Dartmouth Steam Railway

A British Rail Class 103 at Kingswear in 1972

The line was built by the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway, opening to Brixham Road station on 14 March 1861 and on to Kingswear on 10 August 1864.[3] The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway was always operated by the South Devon Railway and was amalgamated with it on 1 January 1872. This was only short-lived as the South Devon Railway was in turn amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 February 1876. Brixham Road became a junction and was renamed "Churston" on 1 January 1868 when the independent Torbay and Brixham Railway opened its short line.[4] There were level crossings at Sands Road, Paignton, Tanners Road, Goodrington and on the approach to the Dartmouth Higher Ferry.

A new halt, less than one coach long, was opened on 18 October 1877 at the level crossing leading to the Dartmouth Higher Ferry, named Kingswear Crossing Halt, or later, Britannia Halt, for the Prince of Wales to bring his sons to enter the naval college based on HMS Britannia, which was moored close by on the river.[5] In later years, the halt was used mainly by workers travelling to the Philip and Sons shipyard at Noss. In Heritage Railway times, the cost of maintenance could not be justified, and it was demolished.

The line was single-track except for a crossing loop at Churston. It had been built using the 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge, but on 21 May 1892 was converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. There were masonry viaducts at Broadsands, Hookhills and Greenway. South of Greenway Tunnel the railway was originally carried across two creeks on low timber viaducts, that at Longwood being 200 yards (183 m) long and Noss being 170 yards (155 m). These were demolished after the line was moved inland around the creeks on 20 May 1923. This also allowed the expansion of the Philip and Son shipyard between the creeks, to which a siding was opened in 1929. Authorisation was given by the GWR board to double the line from Greenway Viaduct to Britannia Halt, and the deviation was built to double track width, but the doubling was never undertaken. There was a further timber viaduct at Waterhead Creek, Kingswear, which was replaced by a double track concrete and steel viaduct in 1928, after which the heaviest locomotives could be used on the whole line. A turntable and an engine shed were provided at Kingswear. The shed was demolished in 1929, when the platform was extended to its present length of 850 ft (260 m).[6]

A station was opened at Goodrington Sands, south of Paignton, on 9 July 1928. Approval was also given for a second halt at Broadsands, and there has been considerable debate as to whether it was actually built. C.R. Potts seems to have settled this with new evidence to show that it was not built.[7] Park Sidings opened alongside Paignton Station in 1930 to give more room to stable carriages. A goods depot opened south of the station the following year, and the running line was doubled as far as Goodrington Sands.[3]

The Great Western Railway was nationalised into British Railways on 1 January 1948. Further carriage sidings to handle the heavy traffic on summer Saturdays were opened at Goodrington in 1956, when the road bridge on Tanners Road, started before the Second World War, was completed and the level crossing abolished. A turntable was brought into use there in the following year.

The Reshaping of British Railways report (the "Beeching Report") was published by the British Railways Board in 1963. It included the results of a survey which listed stations in three categories by annual income: Red (up to £5000); Blue (£5000 to £25000); and Green: (over £25000). Paignton was in the Green category, with Goodrington Sands, Churston, Kingswear and Dartmouth stations all in the Blue category. Brixham was in the Red category. As a result, the line was not proposed for closure, although it was shown as being subject to "modification".

Except in peak season, most train services from 18 April 1966 operated as a shuttle service from Paignton; Sunday trains were withdrawn from 24 September 1967, although some were run during the summer of the following year. The Brixham branch closed on 13 May 1963 and the crossing loop at Churston was closed on 20 October 1968.[8]

Regular steam locomotive GWR 2-8-0T Class 42xx No. 4277 'Hercules' runs round the train at Kingswear

In 1968 it was formally proposed to the Ministry of Transport that the line from Paignton should be closed entirely, with costs given as £54,500 and income as £17,100 exclusive of income from arriving passengers. However, a letter from the Divisional Manager at Bristol to the Regional Headquarters at Paddington on 11 December 1968 gave the contributory revenue as £54,000, so showing a profit of £16,600.[9] The Transport Users Consultative Committee approved the closure subject to suitable replacement bus services being available, but the closure was not proceeded with at that point. During 1971/2, talks were conducted between British Rail Western Region and Dart Valley Light Railway Ltd. about the possibility of a sale from the former to the latter. BR gave the losses as £47,000, although there was still no allowance for contributory revenue. The line was officially closed on 28 October 1972, but BR ran a diesel multiple unit service on behalf of DVLR, subsidised by Devon County Council.

On 30 December 1972, the line was sold to the Dart Valley Light Railway Ltd, which at that time operated the nearby heritage railway that subsequently became the South Devon Railway. A winter service was operated from 1 January 1973, principally for the children at Churston Grammar School. There were two early morning services and two afternoon services. These were soon supplemented by a midday service each way, as the locomotive and stock were otherwise unemployed, but from the end of that summer it became a purely seasonal operation. The purchase price of the railway was £250,000 and a further £25,000 was paid for signalling alterations at Paignton. Most of this was recouped from the sale of surplus land, mainly at Goodrington, which was subsequently developed as flats, and at Kingswear, which became a marina. The Royal Dart Hotel at Kingswear was sold later.[10] British Rail retained ownership of the line from south of Queen's Park station to a point adjacent to the end of the sidings at Goodrington, including the station, which was operated under a running powers agreement, and which was acquired by the DVR Company in 2000.[11] A short section at and just south of the Sands Road level crossing at Paignton remains the property of Network Rail.

An independent station alongside the main station at Paignton, known as "Queens Park", was opened to serve the Kingswear trains on the site of the old Park Sidings. The line was initially marketed as the "Torbay Steam Railway",[3] but this was changed to the "Torbay and Dartmouth Railway", then to the "Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway" and then to the "Dartmouth Steam Railway", part of the overall "Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company" title. It remains the property of The Dart Valley Railway Limited (the "Light" having been dropped in 1999,and ceasing to be a plc in 2018).

The summer service in 1973 featured the locomotive LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman on four days per week, newly returned from its financially disastrous sojourn in the United States. Trains commenced at 07:28 from Paignton, and the last returned at 22:03 at the height of the season. In 1974 the service was reduced to six trains each way. 1974 was a bad year for the company financially and further retrenchment to four trains each way, together with an appeal for volunteer workers, was needed in 1975. After this, some summer trains had to be lengthened to ten or more coaches, and the passing loop at Churston was reinstated.

The loop was reinstated at Churston in 1979 using colour-light signals, controlled by a new signal box on the original site, and made possible an hourly service in the peak season. On Saturdays, there were many passengers for holiday camps in the Brixham area, and three trains were run between Paignton and Churston only. In 1981 the turntable from the British Rail sidings at Goodrington was moved to Churston, to the north of the station, aligned on the old Brixham branch. In 1991 the control of all signalling was moved to a new panel at Britannia Crossing near Kingswear. A locomotive workshop was opened at Churston in 1993 and a carriage shop opened there three years later. A new level crossing just to the north of Kingswear to serve the Darthaven Marina, controlled from the Britannia signal box with the aid of closed-circuit television, was opened on 24 January 1993.[12]

In 2007 the passing loop at Goodrington Sands was reinstated, along with the carriage sidings to give more space for storing rolling stock. In 2011 new offices for the railway and boats were opened at Kingswear in the style of a large GWR-style signal box. The following year saw the Dartmouth Steam Railway's station at Paignton rebuilt in GWR style, and a new unstaffed station opened at Greenway Halt to serve Agatha Christie's Greenway Estate. This is a request stop. Goodrington Sands became a request stop for the winter timetable only in 2016, but remains a compulsory stop at other times.