North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway

The North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was a secondary railway line which had been built to serve the large number of clay pits, which lay between the London and South Western Railway and the northern branch of the North Devon Railway, can. This specifically heavy material was transported to the opening of the line on 27 July 1925, a low-cost means of mass transport by rail and not by truck. The route began in the south in Halwill Junction train station and ended in the north in Torrington and was an important link to the North Cornwall Railway with the Okehampton to Bude Line. The reason for classification as a branch line was lower technical and administrative Aufwand.Die planning of the route is on Holman Fred Stephens (1868-1931) attributed, an engineer who has conducted numerous route planning for various British railway companies as well as the Southern Railway.

The passenger transport had a rather minor importance and consisted mainly of workers of the clay pits. Important transfer station was Meeth Works, where extensive track systems for the Tontransport in 914 -mm narrow gauge (3 feet over ) were present.

The largest town along the former route is Hatherleigh, a market town on the plateau with 1,300 inhabitants today. Until the nationalization in 1948, the track was in private hands. Should be re-privatized again with the Transport Act 1962, in which smaller distances and ultimately a third of the British railway lines were shut down, the blow came for this route because there was no interested.

The ten- kilometer-long northern section of the clay pits at Meeth and Marland, who were already established before the opening of the line in narrow gauge, were scaled back, and were operated until August 1982, that had since its opening on January 1, 1880 over 100 years of existence.

Route

The track was built as cheaply possible way. She followed to some extent in parts of the existing narrow gauge railway, thereby inevitably had quite tight curves and 1:40 to 1:45 a strong slope.

The total distance was fixed and on the single track section from Torrington to Dunsbear grip on a top speed of 20 mph (32 km / h) from there to Halwill to 25 mph (40 km / h).

The schedule of the season 1964/65 pointed out two trains in each direction, the required 80 minutes in diesel operation for the 32 -kilometer route. Also, drove three freight trains between the clay pits and Torrington. Sundays wrong no trains.