I’d taken this photo of a rail level crossing back in the early 1990s when I was walking around south Devon with my girlfriend at the time (hello, Debbie Miller!).
Because the weekend involved generous levels of imbibing in a Newton Abbot cider bar, I couldn’t remember exactly where the photo was taken, but assumed that the line would have long since vanished.
Happily, after bit of research, I was able to work out that the keeper’s cottage and crossing were still in existence and were next to Teignbridge station, formerly on the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway.
[Heathfield station, further down the line, South Devon, 1906 – wikipedia]
The line saw its last passenger train as far back as 28 February 1959, with Heathfield becoming the terminus of the line on 6 July 1970, with its survival due to an oil terminal that opened in 1965.
After being mothballed for many years, RMWeb reports that the branch is enjoying operational status again, after Colas Rail won a contract to take timber produced by Kronospan from Teignbridge (Devon) to Chirk (North Wales) by train.
[More on Heathfield Station] – [Railway Magazine report]
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