages from Tavistock Junction.Lewis says they are from Plymouth but this is a mistake. However he says that some of the spans given in MacDermot have been found by recent research to be inaccurate.
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