Dartmouth and Torbay Railway

The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway was a broad gauge railway linking the South Devon Railway branch at Torquay with Kingswear in Devon, England. It was operated from the outset by the South Devon Railway.

The line to Paignton is now part of First Great Western's Riviera Line, the remaining section is operated by the Heritage Dartmouth Steam Railway.

Torbay and Dartmouth had considerable commercial importance in the early nineteenth century. The South Devon Railway (SDR) opened its line to from Exeter to Newton Abbot—the station was called simply Newton at first—on 31 December 1846, and to a Torquay station—later renamed Torre—on 18 December 1848. The "Torquay" station was inconveniently located due to difficulty in Parliament over land acquisition required for a more central site. Moreover, the SDR had other issued to contend with following the collapse of the atmospheric system on which it had focussed its technical attention, and the difficulty of reaching its primary goal, Plymouth.

The need to extend the line was obvious and it fell to a local concern to propose the construction. The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament of 27 July 1857 to build from the SDR Torquay station to or near Dartmouth, and power to establish a ferry from Kingswear to Dartmouth, and to take over the existing Dartmouth Floating Bridge Company.

The course of the southern portion of the route proved controversial and the first opening was from the SDR "Torquay" station to Paignton on 2 August 1859. The new Company provided its own Torquay station and the SDR station was renamed Torre. This short section was exceptionally difficult in engineering terms due to the difficult terrain; it included 20 bridges, a viaduct and a tunnel of 133 yards (122 m), at Oil Cove.

The next section was from Paignton to Brixham Road (later renamed Churston); it opened to passengers on 14 March 1861 and to goods on 1 April 1861. This too included difficult engineering: Goodrington Marsh had to be crossed, and there were two masonry viaducts. The Brixham Road station was about two miles from Brixham, and important fishing port.

...
Wikipedia