Plym Valley Railway Excursions (1 of 3) - 09 June 2024

A short 360 “excursion” along the 1.9 km Plym Valley Railway line from Marsh Mills to Plym Bridge (the platform there opened on 30 December 2012, exactly 50 years after the original line closed). The original branch line opened in June 1859 and connected Plymouth with Tavistock (later on to Launceston), with a connection from Yelverton to Princetown, at the time the highest railway station in the UK, via Burrator & Sheepstor (the focus of another of the team’s VR projects, see: • Burrator & Sheepstor H... . Unable to compete with the roads and subject to significant disruption by the harsh Devon weather, especially on Dartmoor, the line closed to passengers in 1962. The line near Marsh Mills also, for a time, served MoD Coypool (a Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers ordnance depot) and a China Clay works. the Plym Valley Railway Association was formed in 1980.
These excursions were undertaken on 09 June 2024. This particular trip was recorded from the cab of an early morning line inspection trip (returning to Marsh Mills from Plym Bridge), hauled by a Class 07 diesel locomotive, a Ruston & Hornsby 0-6-0 No. 429, River Annan. Originally designed to replace steam locos at Southampton Docks, some of these successful short wheelbase diesels continued in use for various industries in the UK and even the MoD. This particular loco was built for the MoD in 1961. The 360 camera used was an Insta360 ONE RS.