Heathfield railway station, originally Chudleigh Road railway station before the Teign Valley Line opened, was on the

Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway The Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was a broad gauge railway which linked the South Devon Railway at Newton Abbot railway station with (in the town of Bovey Tracey), and , Devon, England. History In 1861 the Moretonhampstead and ...

at Heathfield, nearly from

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The station was opened on 1 July 1874 as 'Chudleigh Road', but was renamed 'Heathfield' on 1 October 1882. It became a junction when the Teign Valley Railway opened to Ashton, Devon in 1882. Until 23 May 1892 all traffic between the two lines had to be transferred at Heathfield as the Moretonhampstead line was built to the in

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

, but the Teign Valley was in

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. The original station only had one platform serving the Moretonhampstead branch. In 1927 this platform was extended and a new passing loop and platform was provided for down trains came into use on 24 May 1927. Both platforms were signalled for reversible running until 1943 when the crossover was removed. The large

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

of Candy and Company was situated alongside the station and was served by its own siding.

After 1959

The last regular passenger trains ran on 28 February 1959. Since 6 July 1970 Heathfield has been the terminus of the branch line, the few trains running this far serving an oil terminal that opened in 1965. In 2009 the line was mothballed until December 2011 when it was announced that the section of the line to Heathfield would re-opened to facilitate the transport of timber from Heathfield to Chirk in North Wales by

Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure company, which also serves as a rail freight operator in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Bouygues. Colas Rail was founded as Seco Rail by SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillag ...

. In the same month a timber siding was opened at

Teigngrace Teigngrace is a civil parish centred on a hamlet that lies about two miles north of the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, its population was 235, compared to 190 a century earlier. The western boundary of the pa ...

, just before the level crossing at Exeter Road, to allow the timber to be loaded onto the freight trains. Teigngrace lacks a passing loop and trains with empty wagons continue up the line to Heathfield to permit locomotives to run around the waggons using the loop in the disused station. The empty freight train then drives back to the timber sidings at Teigngrace to be loaded. Loading of the timber is carried out by the lorries that bring the timber to the sidings. Following the damage in 2014 to the sea wall at

Dawlish Dawlish is a seaside resort town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Teignbridge district in Devon, England. It is located on the south coast of England at a distance of from the city of Exeter and a similar distance from the to ...

one of the suggested alternative routes was via the re-statement of the Heathfield to Alphington rail link. A new company, Heath Rail Link, met with Network Rail in January 2018 to discuss plans and progress. During the meeting, Network Rail gave authorisation for Heath Rail Link to lease the line once funds were submitted for it. The idea being to provide a commuter service into Newton Abbot with a park and ride facility at Heathfield.

History

After 1959

References

Further reading