Pinhoe railway station is on the eastern edge of the city of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

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, that serves the village of

Pinhoe Pinhoe is a former village, manor and ecclesiastical parish, now a suburb on the north eastern outskirts of the City of Exeter in the English county of Devon. The 2001 census recorded a population of 6,108 people resident within Pinhoe Ward, ...

. It was opened by the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(LSWR) in 1871 but is now operated by South Western Railway which provides services on the

West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex Ma ...

. It is down the line from .

History

The LSWR opened its Exeter Extension from to Exeter Queen Street on 19 July 1860 but no station was provided at Pinhoe at that time. The village's station opened eleven years later on 30 October 1871. The original wooden footbridge was replaced by a concrete structure cast at nearby

Exmouth Junction Exmouth Junction is the railway junction where the Exmouth branch line diverges from the London Waterloo to Exeter main line in Exeter, Devon, England. It was for many years the location for one of the largest engine sheds in the former Lo ...

works, the first such footbridge erected by the Southern Railway, which had taken over from the LSWR in 1923. Goods facilities were provided from 3 April 1882, and in 1943 a government food cold store was built to the west of the station that was served by its own siding. The passenger station was closed by on 7 March 1966 when the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...

withdrew the local stopping services from the line. Goods facilities were withdrawn on 10 June 1967 and the cold store siding (now operated by a private company) closed in 1979. The station was reopened by

British Rail 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 16 May 1983.Passengers waiting at the reopened station have to make do with glass and metal shelters. Instead of a country village it was now on the eastern edge of the city. The initial trial period for commuter services proved successful and a regular service now operates all day, seven days a week. Between 2003 and 2008 passenger numbers increased by 530% and they are still increasing with an estimate of 94,354 users in 2015–16.

Station buildings

A two-storey brick building between the road and the eastbound platform is the former station master's house. The main station building used to be next to this but was demolished after the station closed in the 1960s.

Location

The station is just south of the village centre to the west of Station Road and access to the platforms is from this road; a footpath also links the eastbound platform with Main Road.

Services

Off-peak, all services at Pinhoe are operated by South Western Railway using and

DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to The station is also served by a single weekday peak hour service from to which is operated by

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 ...

Signalling

The station was built next to the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

of Pinn Lane. This was operated by the station staff until 1875 when a small

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was brought into use; it was situated on the north side of the line to the east of the road. The initial 11 levers were extended to 17 in 1943 when the cold store was built. On 11 June 1967 one of the two tracks between Pinhoe and was taken out of use and trains towards London would often wait in the closed station for a westbound train to clear the single track section. The level crossing gates were replaced with lifting barriers on 17 March 1968. The signal box was finally closed on 13 February 1988, the level crossing and signals now being controlled from

. The old signal box was dismantled and re-erected in the railway museum at on the

Tamar Valley Line The Tamar Valley Line is a railway line from Plymouth, Devon, to Gunnislake, Cornwall, in England, also known as the Gunnislake branch line. The line follows the River Tamar for much of its route. Like all railway lines in Devon and Cornwall, i ...

References

External links

{{SWT Stations, Salisbury=y, Suburban None=y, IL None=y Railway stations in Exeter Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1983 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Railway stations served by South Western Railway Beeching closures in England Railway stations served by Great Western Railway DfT Category F2 stations