Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway

The Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway (PD&SWJR) was an English railway company; it constructed a main line railway between Lydford and Devonport, in Devon, England, enabling the London and South Western Railway to reach Plymouth more conveniently than before.

The line was worked by the LSWR as part of its own system, but the PD&SWJR adopted the East Cornwall Mineral Railway which connected Kelly Bray and Calstock, and connected it to the main line at Bere Alston. This became the Callington branch, and the PD&SWJR operated the line itself through a subsidiary company.

In the 1960s the main line from Lydford closed, as did the western end of the Callington line, but the section from St Budeaux to Gunnislake remains open and the passenger operation is known as the Tamar Valley Line.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) and its "associated companies", the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the South Devon Railway Company (SDR), had connected Plymouth and London in 1849, giving the broad gauge group dominance over a large area. In 1859 a line was opened connecting Tavistock to the SDR near Plymouth; this was the , and it was taken over by the SDR in 1865. An affiliated company, the Launceston and South Devon Railway, extended the line to Launceston via Lidford (later spelt Lydford). The entire line from Launceston to Plymouth was controlled by the SDR.

The rival London and South Western Railway (LSWR) sought to reach Plymouth too; it planned an approach by a northern alignment from Exeter through Okehampton, encouraging the friendly Devon and Cornwall Railway Company to build the line; the LSWR took the smaller company over on 1 January 1872. The chosen course had to penetrate difficult terrain with little population, and at first it limited its ambitions to reaching Lidford: at first only to a terminus there adjacent to the SDR station, reached in 1876.

Although this was a disappointment, it enabled other tactical agreements to be made with the SDR company, and avoided a difficult Parliamentary battle; as part of the agreement that the D&CR would abandon certain authorised extensions, the SDR granted running powers over its line between Lidford and Devonport, and agreed to build a connecting line in Plymouth (the Cornwall Loop) and a Plymouth station at North Road. The LSWR built a new terminal station (approached from the east) at Devonport, so that down LSWR passenger trains approaching the area ran east-to-west through the North Road station, via the Cornwall Loop to the Devonport terminus. A Plymouth goods station at Friary on the east side of the city was also built at this time.

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