Moretonhampstead and Teign Valley Branches

[@BevMattocks]

Wonderful footage. I've just returned from a week at Lustleigh, in search of old railway relics. I've cycled up and down the old railway line on several occasions since it opened up as the Wray Valley Trail and also the Parke section. We took photos of Bovey station from the back (or, rather, the former front!), now on the main road (former railway line). I am able to say that I've travelled on this line - my parents took the train to Moretonhampstead in the summer of 1958 when they were expecting me! My dad always boasted that he was invited to ride on the footplate.

[@Adrian-Hilton]

Great filming of a golden age.Who ever is responsible for filming this footage one word " Thankyou" .A bonus as well for my personal research is you caught Chudleigh Station.

[@chrisbailey9331]

Thank you for your posting this lovely video, a wonderful and very important documentation of a time gone by! So glad that there were people with the vision and ability to record a better way of life! So sad it’s not in existence anymore! Thank goodness for the Preserved Steam Railways 👍🏻🚂😊

[@DarkHoodness]

I live locally. The Moretonhampstead line is now the Wray Valley Trail cycle route. It's my commuting and shopping route, I use it regularly and I've become familiar with it, and so I've explored it thoroughly. This film fascinates me, and it's nice to see another glimpse of how the trail used to look while it was still a train line. The trees have grown so much since this film was taken, but as it's fun for me, here's a list of what I still can recognise: Some of the sidings shown at 1:58 are still there, track hidden by undergrowth! 2:30 is now the site of Mt. Tum's Cafe. The station building is still by Exeter Road, and the level crossing, although is derelict. Teigngrace Halt (2:50) is the little tea rooms by the old canal lock along what is now the Stover Trail. The Teign Valley Branch line which curves off at 3:49 by Heathfield can still be seen where it used to cross School Road, by the sewage works, along where the Stover Trail now runs. There's still railway line embedded in the road! The embankment is partially still there and can be seen on Google Maps. Further up the line, what is now Monks Way/A382 by Bovey Tracy is seen at 5:39. The cutting at 6:53 is still visible up the Wray Trail at the edge of Parke, by the bridge which crosses the end of Lower Knowle Road. 7:06 is where the Wray Trail now stops following the old railway line and diverts to Lower Knowle Road, and the bridge shown here is no longer in use, like the rest of the old line until past what was Lustleigh Station (now a private home). Knowle Road is visible again at 7:17 - Pullabrook Halt is now a grazing area for cows; Its wooden platform is still present today, but very dilapidated. The deep cutting outside Lustleigh is briefly visible at 8:25. They filmed a buzzard or a heron at 9:30 - Herons still fish in the Wray Brook. Approaching Moretonhampstead, Wray Barton is shown at 9:44, plus the bridge which crosses to it. 9:55 is probably Steward Cottages? 10:17 shows the old gasworks. Moretonhampstead Railway Station is now becoming a housing estate - They're keeping the building behind the train at 11:00 as part of it, converting it to flats. The engine shed in the far background is also still there.

[@ExeCodger]

Thanks very much for posting this film, a lovely record of the Teign Branch lines. Only yesterday I walked part of the old line from Bovey Tracey towards Moretonhampstead trying to envisage what it must have been like when the branch line was operational and then later by chance I came across this film. So sad that many of these lines in Devon were axed.

[@tim.l.9282]

I have lived all my life virtually in the middle of all the branch lines in this film and my grandfather worked for a time at Christow station. I recently acquired a 3 inch to the mile map of all the Devon branch lines from Exeter to Plymouth dated 1939.

[@nigelwilliams7403]

What a beautiful railway line, everything tidy and neat.

[@LordTantrums007]

Impressive scenery along these branch lines and it is a shame these railway lines had to be closed.

[@debwinship3271]

Wonderful. I had only imagined what the Teign Valley looked like especially Ide . Love the footage going into Exeter. Thank you so much.

[@vladekcirin6080]

What an absolutely delightful pair of films. Thank you for posting them. Brought back memories of the “Titfield Thunderbolt” film of yore. Such idyllic sunny day shots of typical GWR Branch Lines. I remember walking some of the stretches post closure when I lived in Harberton near Totnes. Wonderful memories.

[@BegudMaximan-zp2tc]

When railways were the motorways of that time, smooth and fast, compared to the potholed motley roads, before everything went to pot, great memories luckily captured on film.

[@MrSkyskooter]

Fascinating window on the past.

[@robtyman4281]

In days when it was no problem to put a parcel on a regular passenger train service. But I suppose this was possible given that even the smallest station was constantly staffed by at least one person - who would have lived on site aswell. 'Unmanned' stations simply didn't exist! I wasn't around back then, but I get the impression things seemed much simpler, and more 'allowing'. Common sense prevailed, rather than excessive bureaucracy, and 'jobsworthy' people. Great archive film btw!

[@musicurio]

Thank goodness this was saved. Wonderful though it is - could it be enhanced still further, I wonder, with the sort of technology we now have? Thanks for posting.

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

Short sections of it were taken from my copy and enhanced but the extracts do not seem to be any different. www.youtube.com/@exeterfoundry The original has gone from 8mm cine to V.H.S. to D.V.D. to KZbin compatible; it's a wonder it's still watchable.

[@chrissharp5073]

Very nostalgic and a reminder of a time when we had an extensive railway system now sorely missed. Thank you for sharing.

[@nigelduckworth406]

This is absolutely brilliant. Genuine archive footage from the train itself. All I have come across so far about the Heathfield-Exeter line are videos on how it looks today, and nothing of the actual climb to Moretonhampstead. So thank you. What amazed me was how Exeter looked back then. No Marsh Barton industrial estate, just green fields. Is the "Marsh Barton trunk road", under construction in the film, the A30 dual carriageway?

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

Thanks for your comments. "Trunk" in this sense unusually means "branch." What is seen under construction is the line which was to serve a new Cadbury's warehouse on the burgeoning Marsh Barton Trading Estate. The line in fact went as far as Trusham Road (many roads on the estate are named after Teign Valley villages), where the buffer stop could be seen. It is not known whether it was intended to extend the line as the estate grew; at the time, this would have been normal practice. Marsh Barton Trunk opened just after the Teign Valley line closed completely between Alphington Halt (inclusive) and Christow (exclusive). The branch remained as far as Church Road Bridge in Alphington as a headshunt. A later trader with a private siding on the trunk was E. Pearse & Co., scrap metal dealers. The Teign Valley line was shortened and the trunk removed in 1999 to make way for a relief road. Pearse's successor, Sims Metal, continued to load wagons on the embankment above its works. The full story can be read here www.teignrail.co.uk/political-campaigning.php#marsh . The A30 dual carriageway and its Alphington Spur came much later, around 1974.

[@nigelduckworth406]

@@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713 Many thanks for this. Really interesting. I live in Dartmouth and so am not fully familiar with developments which took place in Exeter but I did ask myself why I thought the "trunk " might be the beginnings of the A30 dual carriageway. That's because I have a Bartholemews South Devon map from 1970 in which the A30 appears as an ordinary road. The map shows the line only to Bovey, the Heathfield junction, and about 1.5 miles of track towards Exeter from there . There is not even a dotted line for where the track had been after that, though it does show "course of old railway" up to Moretonhampstead. The headshunt at Exeter isn't shown either. Thanks also for the link.

[@jasminechen7099]

@@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713 thank you Uncle Colin I didn't know that its fascinating xx

[@jasminechen7099]

Awesome uncle Colin xxxx

[@MiLLwallpaul231258]

Well ….that was bloody brilliant

[@jonathansmythe6273]

would love to have traveled on this line. I've visited longdown station Perridge tunnel & culver tunnel.

[@SpoonyMcSpoonface]

What was the railway heading towards the “Marsh Barton Trunk”,it looked like a new construction?

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

The "trunk," or branch, was laid in after the line closed to passengers to serve a scrapyard and a Cadbury's distribution depot. It was the reason that the branch survived for 40 more years as far as Church Road, Alphington.

[@SpoonyMcSpoonface]

@@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713 Blimey,I never recognised it. I used to cover work the scrap trips to Pierce’s back in the late 80s.

[@davidpike1884]

Shame it's not like that now 😒

[@tadpoles10]

Thanks for sharing this, the opening shots showing the foot crossing at the end of the platforms where every day from December 1956 to September 1959 I crossed to walk to & from the station to the loco shed as an engine cleaner, travelling from Paignton where I lived at the time, 'Happy Days'. atvb t ..

[@katharinepeart9274]

What a treat for me this is, I lived in Bovey Tracey when the railway was a thing of the past. Now I feel I have been sent a present !

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

Would a better present be having the line rebuilt?

[@rogergriffith286]

Delightful. I have visited all of these stations and travelled on the last train to Bovey Tracey.

[@rosscausley2725]

Brilliant !

[@thra5herxb12s]

I missed the Dunsford Halt part. I've walked along various parts of this line over the years and always tried to picture it in its heyday.

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

Unfortunately, filming stopped as the train left the Teign Valley and only resumed around Horrowmore Farm, beyond Dunsford Halt.

[@andrewblake2254]

Would it be possible to put this through an AI program to clean up the image and make it clear? It would be fantastic then.

[@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713]

It may be possible to sharpen the film but this would be beyond the capacity of the railway's workshop. Two clips have been doctored but there is no noticeable improvement in quality kzbin.info/door/wv_ajK4eiUuTXauq3q3NbQ

[@andrewblake2254]

@@exeterteignvalleyrailway6713 Thank you for looking into it. I think one day it will probably be possible (and affordable).

[@chrisbuxton1958]

It’s pretty good anyway.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

Not bad, but no sound!