Buckfastleigh railway station is situated on the South Devon Railway, a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England. It serves the town of

Buckfastleigh Buckfastleigh is a market town and civil parish in Devon, England situated beside the Devon Expressway ( A38) at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is part of Teignbridge and, for ecclesiastical purposes, lies within the Totnes Deanery. ...

History

The station was opened by the

Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway The Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway built the broad gauge railway line from Totnes to Buckfastleigh and Ashburton in Devon, England. History In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Buckfastleigh and Ashburton were importan ...

on 1 May 1872. The railway was

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

into the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in 1897 and this in turn was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

into

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

on 1 January 1948. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the Western Region from 1956 to 1961. The station closed to passengers in November 1958 although goods traffic on the line continued until 10 September 1962. It was re-opened as the ''Dart Valley Railway'', a

, on 5 April 1969. The

South Devon Railway Trust The South Devon Railway (SDR) is a heritage railway from Totnes to Buckfastleigh in Devon. Mostly running alongside the River Dart, it was initially known as the Dart Valley Railway. The railway is now operated by the South Devon Railway Trust, ...

took over the running of the line on 1 January 1991. In 1971 Buckfastleigh became the terminus of the line when the route beyond the station was closed to allow improvements to the

A38 road The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, Bristol, Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England. The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is long, mak ...

. Workshops have since been provided for restoring and repairing the locomotives and rolling stock used on the railway. The

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

has been converted to a railway museum and this is the home of Tiny the last remaining

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

locomotive.

Services

The station is served by trains on all operating days of the South Devon Railway. Trains operate daily from late March to the end of October. On most days a single train set operates, providing four journeys a day in each direction. On busy days two train sets may operate, providing more journeys.

References

External links

South Devon Railway: BuckfastleighVideo footage of Buckfastleigh Station
Heritage railway stations in Devon Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872 Former Great Western Railway stations Tourist attractions in Devon Museums in Devon Railway museums in England Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1958 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1969 Industrial archaeological sites in Devon Buckfastleigh {{SouthWestEngland-railstation-stub