Disused railway stations on the Exeter to Plymouth Line

There are eleven disused railway stations between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth Millbay, Devon, England. At eight of these there are visible remains. Of the eleven stations, South Brent and Plympton are subject of campaigns for reopening while Ivybridge station was replaced by another station on a different site. The South Devon Railway was opened in stages between 30 May 1846 and 2 April 1849. It was originally designed to operate on the atmospheric principle but this was not successful and was never completed beyond Newton Abbot. It was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 February 1876 and now forms part of the Exeter to Plymouth Line. Located at A station was built at Exminster by George Hennet. It was opened in August 1852 and operated by him on behalf of the South Devon Railway until January 1857 when the railway company took over. An Italianate building on the west side of the single track housed a booking office and waiting room on the ground floor, with accommodation above for the station master. Hennet also operated a goods siding and coal shed at the station. It was situated where a bridge carried a road down to a ferry across the River Exe to Topsham. It had been proposed that a branch line should be built from Exminster across the river to Exmouth, but in the event the London and South Western Railway built one instead from Exeter. The line through Exminster was doubled in November 1859 and so a second platform for southbound (down) trains was built; passengers used the road bridge to cross to it. The siding was extended to provide a refuge for up trains in 1894, and a down refuge siding was constructed north of the bridge in 1906; these allowed slow goods trains to be overtaken. In 1924 the facilities were greatly enlarged. A new passenger loop was laid behind the southbound platform, so now down stopping passenger trains could be overtaken while in the station. This meant that the road bridge had to be extended across the loop line with a second span. A new signal box was provided at this time.