Staverton 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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It serves the village of Staverton.

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 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. The station closed to passengers on 3 November 1958 although goods traffic continued until 10 September 1962. It was re-opened by 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.

Description

There is a single platform on the north side of the line. There is a small brick building which houses the ticket office and two former goods sheds. There is a

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 ...

at the Totnes end of the station and 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'' ...

opposite the platform.

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.

Film and television

The station has appeared in several films and television programmes. In the 1950 film ''

Guilt Is My Shadow ''Guilt Is My Shadow'' is a 1950 British drama film directed by Roy Kellino and starring Elizabeth Sellars, Patrick Holt and Peter Reynolds. In the film, a woman is haunted by her conscience after she kills a man and hides the body. It is base ...

'' it was the fictitious 'Welford' station and

GWR 1400 Class The GWR 1400 Class is a class of steam locomotive designed by the Great Western Railway for branch line passenger work. It was originally classified as the 4800 Class when introduced in 1932, and renumbered in 1946. Although credited to Charl ...

number 1470 was seen. It was again used in 1955 for the film '' Where There's a Will'', the locomotive this time being number 1439. It was used as a location in ''

Five Go Mad in Dorset ''Five Go Mad in Dorset'' was the first of three ''Five Go Mad'' specials from the long-running series of '' The Comic Strip Presents...'' television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4 (2 November 1982), and was writ ...

'', the first "

The Comic Strip The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The ...

" comedy television series in 1982, and in the BBC's 2016 ''Full Steam Ahead'' railway history series.

References

External links

Video footage of Staverton Station

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staverton Railway Station Heritage railway stations in Devon Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1958 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1969 Former Great Western Railway stations