North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway

Last updated

Contents

North Devon and Cornwall
Junction Light Railway
BSicon exCONTg.svg
BSicon exBHF.svg
Torrington
BSicon exhKRZWae.svg
BSicon exHST.svg
Watergate Halt
BSicon exHST.svg
Yarde Halt
BSicon exHST.svg
Dunsbear Halt
BSicon exKRWgl.svg
BSicon exKRW+r.svg
BSicon exSTR.svg
BSicon exmBHFe.svg
Marland Works
BSicon exSTR.svg
BSicon uexENDEe.svg
BSicon exHST.svg
Petrockstow
BSicon uexKXBHFa-L.svg
BSicon exXBHF-R.svg
Meeth Works
BSicon uexKDSTe.svg
BSicon exSTR.svg
Wooladon Clay Pits
BSicon exHST.svg
Meeth Halt
BSicon exHST.svg
Hatherleigh
BSicon exHST.svg
Hole
BSicon exCONTgq.svg
BSicon exABZg+r.svg
BSicon exCONTgq.svg
BSicon exABZg+r.svg
BSicon exBHF.svg
Halwill Junction
BSicon exCONTf.svg
Map of the line North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway map.gif
Map of the line

The North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was a railway built to serve numerous ball clay pits that lay in the space between the London and South Western Railway's Torrington branch, an extension of the North Devon Railway group, and Halwill, an important rural junction on the North Cornwall Railway and its Okehampton to Bude Line.

Ball clay was an important mineral but its weight and bulk required efficient transportation; the material had been brought to main line railways by a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge tramway. Expanding volumes prompted conversion to a light railway—requiring less complex engineering and operational procedures than a full railway—and it was opened on 27 July 1925. [1]

Passengers were carried in addition to the mineral traffic, but the business largely consisted of workers at the ball clay pits themselves. (Thomas [1] says, "The largest place on the railway is Hatherleigh ... a market town in the centre of a barren countryside, it is badly decayed".)

The conversion from a tramway was overseen by Colonel Stephens, the famous owner and operator of marginal English and Welsh railways. Although in construction details typically Stephens this was visually a Southern Railway branch line. It survived in independent status until nationalisation of the railways in 1948, and continued in operation until 1 March 1965. The Exmoor Ranger railtour was exceptionally worked through the entire line on 27 March 1965. [2] The northern part from Meeth and Marland, which was reconstructed from the narrow gauge railway, continued to carry ball clay, but not passengers, until August 1982 (Thomas [1] calls the siding "Marsland" on page 77 but this is an error [3] [4] [5] ).

Route

Built as cheaply as possible, and partly following the alignment of the former tramway, the railway had continuous sharp curves and ruling gradients in the range of 1 in 45 to 1 in 50 (2.22 % to 2%)

The stations on the line were: [6]

The line was single throughout, worked by Electric Train Tablet (using Tyer's No 6 instruments), and with a maximum speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) from Torrington to Dunsbear Halt, and 25 mph (40 km/h) from there to Halwill. [5]

The 1964/65 working timetable [4] shows two throughout trains each way daily, taking about 80 minutes by diesel multiple unit for the 20-mile (32 km) journey. There were three freight trains Mondays to Fridays serving the clay sidings from the Torrington end. There were no trains on Sundays.

See also

Related Research Articles

Launceston Steam Railway Narrow gauge railway operating from the town of Launceston, Cornwall

The Launceston Steam Railway is a 1 ft 11 12 in narrow gauge railway, in Cornwall, England. The railway operates from the town of Launceston to Newmills, where there is a farm park; it is 2 12 miles (4.0 km) long. The railway is built on the trackbed of the former standard gauge North Cornwall Railway.

Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway

The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway was a railway line opened in 1834 in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It linked the quays at Wadebridge with the town of Bodmin and also to quarries at Wenfordbridge. Its intended traffic was minerals to the port at Wadebridge and sea sand, used to improve agricultural land, inwards. Passengers were also carried on part of the line.

Tarka Trail

The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of 180 miles (290 km) in a figure-of-eight route, centred on Barnstaple.

The Torrington and Marland Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge built to carry clay from the quarries at Clay Moor to Torrington in north Devon.

The Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was a 7 ft 14 in broad gauge railway which linked the South Devon Railway at Newton Abbot railway station with Bovey (in the town of Bovey Tracey, Lustleigh and Moretonhampstead, Devon, England.

North Devon Railway

The North Devon Railway was a railway company which operated a line from Cowley Bridge Junction, near Exeter, to Bideford in Devon, England, later becoming part of the London and South Western Railway's system. Originally planned as a broad gauge feeder to the Bristol & Exeter Railway, it became part of a battle between the broad gauge group and the standard gauge railway interests. In this context, standard gauge lines were often described as narrow gauge.

North Cornwall Railway

The North Cornwall Railway was a railway line running from Halwill in Devon to Padstow in Cornwall via Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge, a distance of 49 miles 67 chains (80.21 km). Opened in the last decade of the nineteenth century, it was part of a drive by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) to develop holiday traffic to Cornwall. The LSWR had opened a line connecting Exeter with Holsworthy in 1879, and by encouraging the North Cornwall Railway it planned to create railway access to previously inaccessible parts of the northern coastal area.

The Okehampton–Bude line was a railway line built to serve Holsworthy in Devon, and Bude on the Cornish coast near the Devon border in England. The line branched from the main line at Meldon Junction to the west of Okehampton on the northern edge of Dartmoor. The line opened in 1879 to Holsworthy and in 1898 to Bude. It is now closed.

Watergate Halt railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Watergate Halt was an intermediate halt on the initially privately run North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway.

Marland Works railway station

Marlands Works was a busy industrial site for just over a century, firstly on the Torrington and Marland Railway, built to carry bricks and clay on a three-feet gauge, which in turn was subsumed in 1925 by the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway before finally becoming part of the Southern Region of British Railways in 1948. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1965 as part of the Beeching reforms but the line remained open for freight between Barnstaple railway station and Torrington until 1982. Today it forms part of the popular Tarka trail, although an important site for industrial railway historians too. Marland Works station was used by workmen only and was not in public passenger use.

Petrockstowe Human settlement in England

Petrockstowe is a small village and civil parish in the district of Torridge in Northern Devon, England. Its population in 2001 was 379, hardly different from the figure of 385 recorded in 1901. The southern boundary of the parish lies on the River Torridge, and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Peters Marland, Merton, Huish, Meeth, Highampton and Buckland Filleigh.

Petrockstow railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Petrockstow railway station was a station serving the village of Petrockstowe in West Devon, which is about one mile away. The station was, throughout its passenger-carrying life from 1925 to 1965, spelt without the final "e" of the village name.

Torrington railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Torrington railway station was a railway station located in Great Torrington, Devon. It was closed by British Railways in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Meeth Halt railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Opened in 1925, Meeth Halt was a small railway station on the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway, a private line until it became part of the Southern Region of British Railways in 1948. The line was built in part over a narrow gauge line that was used from 1881 to take ball clay from claypits at Marland and Meeth to Torrington, which was until 1925 the terminus of a branch from Barnstaple.

Hatherleigh railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Hatherleigh Railway Station was a station on the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway between Torrington and Halwill Junction, serving the town of Hatherleigh. Hatherleigh was the largest place with a station on the line, though the town was almost two miles away. Like others on this line, the station itself was small but it was a passing place on the mainly single-track railway. The stationmaster at Hatherleigh also looked after the other stations on the line, even those, such as Petrockstow and Hole, that were staffed.

Halwill Junction railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Halwill Junction Railway Station was a railway station in Halwill Junction, near the villages of Halwill and Beaworthy in Devon, England. It opened in 1879 and formed an important junction between the now-closed Bude Branch and North Cornwall line. It closed in 1966 along with the lines which it served, a casualty of the Beeching Report.

Hole railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Hole Railway Station was a small halt on the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway in the U.K. between Torrington and Halwill Junction, serving villages such as Black Torrington, Highampton and Sheepwash. The line, which opened in 1925, was a private line until it became part of the Southern Region of British Railways in 1948. The line closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching proposals, freight services having been withdrawn earlier on this section of the line.

Meeth

Meeth is a small village roughly 13.5 km (8.4 mi) north-northwest of Okehampton and 40.7 km (25.3 mi) west-northwest of Exeter. It lies to the west of the River Torridge. In the past, ball clay mines were a major source of employment in the village, lying just to the west, however these closed in 2004. Their site is now a nature reserve owned by the Devon Wildlife Trust, called Meeth Quarry. The Trust's Ash Moor reserve is also located close to the village.

Merton, Devon

Merton is a village, ecclesiastical parish, former manor and civil parish administered by the local government district of Torridge, Devon, England. The parish, which lies about five miles south east of the town of Great Torrington, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Little Torrington, Beaford, Dolton, Huish, Petrockstowe and Peters Marland. In 2001 its population was 331, down from the 507 residents it had in 1901. The eastern and northern boundaries of the parish follow the loops of the River Torridge and the other sides are defined by the River Mere. The village forms part of the electoral ward of Clinton. The population at the 2011 census was 1,537.

Tarka Valley Railway

The Tarka Valley Railway in Devon, England, is a proposed heritage railway based on plans to rebuild the Barnstaple to Halwill Junction railway line. So far only a short demonstration line has been set up, and planning permission was granted for 300 ft of track in the direction of Bideford. The railway has been fenced off from the Tarka Trail ensuring the safety of all involved. Restoration of various items of railway stock is currently under way.

References

  1. 1 2 3 St John Thomas, David (editor), Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 1 - the West Country; David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 3rd edition 1966)
  2. Six Bells Junction railtour record site, Exmoor Ranger page retrieved from http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/ 12 June 2015.
  3. North Devon Clay; Messenger, Michael; 1982; Twelveheads Press, Truro; ISBN   0-906294-06-1
  4. 1 2 Working Time Table, Section P, Winter 1964/65, British Railways Western Region, Plymouth
  5. 1 2 Sectional Appendix, Western Section; British Railways, Southern Region; Waterloo Station, 1960
  6. Cobb, Col M. H., 2003; The Railways of Great Britain: A Historical Atlas; Ian Allan Publishing Ltd; ISBN   0-7110-3002-2

Further reading