On 7 March 2014 18:54, Matt Lee <
mattl@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Can someone link me to a resource about these old Railways? I had no
idea there was a rail service over Dartmoor.
Be delighted to! (Apologies to rest of list)
There were four passenger services that spring to mind on Dartmoor;
Longdown - Heathfield:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teign_Valley_Line
(Carried minerals from the mines in the area as well as passengers)
Princetown to Yelverton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princetown_Railway(A beautiful line, and a cool mountain bike ride downhill to Coypool at Plymouth too - or footpath into the moor)
Okehampton to Tavistock:
https://www.dartmoorrailway.com/(Brushes the west of open moorland, the Granite Way cyclepath runs along it - and there's a working service as far as Meldon Quarry)
Heathfield to Mortonhampstead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moretonhampstead_and_South_Devon_RailwayBovey still has Station Yard and a mini museum next to it. I worked out of that yard for two years for DNP. This was a great route up through Parke, through Lustleigh and on through the cleaves. Much of Lustleigh's fine Victorian architecture was built from the emergence of the railway where it was even then a very posh place to visit and live. I don't know, but I imagine this also carried small amounts of minerals from Kelly mine and Wrey Cleave mines. (Primarily micaceous haemetite in barrels, same as at Trusham.)
All were primarily passenger lines and were closed (I believe) through Beeching's cuts, although the railways exist to Meldon where a lot of railway ballast was quarried, but is currently mothballed.
There was also several mini routes for various industries on the moor, either tramway or small gauge. I don't know much about them, I'm afraid, other than having walked some of them.
