Heathfield (Devon) railway station

Heathfield (Devon) Station
Heathfield in 1906
Location
Place	Heathfield
Area	Teignbridge
Coordinates	50°34′21″N 3°38′46″W / 50.5725°N 3.6461°W / 50.5725; -3.6461Coordinates: 50°34′21″N 3°38′46″W / 50.5725°N 3.6461°W / 50.5725; -3.6461
Operations
Original company	South Devon Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	3
History
1874	Opened as Chudleigh Road[1]
1 October 1882	Renamed Heathfield[1]
2 March 1959	Closed to passengers[2]
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
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Heathfield station in 1969

Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway
Legend Moretonhampstead A382 road Lustleigh Hawkmoor Halt later renamed Pullabrook Bovey Brimley Halt Teign Valley Line Heathfield (Devon) A38 road Teigngrace Halt Exeter Road GWML to London Newton Abbot GWML to Penzance

The junction for the Teign valley line at Heathfield in 1970

Heathfield railway station, originally Chudleigh Road before the Teign Valley Line opened, was on the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway at Heathfield, nearly 4 miles from Newton Abbot, Devon, England.^[3]

The station was opened with the line on 26 June 1866 as Chudleigh Road, but was renamed on 1 October 1882.^[4]

The station became a junction when the Teign Valley Railway opened to Ashton, Devon in 1882. Until 23 May 1892 all traffic between the two lines had to be transferred at Heathfield as the Moretonhampstead line was built to the 7 ft (2,134 mm) in broad gauge, but the Teign Valley was 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) in standard gauge.

The original station only had one platform serving the Moretonhampstead branch. In 1927 this platform was extended and a new passing loop and platform was provided for down trains came into use on 24 May 1927. Both platforms were signalled for reversible running until 1943 when the crossover was removed.^[5]

The large pottery of Candy and Company was situated alongside the station and was served by its own siding.

The last regular passenger trains ran on 28 February 1959. Since 6 July 1970 Heathfield has been the terminus of the branch line, the few trains running this far serving an oil terminal that opened in 1965.

In 2009 the line was mothballed until December 2011 when it was announced that the section of the line to Heathfield would re-opened to facilitate the transport of timber from Heathfield to Chirk in North Wales by Colas Rail.^[6][7] In the same month a timber siding was opened at Teigngrace, just before the level crossing at Exeter Road, to allow the timber to be loaded onto the freight trains. Teigngrace lacks a passing loop and trains and with empty wagons continue up the line to Heathfield to permit locomotives to run around the waggons using the loop in the disused station. The empty freight train then drives back to the timber sidings at Teigngrace to be loaded. Loading of the timber is carried out by the lorries that bring the timber to the sidings.^[8]

Following the damage in 2014 to the sea wall at Dawlish one of the suggested alternative routes was via the re-statement of the Heathfield to Alphington rail link.^[9]

References

Further reading

• Mitchell, David (1994). British Railways Past and Present - Devon. Peterborough: Past and Present Publishing. p. 98-99. ISBN 1-85895-058-9.