CPRE Call For Reopening Of The Teign Valley Railway

[whole diary]

[FlyingDutchman]

I might be wrong; I am sure in dartmouth there is a plaque of a prosped plan rail route which went though Holden Hill, which joined the main line at South Brent

[danregs]

Was there a report in the local press recently about some chap in the area who is fighting a proposal to block up one of the tunnels on this line with a million tons of concrete,or was that somewhere else? About 2 months ago,i think.

I didn't see the report in the paper, but the chap you speak of is probably Colin Burges, creator of teignrail.co.uk

I've been down to Christow station to chat to Colin, and what he had to say was very interesting indeed!

I actually live in Alphington where the line used to run through and then out of Exeter on towards Ide. I've spent the last 6 months collecting as much info as possible on the line, trauling the internet, reading books, visiting the remains of the infrastructure along the line, taking photos and documenting it. It's such a beautiful route and it would be fantastic to see it up and running again!

[Lee]

Welcome to the forum, danregs

[danregs]

Welcome to the forum, danregs

Thanks!

[woody]

For those interested the 1935/36 Great Western Railway plans for a new route from Exminster to Newton Abbot bypassing Teignmouth and Dawlish are held at the Devon Record Office Archives at Sowton in Exeter under the following references.
Unfortunately the 2nd World War stopped these schemes progressing.
 
                     

                         Great Western Railway (Additional Powers)  QS/DP/860  1935
Contents:
1) Railway No 1 (Newton Abbot and Dawlish): via parishes of Kingsteignton, Bishopsteignton, Urban Districts of Teignmouth and Dawlish; length 8 ^ miles; commencing and terminating at junctions with South Devon Railway.
2)Bridge, River Diversions and Lands at Exeter: parish of Upton Pyne and Borough of Exeter.

Included are sections of intended works and published map showing 1).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plans (pen, ink) and book of reference
 
                                         Great Western Railway.  QS/DP/868 1936                                     
Contents:
1) Railway No 2. (Dawlish and Exminster): via Urban District of Dawlish, parishes of Mamhead, Kenton, Powderham, Exminster; length 7^ miles; commencing at junction with railway No 1 (see QS/DP/860), terminating at junction with South Devon Railway; includes sections of railway and road diversions en route.
2) Lands at Totnes (and at Denham in County of Buckingham).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plan (pen, ink) and book of reference
These documents are held at Devon Record Office


   The Great Western Railway had also surveyed a new route onward from Newton Abbot bypassing Totnes as well as Dainton and Rattery Banks and re-joining the existing railway near Marley Tunnel to be engineered to a minimum 1 mile radius curvature for high speed.
  How times have changed

[FlyingDutchman]

Thanks very interesting article

Guy

[danregs]

How much longer is it going to be before people realise the Teign Valley line needs to be reopened?!...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8555272.stm

[devon_metro]

I have only just dropped a complaint into the post box relating this issue. It's not an issue with the sea wall, it's simply a terrible design of train.

[Deltic]

Perhaps Cross Country's fleet of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train), which seem to be presently surplus to requirements, could be moved to Exeter / Plymouth / Penzance to provide their services in the event of non-Voyager friendly weather affecting the line along the sea wall?

[The Grecian]

This forum actually has some pictures of Perridge Tunnel on the TVR, which suffered a roof collapse in the 1980s and is 829 yards long:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=39664

You can clearly see the tunnel was built for a single line only. Whilst I agree there needs to be a long-term alternative to the sea wall route, I can't see how a winding single track branch line with 2 single line tunnels is going to improve services beyond Exeter.

A photo of the blockage is a few posts down. There's also a photo of Culver Tunnel, 261 yards, which is in somewhat better condition.