Trusham railway station

Trusham Railway Station was a railway station in the parish of Chudleigh,[2] serving the villages of Trusham and Hennock in Devon, England, on the Teign Valley line between Newton Abbot and Exeter.

Trusham Station
The site of Trusham station
Location	Trusham, Teignbridge England
Coordinates	50.6192°N 3.6290°W
Grid reference	SX8485781220
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Key dates
9 October 1882	Opened[1]
9 June 1958	Closed to passengers[1]
4 December 1967	Closed to goods traffic.

Teign Valley Line
GWML to London Exeter St Thomas GWML to Penzance Alphington Halt Ide Halt Perridge tunnel Longdown Culver tunnel Dunsford Halt Christow Ashton Trusham Chudleigh Chudleigh Knighton Halt to Moretonhampstead Heathfield (Devon) to Newton Abbot

History

Trusham at first only had a single platform on the west side of the line. A goods loop and signal box were added in 1911, this was extended on 8.7.1943 and a short down platform with a concrete waiting shelter was added. Following closure to passengers the loop became a siding and the signal box was downgraded to a ground frame. The loop was reinstated in 1960 and the signal box closed completely in 1961; the goods yard followed on 5.4.1965.[3]

Passenger numbers reached their peak in the 1930s with seven daily services provided each way between Exeter and Heathfield. During World War 2 this was reduced to four trains in each direction, still with no trains on a Sunday. This was increased to five daily trains after the war. The line was sometimes used as a diversionary route if the South Devon main line was unavailable.[4]

Freight

Crockham Quarry at Trusham provided mineral traffic for the line up until the final years, however by the end of WW2 much of this was being transported away by road. By November 1967 the sidings at Crockham were in such poor condition that the permanent way supervisor at Newton Abbot declared that they could no longer be used.[5]

In the winter of 1960 and March 1961 severe flooding of the Teign washed away the track bed beyond Trusham and this was never reinstated The section of line between Trusham and Christow was abandoned and as of 1 May 1961 and the tracks lifted in the summer of 1963.

The present day

The station building is now a private house and the trackbed has been infilled to platform height. The old station master's house also survives as a private dwelling.[6] The old corrugated store shed still survives.

The Teign Valley line may have a role to play in the future, as an alternative to the Devon's main line route along the Dawlish coastline which is vulnerable to stormy seas. The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) put together a feasibility study. Some of the old infrastructure is still in place - six of the 21 miles of track remained in 2009.[7]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Chudleigh		Heathfield to Exeter St Davids Great Western Railway		Ashton (Devon)

References

Notes

1. Butt 1995, p. 235
2. Historic England. "Trusham Station (503050)". PastScape. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
3. Disused Stations Retrieved : 2012-10-10
4. Disused Stations Retrieved : 2012-10-08
5. Chudleigh History Group
6. Station master's House Retrieved : 2012-10-10
7. BBC News Retrieved : 2012-10-10

Sources

• Beck, Keith; Copsey, John (1990). The Great Western in South Devon. Didcot: Wild Swan Publications. ISBN 0-906867-90-8.
• Butt, R (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1.

External links

• Trusham old station building in 2010
• Film Footage