The Torbay and Brixham Railway was a broad gauge railway in

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 ...

which linked 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 ...

Churston railway station Churston railway station is on the Dartmouth Steam Railway, a heritage railway in Torbay, Devon, England. It is situated beside the main road to Brixham and close to the villages of Churston Ferrers and Galmpton. There has been no scheduled ...

, Devon with the important fishing port of Brixham. It was a little over two miles long. Never more than a local branch line, it closed in 1963.

Construction

In the middle of the nineteenth century Brixham was an important fishing port, but as railways were constructed they were slow to reach the town. The South Devon Railway (SDR) opened its line to Newton Abbot—the station was called simply ''Newton'' at first—on 31 December 1846, and to a Torquay station—now renamed Torre—on 18 December 1848. It was some time before the line was extended, and it fell to a nominally independent company, the

(D&TR) to build from Torre to Brixham Road station, later renamed , opening to there on 1 April 1861. The station at Brixham was high above the town and two miles distant, and the D&TR was focused on reaching Dartmouth; in fact it settled for , opening to there on 16 August 1864. Seeing that the railway connection at "Brixham Road" was close, but inconvenient, a local solicitor and proprietor of the fishing harbour, Richard Walter Wolston, set about obtaining support for a line connecting Brixham itself. Largely by his efforts, the ''Torbay and Brixham Railway Company'' was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 25 July 1864 or 26 July 1864; together with a tramway in connection with the railway.E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959 The Company's share capital was £18,000 and Wolston himself subscribed £17,700. The contractor defaulted during construction, but largely due to Wolston's personal and financial resources, it was completed, and opened on 28 February 1868 to passengers, goods traffic being handled from 1 May 1868. The line was 2m 6c (3.3 km) in length.

Operation

Wolston obtained the small locomotive ''Queen'' second hand, but the line was worked by the South Devon Railway (SDR) at first. As well as passenger traffic, there was a dominant trade in fish. However Wolston was later in dispute with that Company over the setting of commission for connecting traffic. Even though that issue was corrected, the T&BR taking over the operation itself for a time, the line ran at a financial loss. The SDR had amalgamated with the GWR and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1876—the combined company maintained the name ''Great Western Railway''. At this time the T&BR took over the operation of its line independently, and evidently the GWR was supportive in this, lending them a relief locomotive when ''Queen'' was out of service. In January 1877 the GWR sold another small engine, ''Raven'', to the T&BR. It proved impossible to sustain the independent existence of the T&BR, and a sale to the GWR was agreed on 19 May 1882; the sale took effect on 1 January 1883, for £12,000.Christopher Awdry, ''Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies'', Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway'', vol II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931

Subsequent history of the line

Now simply a remote branch of the GWR, the line continued in use. Soon the West of England lines of the GWR were to be converted from the original broad gauge of to what was now standard gauge, , and the Brixham branch was part of the process. It was carried out between 20 May 1892 and 23 May 1892. The rise of road transport focussed the uneconomic nature of the branch, and it was closed to all traffic in 1963.

Brixham station

The railway station had a single platform and a goods shed opposite. An engine shed and another small goods yard were situated at the Churston end of the station. It was constructed on the hill above the town in order that the gradients between Brixham and Churston were not too steep. Brixham station became 'Roxham station' for '' The System'', a 1964 film. An scene early in the film sees most of the main characters at the station, either arriving on a train hauled by a

British Rail Class 22 The British Rail Class 22 or "Baby Warship" was a class of diesel-hydraulic locomotives designed for the Western Region of British Railways and built by the North British Locomotive Company. They were very similar in appearance to the Class ...

locomotive or waiting there to see who is arriving in the town for a holiday.

Locomotives

Queen

''Queen'' was built in 1852 by E. B. Wilson and Company and was used for several years at the

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct fr ...

in the construction of a breakwater for the harbour there. Although the railway was initially worked by the South Devon Railway, the Torbay and Brixham Railway purchased this little locomotive to haul the trains. The South Devon Railway were to pay £3 per day for the facility, but the railway soon had to mortgage ''Queen'' to the South Devon for £350 to cover its debt to that company. In 1883 it passed to the Great Western Railway, which immediately withdrew it from service.

King

A second locomotive was ordered by the Torbay and Brixham Railway for the South Devon Railway, but in fact the latter company paid for it and it worked in its fleet. See

South Devon Railway 2-4-0 locomotives The South Devon Railway 2-4-0 locomotives were small 2-4-0T broad gauge locomotives operated on the South Devon Railway, mainly on its branch lines such as that to Ashburton. On 1 February 1876, the South Devon Railway was amalgamated with th ...

for further information.

Raven

''Raven'' had been built for the South Devon Railway as part of their Raven class for shunting dockside lines at Plymouth . In 1877, now also carrying their number 2175, it was sold by the Great Western Railway to the Torbay and Brixham to assist ''Queen''.

Great Western locomotives

After 1883 the Great Western Railway provided various small locomotives from its fleet to operate the Brixham branch. Up until 1892 broad gauge locomotives employed were typically the ex-South Devon Railway 2-4-0 ''

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

'' and members of the GWR Hawthorn Class 2-4-0T type . After the line was converted to standard gauge on 23 May 1892 a number of small tank locomotives, including the unique 4-4-0ST no. 13 were used on the line. In later years standard

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 ...

0-4-2Ts worked the

autotrain The Autotrain was a type of passenger train used in the early 20th century, where the steam locomotive could be remotely controlled from the rear of the train. This meant that the engine would not have to run-around at the end of a journey bef ...

. The final trains were worked by British Rail Class 122 single-car DMUs.

Revival plans

The Association of Train Operating Companies in 2009 indicated that Brixham would benefit from a passenger railway service. The

First Great Western Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway The Dartmouth Steam Railway, formerly known as the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, is a heritage railway on the former Great Western Railway branch line between and in Devon, England. Much of the railway's business is from summer touri ...

, a heritage railway. Churston would serve as a railhead for Brixham, and also serve housing developments in the area since the opening of the steam railway; it might require the doubling of that line between and . However the study ( Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network) did not indicate a source of funding, and despite showing a timeline of two years to implementation, at April 2014 no progress has been made.