Petrockstow railway station

Petrockstow railway station [2] 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.

Petrockstow
Site of old station, now start of Tarka Trail [1]
Location
PlaceOne mile outside Petrockstowe village
AreaTorridge
Grid referenceSS516106
Operations
Original companyNorth Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway
Post-grouping
PlatformsTwo
History
1925Opened for passenger trains
1 March 1965Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

The railway was originally built as a narrow-gauge freight line to carry ball clay to Torrington from the Marland and Meeth clay pits.[3] The Torrington and Marland Railway then became the basis of the northern section of the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway, which opened in 1925 and remained a private line until finally becoming part of the Southern Region of British Railways in 1948.[4]

A victim of Beeching, the line closed to passengers in 1965[5] but it remained open for freight trains from the Meeth quarries which passed into the rail network through Barnstaple and Torrington until 1982.[6]

In 2014 a small group of local railway enthusiast began clearance work at the Station, clearing the platforms and vegetation. It is hoped to partly restore the Station, in conjunction with the owners, Devon County Council.

References
  1. The spelling now follows that of the village (Devon County Council)- see also Langston.
  2. As spelt by Col Stevens original timetable
  3. Petrockstowe Station railway premises in Backtrack magazine (Vol 19 p649) Farmer,R November 2005
  4. Branch Lines to Torrington Mitchell,V/Smith,K: Midhurst, Middleton Press,1994 ISBN 1-873793-37-5
  5. "Discovering Britain's lost railways" Atterbury,P: Basingstoke, AA Publishing ISBN 978-0-7495-6370-7
  6. Freight details
Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Dunsbear Halt
Line and station closed		   Southern Railway
North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway		   Meeth Halt
Line and station closed


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.