Totnes (Riverside) railway station, previously known as Totnes Littlehempston railway station and Littlehempston Riverside railway station, is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

situated in

Littlehempston Littlehempston is a village and civil parish in the South Hams District of Devon in England consisting of 83 households, with a population of 207 in the parish. It has also been called Little Hempston and Hempston Arundel. The village has many ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

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 ...

. It is the southern terminus of the South Devon Railway, a

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

-operated

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 ...

. Littlehempston station should not be confused with the Totnes main line station on the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

Exeter to Plymouth line 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 ...

, which is a walk away.

Description

Totnes (Riverside) station is located on the east bank of the

River Dart The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Brythonic language (from which the river's subsequent names ultimately derive fr ...

, adjacent to the main line railway. Although less than one

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

from the centre of the town of

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...

, the surroundings are rural. A

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

and

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

over the river form the only non-rail land access to the station, although a small

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

allows a

water taxi A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or o ...

to link the station with the centre of the town at some states of the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

. The station has a single main

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 ...

, with a

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

run round loop and a

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

. The station building accommodates a booking office, whilst a rail van in the bay platform contains a small exhibition. A rail connection permits special trains to run directly between the South Devon line and the main line railway station. At the Buckfastleigh end of the station is a

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'' ...

and 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 ...

, which provides the only access to the adjacent Totnes Rare Breeds Farm.

History

Prior to its preservation as a heritage railway, what is now the South Devon Railway was originally a branch line connecting Totnes to and . Branch line trains joined the main line at Ashburton Junction adjacent to the current site of Riverside station, crossed the railway bridge over the River Dart and terminated in the main line railway station. When the line was first re-opened as a heritage line in 1969, the owners were unable to reach an agreement with

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 ...

for their trains to run into the main line railway station. Initially push-pull trains were used, controlled from an autocoach at one or both ends, and reversing just short of the junction. However eventually land adjacent to the junction was acquired, and a loop constructed in 1977; a platform was added a few years later but there was no public route between the station and Totnes. At this time it appeared in the timetable as "Totnes Riverside". Visitors to the railway arriving by main line train had to catch a bus from Totnes to Buckfastleigh from where they could ride the train to Totnes and back, then return to Totnes by bus. To avoid confusion to passengers expecting to be able to board heritage trains at Totnes, the station was renamed "Littlehempston Riverside" in the 1980s. At the same time a station building was located at Toller station on the Bridport branch, and re-erected at Littlehempston.

allowed heritage line trains into the main line station in 1985, and for three years regular services were run into that station. However the charges levied for use of the station proved not to be cost effective and so the trains eventually returned to using Littlehempston in 1988. In 1993 a new footbridge was built alongside the existing railway bridge, thus providing public access to the station from the town of Totnes and the main line railway station. With this the station was renamed again to "Totnes (Littlehempston)", but in 2017 this was changed again to "Totnes (Riverside)".

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. , - , colspan=5, Interchange with on the

network

References

External links

Totnes (Littlehempston) station on the South Devon Railway web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Totnes (Riverside) Railway Station Heritage railway stations in Devon Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1993 Railway stations built for UK heritage railways Tourist attractions in Devon Totnes