Devon Branches Summer 2003

It now being over years since this trip, I cannot remember much about it. I do remember that it was a brilliantly hot sunny day but nothing of the journey down to Exeter remains with me. At St Davids I changed on to a two coach Sprinter down to Exmouth. Much of this line serves suburban Exeter and is thus fairly well used. It also passes through a station serving Lympstone Commando, which I gather is only used by training marines. I notice a line of them being drilled behind the perimeter fence next to the station.

At Exmouth I walk for a couple of miles through the shallow clear blue water lapping at the shore. If only I was more inclined to sit about on this beautiful beach. But as ever, I like to keep on the move. I stop for a drink at a pub that's been recommended to me, The Snooty Fox, then walk back to the station. The tide is now turning and see the waters of the Channel pouring back into the Exe estuary - the speed shows the sometimes fearful power of nature. Periodically I hear a train on the other side of the estuary, heading along the line at Dawlish, the red cliffs of which can be seen in the distance.

Exmouth station is now a single line terminus integrated into a manky 70s bus station, with the inevitable upgraded road now taking up much of the space that other platforms once occupied. Thankfully it's not a long wait for the Sprinter that takes me away again. It's going through Exeter to Barnstaple, so I stay on for the ride. It gets very full at Exeter with returning shoppers. This is a much more rural line and I doze gently in the heat of the afternoon while enjoying the view. Until 1970 the line continued to Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast. It was truncated because the cost of maintaining a bridge between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe was deemed too high. Another sad loss. It's now impossible to believe that the route to Ilfracombe would not now been have remunerative, as it is a possible holiday destination and most coastal services are generally well patronised in my experience.

I'm sitting next to an elderly lady who remarks on the crowds on the train, and then says, "Let's hope that don't want to go to Ilfracome." I'm so surprised that she seems to have been reading my mind that I just nod and smile. The chances are hardly anyone on the train of my age would know what she was talking about, so it's an odd thing to say to me. Anyway, at the sadly curtailed terminus the rail traveller is now treated to a circular walk through and out of an out of town trading estate and across a river into the town. Before the end came there was a Barnstaple Town station but this was on the other side of the fateful bridge. Barnstaple is a standard sort of middle England town, reasonably clean and tidy but nothing earth-shattering.

And the trail ends here. I have absolutely no memory of the rest of the day! I suppose it was back to Exeter St Davids. I could have travelled back via any of the three routes to London - Bristol, Newbury, or Salisbury.

London Paddington-Exeter St Davids
Exeter St Davids-Exeter Exmouth
Exmouth-Barnstaple