The section of the Great Western Main-line between London Paddington and Penzance along the notorious seawall at Dawlish is probably the most photographed railway location in Britain. The choice of route was not one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s better decisions, leaving a legacy of never ending headaches for those charged with maintaining the line. The seawall carrying the railway at Dawlish takes the full force of the open sea, it has been breached on numerous occasions since its construction, most recently in 2014 when the line was closed between February 4th and April 3rd due to a washout at Dawlish (Riveira Terrace) and a rock fall at Holcombe. Generations of children including myself have enjoyed playing on the sandy beaches as a succession of trains passed along the seawall ranging from famous named expresses to humble pickup freights. The route featured in this video between Exeter and Teignmouth was opened by the South Devon Railway company on the 30th May 1846 as a broad gauge line 7 feet ¼ inch (2,140 mm) utilising a novel form of propulsion whereby the train was attached to a piston pulled through a tube set between the tracks. A vacuum was created in the central tube by pumping stations spaced along the route, this vacuum in effect pulled the piston through the tube, unfortunately the technology was ahead of the materials available at the time, the leather used to seal the slot in the tube required to connect the piston with the underside of the train was simply not up to the job. Atmospheric trains as they were known only ran from 13th September 1847 until 9th September 1848 after which they were replaced by conventional steam locomotives. Standard Gauge rails (4 feet 8½ inches) replaced the original broad gauge tracks after 20th May 1892. The London and South Western Railway operated their trains via Oakhampton between Exeter and Plymouth, the line was occasionally used by GWR trains as an alternative route to Cornwall whenever the coastal line was closed due to storm damage. Over the years a local inland route was considered, avoiding the vulnerable coastal section between Exeter and Teignmouth, the idea never got past the talking stage. On Sunday, May 5, 1968 the Southern Railway Railway’s route to Plymouth was closed by the government of the day, leaving only the disaster prone coastal line to serve stations beyond Exeter to Plymouth and Penzance. We take a look at some of the stations along the old Southern Railway route still served by modern DMU’s today, indeed the route to Oakhampton has just reopened to passenger trains. Only a 20-mile (32 km) section between Meldon Quarry and Bere Alston was lifted, the seawall will be washed away again, MP’s West of Exeter will call for the old Southern Railway route to be re-instated, noises will be made in the Houses of Parliament and nothing will happen. Our forefathers must be holding their heads in utter despair as they look down on the pathetic decision makers of today as they prattle on about saving the planet whilst leaving people with no alternative to driving by road.

To learn more about the seawall, please click on this link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_D...

To learn more about the atmospheric system of propulsion, please click on this link - http://devonheritage.org/stentiford/I...

To learn more about the missing link, please click on this link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoo...

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