Torbay and Brixham Railway
The Torbay and Brixham Railway was a 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge railway in England which linked the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway at Churston railway station, Devon with the important fishing port of Brixham. It was a little over two miles long. Never more than a local branch line, it closed in 1963.
In the middle of the nineteenth century Brixham was an important fishing port, but as railways were constructed they were slow to reach the town. The South Devon Railway (SDR) opened its line to Newton Abbot—the station was called simply Newton at first—on 31 December 1846, and to a Torquay station—now renamed Torre—on 18 December 1848. It was some time before the line was extended, and it fell to a nominally independent company, the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway (D&TR) to build from Torre to Brixham Road station, later renamed Churston, opening to there on 1 April 1861. The station was high above Brixham and two miles distant, and the D&TR was focussed on reaching Dartmouth; in fact it settled for Kingswear, opening to there on 16 August 1864.
Seeing that the railway connection at "Brixham Road" was close, but inconvenient, a local solicitor and proprietor of the fishing harbour, Richard Walter Wolston, set about obtaining support for a line connecting Brixham itself. Largely by his efforts, the Torbay and Brixham Railway Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 25 July 1864 or 26 July 1864; together with a tramway in connection with the railway. The Company's share capital was £18,000 and Wolston himself subscribed £17,700. The contractor defaulted during construction, but largely due to Wolston's personal and financial resources, it was completed, and opened on 28 February 1868 to passengers, goods traffic being handled from 1 May 1868. The line was 2m 6c (3.3 km) in length.
Wolston obtained the small locomotive Queen second hand, but the line was worked by the South Devon Railway (SDR) at first. As well as passenger traffic, there was a dominant trade in fish. However Wolston was later in dispute with that Company over the setting of commission for connecting traffic. Even though that issue was corrected, the T&BR taking over the operation itself for a time, the line ran at a financial loss. The SDR had amalgamated with the GWR and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1876—the combined company maintained the name Great Western Railway.
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