Devonport railway station serves the Devonport area of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England. It is from measured via Box and Plymouth Millbay. It is managed by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

History

The station opened with the

Cornwall Railway The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construct ...

on 4 May 1859. It was described at the time as "built of rubble masonry, in the Italian style of architecture, which style is adopted at all stations on the railway. It consists of an arrival, departure, and goods stations, the two former being stone structures, and the last a wooden erection". In 1865 the Royal Agricultural Show was held at nearby at Pennycomequick and so the opportunity was taken to enlarge the platforms at Devonport. A "refreshment booth" was also erected for the duration of the show to cater for the large number of visitors expected. The Cornwall Railway was amalgamated into the

on 1 July 1889. The Great Western Railway was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

into

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

from 1 January 1948 which was in turn privatised in the 1990s. For a while after 1948 the station was known as Devonport Albert Road to distinguish it from the ex-

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

Kings Road station (now the site of the City College Plymouth). The name reverted to just "Devonport" from 6 May 1968. The

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, althou ...

was originally situated in front of the station near the tunnel entrance, but a new goods yard was opened in about 1892 on a larger site east of the station. This was accessed beneath a girder bridge that carried Valletort Road. The old goods shed and sidings were removed in 1903 and replaced by new sidings which handled milk traffic until 1957. Valletort Road goods depot was closed in April 1957 and was then used for about forty years by the railway civil engineers. The station became unstaffed from 19 May 1969.

Location

The station is in a cutting at the top of an incline which climbs up from Plymouth. Immediately to the west of the station the line curves sharply to the right and enters a short tunnel. The entrance is on the platform served by trains to

Gunnislake Gunnislake () is a large village in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the Tamar Valley approximately north of Plymouth The first woman cabinet minister in the British Empire, Mary Ellen Smith, was born here in 1863. G ...

and

Saltash Saltash () is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Cornwall". Saltash’s landmarks ...

. The second platform that is served by trains to

is reached by a footbridge. To walk to Devonport, turn right out of the station, right again over the tunnel. On reaching the main road the shops and

Dockyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involve ...

are down the hill to your left. The

Torpoint Ferry The Torpoint Ferry is a car and pedestrian chain ferry connecting the A374 which crosses the Hamoaze, a stretch of water at the mouth of the River Tamar, between Devonport in Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall. The service was established in 1 ...

can be reached by turning left out of the station and then following the park down the hill. To walk to Stoke, turn left out of the station and at the main road turn left again.

Services

Devonport - fGWR 150249 Penzance service

Devonport is served by

Tamar Valley Line The Tamar Valley Line is a railway line from Plymouth, Devon, to Gunnislake, Cornwall, in England, also known as the Gunnislake branch line. The line follows the River Tamar for much of its route. Like all railway lines in Devon and Cornwall, ...

services from to , and also by certain trains on the

Cornish Main Line The Cornish Main Line is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. It directly serves Truro, St Austell, Bodmin (by ...

to and from , some of which continue eastwards beyond Plymouth towards or

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London railway station and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great Western Ra ...

Signalling

The station was initially controlled by disc-and-crossbar signals controlled locally. The first

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

opened on 9 November 1877, a 20-lever box with semaphore signals, but it was extended in about 1892 to 29 levers to accommodate the new goods yard at Valletort Road. The signal box was replaced by a new one in October 1899 when the line was doubled to Keyham. It closed on 26 November 1960 since when multiple-aspect signals have been controlled by the panel signal box at

Plymouth railway station Plymouth railway station serves the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is on the northern edge of the city centre, close to the North Cross roundabout. It is the third busiest station in the county of Devon and the largest of the six survivi ...

Community railway

The railway from Plymouth to Gunnislake is designated as a

community railway Community rail in Britain is the support of railway lines and stations by local organisations, usually through community rail partnerships (CRPs) comprising railway operators, local councils, and other community organisations, and rail user grou ...

and is supported by marketing provided by the

Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership The Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership is the largest Community Rail Partnership in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1991 to promote the use of, and improvements to, rural railways in Devon and Cornwall, and also to promote the places serv ...

. The line is promoted under the "

" name. The Lounge

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

near Devonport station takes part in the Tamar Valley Line

rail ale trail A rail ale trail is a marketing exercise in the United Kingdom that is designed to promote tourism to a rural area, by encouraging people to visit a series of pubs that are close to stations along a railway line. Participants are rewarded for v ...

which is designed to promote the use of the line. The line is also part of the Dartmoor Sunday Rover network of integrated bus and rail routes.

History

Location

Services

Signalling

Community railway

See also

References

Further reading