Torquay railway station is on the
Riviera Line
The Riviera Line is the railway between the city of Exeter, towns Dawlish and Teignmouth, and the ''English Riviera'' resorts of Torbay in Devon, England. Its tracks are shared with the Exeter to Plymouth Line along the South Devon sea wall. ...
and serves the
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...
of
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...
,
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 is measured from .
The station 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 ...
. It is just a few yards from the sea at Torre Abbey Sands.
History
A railway station serving Torquay had been opened by the
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 ...
South Devon Railway on 18 December 1848, but
this station was on the hill distant from the harbour at the centre of the town. A new station near Abbey Sands was opened by the
Dartmouth and Torbay Railway
The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway was a broad gauge railway linking the South Devon Railway branch at Torquay with Kingswear in Devon, England. It was operated from the outset by the South Devon Railway.
Most of the line is now operated as th ...
on 2 August 1859 when the original station was renamed "Torre". Goods traffic continued to be handled at the original station, the new one retaining a more genteel atmosphere with just passengers, their horse and carriages.
The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway was always operated by the South Devon Railway and was amalgamated with it on 1 January 1872. This was only short lived as the South Devon Railway was in turn amalgamated 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 ...
on 1 February 1876. A vastly improved station by the architect and engineers
William Lancaster Owen
William Lancaster Owen (8 November 1843 - 28 November 1911) was a British civil engineer primarily with the Great Western Railway.
Career
In 1868 he took a commission as a First Lieutenant in the 1st Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps which ...
and J.E. Danks was opened on 1 September 1878 and the line, which had been a single track with a passing loop in the station, was doubled in 1882. 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 opened at each end of the station in 1878, that at the Newton Abbot end has been demolished but the one at the Paignton end is now rented out as an office.
The line was converted to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
on 20 May 1892. The line towards Paignton was doubled on 30 October 1910, the work for which meant the opening out of the Livermead Tunnel which was at the top of the gradient south of the station. At around the same time the signalling was all concentrated in the South signal box, although the North box was retained as a ground frame to work points for sidings at this end of the station.
The Great Western Railway 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 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 ...
ways in 1948. The North ground frame was demolished in 1966 as the sidings had been taken out of use. The South signal box was closed on 1 November 1984, although it had only been opened on busy days since October 1968.
Torquay Gas Works
The local gas works were situated above the cliffs at Hollacombe, south of the station. During the Gas House Sidings' construction there was a potentially serious accident on 21 September 1866 when a train from Kingswear ran through an incomplete set of points and derailed.
In connection with the doubling of the line Torquay Gas House Signal Box was opened here on 24 July 1910. In addition to controlling the entrance to the gas works was used to increase the capacity of the line on busy days until 4 December 1966.
The siding saw very heavy traffic of coal brought up from the quay at
Kingswear
Kingswear is a village and civil parish in the South Hams area of the English county of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth and opposite the small town of Dartmouth. It lies within ...
. When a ship arrived ninety empty wagons were sent to Kingswear and, as they were loaded, they were tripped up to the Gas House Siding. Depending on the locomotive type available that day, the loaded trains might be restricted to as few as 10 wagons due to the severe gradients on the line. Each ship provided up to 160 wagon loads.
[
]
Accidents and incidents
In common with most railways at the time, the early days saw many small accidents and incidents at Torquay. Two significant collisions occurred when trains descending the gradient from Torre ran onto the wrong line. On 15 April 1868 a goods train ran away and collided with an empty passenger train that was standing on the middle siding between the two platform tracks, knocking the train back more than . The driver and fireman on the passenger train jumped off their locomotive when they saw the goods train coming towards them, but the driver fell under the train and was killed.[
A similar problem happened on 16 August 1875 when a goods train failed to stop outside the station and ran into the main platform, which was occupied by a passenger train from Kingswear to ]Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
at the time. The driver was checking over his locomotive when he saw the train coming towards him, so he jumped back onto the footplate but immediately ran off onto the platform. His fireman had taken the brakes off and put the locomotive in gear to reverse it out of the way and, when he saw the driver come back onto the footplate, jumped off without realising that the driver did not stay on the footplate. The goods train now collided with the driverless passenger train, which was now slowly moving back the way it had come. It ran backwards up the gradient through Livermead Tunnel, gathered speed as dropped down through Paignton station, passing over the two 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 ...
s and a third one at Tanners Lane, and then chugged up the gradient towards Churston. The guard had been left behind at Torquay, but two railway workers were on board and made their way along the footboards on the outside of the carriages, Robert Harley applying the brakes on each of the carriages while Edward Purcell made his way onto the locomotive to bring it to a stand. By the time they had done this the train was more than three miles from Torquay station. These two men were presented by the railway company with an inscribed silver watch and £25 each as a reward but the driver who ran away was dismissed and his fireman demoted.[
On 25 August 1962, a busy holiday Saturday, a train hauled by a Warship Class diesel stalled while climbing the gradient from Torquay towards Paignton. Although it was protected by signals, the following train – hauled by a Hall Class steam locomotive – ran past these and collided with the rear of the stalled train.][
]
Description
The platform nearest the sea is served by trains towards , the opposite platform being used for trains towards . There is step-free access to both platforms and a wide footbridge links them.
The station has two ranges of buildings, each long, built in local grey rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
stone on either platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
. Deep canopies on composite iron and wood girders cover the platforms; there are further canopies on the road side of both buildings. the building which faces the sea at Abbey Sands and the town is used and this houses the ticket office and a café; the gate from this approach road is open when trains are running. The one remaining signal box (now rented out for commercial purposes) is situated at the south end of this platform near a decorative cast iron bridge across the tracks. The station buildings are Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
The forecourt in front of the main building is shaded by trees and is raised above the road by an arched retaining wall. The Grand Hotel is on the right of passengers leaving the station, and the sea front is just beyond. Buses to the harbour and town centre stop on the sea front by the road leading to the station.
Services
Torquay is served 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 ...
local trains in both directions on an approximately half-hourly basis during the day (dropping to hourly in the evening). Many trains run between and Paignton, but others terminate at . On Sundays the service is less frequent and most trains only run between Exeter St Davids and Paignton. A few long-distance trains also call at Torquay, especially during the summer months. Great Western Railway operate trains to/from London Paddington station
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...
, including the Torbay Express
The ''Torbay Express'' is a named passenger train operating in the United Kingdom.
The Torbay Express departs from Bristol Temple Meads railway station on summer Sundays at approximately 09:15 with arrival back in Bristol at about 20:10 (depe ...
.
CrossCountry
CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise.
The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) ...
a daily return service from Paignton railway station
Paignton railway station serves the town and seaside resort of Paignton in Devon, England. It is measured from . The station is the current terminus of the Riviera Line from Exeter and is also an interchange station between National Rail service ...
to Bristol Temple Meads railway station
Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city ...
Proposals
In the Torbay Council
Torbay Council is the local authority of Torbay in Devon, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services including Council Ta ...
Mayoral Vision of 2007 it was proposed that this station is re-branded to become 'Torquay Seafront Station' and that Torre railway station be renamed 'Torquay Central Station'. This has not been done.
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{Devon railway stations
Railway stations in Devon
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859
Former Great Western Railway stations
Railway stations served by Great Western Railway
Railway stations served by CrossCountry
Buildings and structures in Torquay
William Lancaster Owen railway stations
Grade II listed buildings in Devon
Grade II listed railway stations
DfT Category C2 stations