Halwill Junction railway station

The Halwill Junction Railway was in West Devon in the UK near the village of Halwill and was, until the mid-20th century, an important railway junction. Meanwhile, the environment of the leading westward route is a nature reserve and is increasingly being opened to bicycle traffic.

Location

Crossed at the point the routes of Okehampton and Plymouth, which led in 1879 by the London and South Western Railway (L & SWR ) on Halwill to Holsworthy, and existing since 1886, North Cornwall Railway to Padstow on Ashwater. On July 27, 1925, the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was opened after Torrington addition, where these back tracks of the L & SWR met. The station was originally called Halwill for Beaworthy, from 1887 Halwill Junction and from 1923 only Halwill. In the parlance however the term Halwill Junction has been preserved.

Railway stations

The station had two opposing outer platforms that far were located in the southeast of the extensive track systems, directly at the railroad crossing, and in 1925 another in the northeast for the trains towards Torrington. The railway facilities were otherwise quite strange: The station building was despite additional compounds and correspondingly higher volume of traffic over the years, not increased. It did not have a canopy or similar weather protection and no track over-or underpass. For the change of the platform of the railway crossing had to be used. For the station there was only one signal box, which is described as probably the most complex of England for only single-track trails.

In addition to the four destinations from here also had eight sidings, branching off in different directions to be served. The biggest challenges were during the Second World War, just before the invasion of the Allies to northern France, because over the station a tremendously large transport volume was to deal with.

Closure

Halwill Junction was closed as of October 1, 1966 for passenger after for years the number of passengers was steadily declined. The main reason was that the tourists now traveled more and more with your own car. Almost until the end of steam locomotives were used on the routes, only in recent years that the train service was thinned considerably, these were replaced by diesel locomotives.

The area surrounding the former station is now built up with houses. A dead end, which is now applied to the site of some of the sidings, ironically after the chairman of the supervisory authority of the State Railways British Railways, Richard Beeching, named, who was responsible for extensive route closures, and is called logical Beeching Close.