Seaton Branch Line, Devon

This is something I've been pursuing over the last 18 months or so, a bit of an explore every so often and gathering old pics and info as and when. I finally completed the last bit yesterday. A big thanks to Hydealfred for identifying some of my pics and giving me some background information about East Devon branch lines.

All photos apart from my own, are the copyright of, and posted by courtesy of Mary Byrne-Jones. Please do not copy for publishing purposes.

The Seaton to Seaton Junction branch line was built in 1868 by the Seaton & Beer Railway Co, and subsequently taken over by the London & South Railway in 1885. Closed as part of the 'Beeching cuts' in March 1966.The trackway which runs between Colyton and Seaton now houses the Seaton Tramway.



A view of the line as it was. Further along, towards the right can be seen piles of stone from Beer Quarry beneath the crane. Below is a pic of the stone being loaded, circa 1895.



Seaton Station.

After it was demolished, the site was used by Racal Electronics until that too was demolished in 2008.

Old pictures of the Station.





At the end of the road running alongside the erstwhile factory, is what I believe to be the entrance for the cartloads of stone which came from Beer. The gate looks as if it may have been original, as it is quite similar to the old style crossing gates. It was used at the entrance of the Racal car park.



Further along are the workshops for Seaton Tramway the rails of which now run on the track bed of the branch line.



Original posts demarcating the edge of the track bed. Gradual silting of the estuary has meant higher mud and water, and many posts are partly submerged.



Below is a Plate Layer's Hut, several of which were situated along the original railway line. Thanks to Hydealfred for identifying it. The dinosaur isn't original, btw.



Colyford Station.



The Station buildings no longer exist, but the stop is used by the tramway, and something rather unusual does remain...the original station urinal. Although no longer in use.



Colyton Station.



Originally the goods yard.



The station house still remains and is now used by the Tramway as part of it's tourist attraction.

Lovely old station lamps.





A short distance along the line (no longer in existence) there was a bridge over the lane approaching the station. Across that lane, and leading to what was once the other side of the bridge, is this rather funky old gate.



Bridge Supports.





And a parallel road with another dismantled bridge.



Hydealfred told me that the letters and numbers are a way of identifying the bridge for maintenance purposes. We don't know what the letters signify, but I'm guessing that they stand for London Exeter and Seaton Exeter Branch.



At the top of the second bridge is where remains of the track finishes. The view is looking towards the end of the branch line where it connects with Seaton Junction.



Seaton Junction.

The pics below were taken yesterday. My original report of two years ago can be found here.

[ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=7225[/ame]














The building next to the station was originally the depot and canteen for Express Dairies. The pic below was taken circa 1948, showing the fleet of milk lorries.



And as it is today.





Thanks for looking and hope that you enjoyed it. Cheers, Foxy.

The 2nd Seaton junction pic is wonderful FL, something about the colours and the way the whole frame is used. Also really like the concrete footbridge. Nice explore, thanks.

What a great report, thanks for that.

Nice one Foxylady, I do like the quality of your prints missus. I have visted this place myself a few years back, the tramway is good fun.

fascinating report foxy - thanks

that is a great report, well done u for all the hard work

Ta muchly for all your nice comments guys.

Wonderful report Foxy I'm especially liking the stone yard shot.As you probably know it was a branch of the Pictor family from Corsham who developed the Beer quarries and looking at the pic on the left you can see a chap sawing a block of stone with a frig bob saw a Wiltshire designed implement.

oldscrote said:

...I'm especially liking the stone yard shot.As you probably know it was a branch of the Pictor family from Corsham who developed the Beer quarries and looking at the pic on the left you can see a chap sawing a block of stone with a frig bob saw a Wiltshire designed implement.

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Yes, I believe that some of the graffiti in the Beer Quarry Caves was written by workers that came to Devon with the Pictors, IIRC. I didn't know that the saw was developed in Wiltshire, though...interesting stuff. The more I look into local history, the more amazing the connections are and how the various sections of the community developed and relied upon one another.
Cheers Oldscrote.

Some really nice pictures here. I do like the old rails still being on the soil. Great ! Is the tramway still in use ?

Labb said:

Is the tramway still in use ?

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Thanks Labb. Yes, the tram's a great tourist attraction. I took some of my pics from the top of an open one...a lovely journey. The dinosaur picture on the old plate layer's hut is part of a 'spot the dinosaurs' competition for kids who ride the tram.

What a great report FL - like the old pics as they set the scene nicely.

As you are aware, the Seaton Junction end of this branch was a regular haunt for me in childhood, once I could ride a bike.

As you mention, back in the early 60’s the building with the pull-up doors facing the road was an Express Dairies Creamery which prepared milk from the surrounding farms to be delivered by train to central London for [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_Dairies"]Premier Supermarkets[/ame].

Also, I can remember visits to the Express Dairy Creamery with my father during the Bad Winters of 1963. He had the arduous task of driving a tractor and link box (the same one as in my Avatar!) around the local farms where the milk lorry couldn’t get to and take the load directly to the depot for transfer to London via train (the things we did to keep London in good health ;-). Inside the depot there was a very large area through the doors for Lorries to manoeuvre before they unloaded their milk churns off the back and immediately tip them up into the milk collecting system before depositing the churn and its lid into the steriliser cabinet at the end of the churn conveyer. I can remember at the time I went there it was a very noisy and busy place to be, so I stayed on the tractor until my father had finished unloading. There was also a very strong smell of fresh milk as it was being poured off around a number of lorries at the same time. I recall that we were the odd ones out coming in with a link box and tractor. Plus it required an extra effort to get the full churns off the link box and onto the platform which was for the height of the lorry, although he did receive help from members of staff at the depot to get the churn up the steep link box and onto the final platform. I remember distinctly that this was an alien environment to me as I was used to a quieter life back on the farm.

The creamery closed before the end of the sixties with the depot and staff transitioning to the Honiton depot (school friends from this area also went with their parents). I’m therefore not sure if this kit is still present inside the building, especially as it appears to have been taken over by another firm. The move occurred before farms were using milk tankers and before the milk churns were made of aluminium and therefore much lighter when empty. A full 10 gallon churn weighed about 1 cwt which was way beyond my capabilities to lift until I got older.

The footbridge


As for the footbridge which provides access to a footpath beyond the station, I can remember spending hours on this footbridge which traversed over the entire site. My cousin and I would haul ourselves up onto our elbows on the hard, gravel like, concrete walls to stare down at the express train thundering down Honiton Bank and wait until the last minute before crouching down below the level of the wall to avoid getting a mouthful of soot and steam. Although, as I recall, this didn’t help much as the engine’s speed meant that the mixture of soot and steam would swirl all around us and, if you hadn’t taken a deep breath before you dived for cover, you were in trouble! Ah, the things we did for excitement at that age!

Take note in the second picture of this article by Kent Rail enthusiasts (yes, I know that the county of Kent is a long way away from this location - although I saw Wiltshire saws also mentioned in a previous entry). This shows “A south easterly view shows, in the foreground, the concrete of the branch line platform surface.” It would be interesting to see what this view looks like now (I expect it will be overgrown – it appears to be from the Google Maps overhead shot). We used to access the footbridge from this side as we would leave our bikes in Lexhayne Lane which goes under the tracks just beyond the station in the Honiton direction.

Excellent report Foxy. The overbridge would have been another product of the Exmouth Junction Concrete Works. Shot 4 is superb from a historical point of view. Diesel multiple units were used as way of trying to keep the branches open as they were less labour intensive than stean engines. Alas it was all in vain when Beeching appeared on the scene. Many of the lines closed would have been very useful today in relieving road conjestion to popular holiday locations. Just look at the success of the St Ives branch in Cornwall. Such short sightedness in the 60's lead to wholesale destruction of our railways. I am a huge fan of old railways especially the ones in the West Country so thanks again Foxy.

Excellent report, history and pics Foxy. Love that Urinal, glad to see it's still there, even not in use, looks great.

Cheers,

Sal

devonian42 said:

...This shows “A south easterly view shows, in the foreground, the concrete of the branch line platform surface.” It would be interesting to see what this view looks like now (I expect it will be overgrown – it appears to be from the Google Maps overhead shot)...

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Yes, it was extensively overgrown when I first visited two years ago, including a young plantation of trees, which effectively blocks off any sight of the public path and nothing at all of any hard standing. I did take some pics from the road bridge a bit further down the line on Tuesday, from where can be seen the opposite platform quite clearly. I haven't finished that film, though, but I'll add them once they're processed. I was also going to take some from the footbridge, and also get a view towards Colyton, but unfortunately I was only part-way across the bridge when I had a full-blown acrophobic terror attack and had to go back. There are photos of that in my original report of Seaton Junction, though.

Thankyou very much for your interesting comments and links, Devonian. It really rounds out the sense of place, as well as adding to the info. Cheers.

hydealfred said:

The overbridge would have been another product of the Exmouth Junction Concrete Works.

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Thanks very much for the info about that, Alf. I was reading a bit more about it in the library yesterday (along with a stack of other research on other sites, lol). Onto the next branch line railway project now!

I've seen the Pictor and Somerset graffiti in Beer quarries on a clandestine visit there over 25 years ago.Was talking to one old boy there who told us the tunnels went through the hill and came out on the cliffs the other side.Your comments please.I have used a frig bob for real in my days as a stone mason and a lovely tool it is.!00 years old 3 points to the inch sett to cut both ways and beautiful steel.Try this link to a site built by a mate of mine,there's more frig bobs than you can shake the proverbial stick at.

http://www.choghole.co.uk/PHOTOGRAPHSOLD.htm

oldscrote said:

I've seen the Pictor and Somerset graffiti in Beer quarries on a clandestine visit there over 25 years ago.Was talking to one old boy there who told us the tunnels went through the hill and came out on the cliffs the other side.Your comments please.

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Oddly enough, just yesterday I found an old book in the local library all about the smuggling days (published 1956), and the cliff entrance was actually there and sometimes used by the smugglers. This also corroborates a story told by the quarry tour guides, that parts of the quarry itself was also used for storing contraband until it could be safely moved on.
One of the guides is also the owner, and he is a descendant of the Excise Revenue Men. The village was very much divided re this activity, as many people helped and benefitted by the smuggling activities. And they still don't forget it, as apparently whenever he pops into the local of an evening, the older men with long memories greet him with the words "Evening, Revenue".

oldscrote said:

I have used a frig bob for real in my days as a stone mason and a lovely tool it is.!00 years old 3 points to the inch sett to cut both ways and beautiful steel.Try this link to a site built by a mate of mine,there's more frig bobs than you can shake the proverbial stick at.
http://www.choghole.co.uk/PHOTOGRAPHSOLD.htm

Click to expand...

Being a stone mason must have been a fantastic job.
Cheers for the link, Oldscrote...that's a great site. It's interesting to see the various tools as well as the frig bobs, although I feel sorry for the guy who's only holding a plank, lol, unless I'm missing something there. The quarrymen had such a hard working life, but it's nice to see how smiling they are...unusually so for pics taken at that time. Fascinating history.