Seaton Railway Branch Line, Devon - Part One

Seaton & Beer Railway opened on March 1868. Running from Seaton up to Seaton Junction, where it converged with the Exeter-London line, it comprised stations at Seaton, Colyton and Seaton Junction, with an intermediate stop at Colyford. As well as being important for carrying holiday-makers to the seaside, the goods yard in Seaton was also used as a depository for Beer Stone from the quarry, a crane once in situ for the purpose. The large blocks of stone were left there to weather and harden as, being calcareous, it is softer to cut whilst underground and hardens when topside. There were no special goods trains to transport the stone, but they were taken whenever empty or near-empty trains were able to handle the additional weight on truck beds along with the carriages.
 

Now used by Seaton & District Tramways, I took a tram journey for the first part of my exploration of the erstwhile railway line, between Seaton and Colyton.

Old concrete posts, which can be seen in the photos above and below, once marked the edge of the railway line, running alongside the River Axe from Seaton, some of which are now partly submerged in the mud and water.

Below is one of several platelayers' huts along the route. Built in Exmouth, along with the concrete bridges at Seaton Junction, they are unique to East Devon branchlines. The dinosaur picture on the side is part of a 'Jurassic Coastline' checklist game for children travelling on the tram.  

The only stop between Seaton and Colyton is this one, where there's a rail loop for passing trams just before the road crossing at Colyford.

There is little left of this intermediate station at Colyford. In old photos there are nothing but concrete buildings similar to the platelayer huts, which were also built in Exmouth. However, this wonderful, original urinal remains in situ (below). Not in use now, but still kept beautifully maintained. 

The tramline crossing over the A3052 road. I happened to have been walking along the road, and had already passed the crossing, when the lights and warning signals started. It was a bit of a rush job but I managed to get back and take the photo just as the tram went past. Not a very good photo, unfortunately, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Some photos between Colyford station and the next stop at Colyton station.

Being coastal Devon, I nearly always find a boat whenever I go on one of my explores. In this case, several odd bits of them! ;)

Colyton Station was the end of my tram journey; the rest taken by foot or bus at various different times. The station house is the original one built in 1868.

Now comprising a delightful cafe as well as tourist information and booking office.

I was quite taken with these lovely old lamposts and crawled about between the picnic tables to try and get the detail of this one base...much to the amusement of people sitting there. We aim to please! ;)

I can't quite make out all the writing but it more or less says...

THE 
H (something) M & S
(something) IRON 
COMPANY 
LONDON

A few buildings on the other side of the track, comprising the goods depot.

The trackbed stops shortly after the station buildings, where it would have continued over a bridge, the top of which is now dismantled. The station lane continues along beneath where the bridge used to be and on into Colyton town itself.

The remains of the bridge uprights can be seen either side of the lane, below. Before that, on the opposite side of the lane, was this old and rather ornate gate. I suspect it may have been another way onto the line, possibly for rail staff only, such as the signalman or linesmen.

The letters and numbers on bridges are for identification purposes, so that maintenance can be carried out. I haven't been able to find out for certain, but I'm pretty sure that the letters stand for 'London Exeter' and  'Seaton Exeter Branch'.

The letters in the above photo were on a second bridge in the adjacent lane, also dismantled leaving the upright supports, seen below.
 

It was quite easy to scramble to the top of that bridge on the left hand side, where I took the next photo. This is where the line continued on its way to Seaton Junction. Nothing of it now remains.

However, after a lot more research, I discovered where the trackbed continued and where it joined the main Exeter-London line at Seaton Junction. I came across some fab photos of the branch line at the junction on the Umborne Community website, taken from an amazing book with the improbably long title of Main Line to the West The Southern Railway Route between Basingstoke to Exeter - Part Three Yeovil to Exeter by John Nicholas and George Reeve. I bought the book and it's massive; choc-a-block with photos and information...and extremely heavy!

Anyway, from the information I was able to trace the track line from Colyton to Seaton Junction using Google Earth. Above, I've marked its journey from Colyton station to the second bridge and where the old line went from there.

Below, is the end of the line where it joins the station at Seaton Junction. Very happily the line is clearly marked by a row of hedging and it swings around to join the main line just to the right of the long bridge...exactly matching how it looks in the original photos taken during its use. I can't tell you how excited I was seeing that. :)
 

The last stop at Seaton Junction station, closed since the branch line closure in 1966.
 

And I'm going to leave it there because Part Two will deal a lot more fully with Seaton Junction. That will include not only the station building, goods yard and the two footbridges but also the adjoining factory building which had a part to play in the station's history.