Yelverton railway station

The South Devon and Tavistock Railway linked Plymouth with Tavistock in Devon; it opened in 1859. It was extended by the Launceston and South Devon Railway to Launceston, in Cornwall in 1865. It was a broad gauge line but from 1876 also carried the standard gauge (then referred to as narrow gauge) trains of the London and South Western Railway between Lydford and Plymouth: a third rail was provided, making a mixed gauge. In 1892 the whole line was converted to standard gauge only.

The line closed to passengers in 1962 although sections at either end were retained for a while to carry freight traffic. A short section has since been reopened as a preserved line by the Plym Valley Railway.

The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway, a horse-worked line, had been constructed to bring minerals from quarries near Princetown to Plymouth; it opened on 26 September 1823.

The South Devon Railway (SDR) built its line from Exeter to Plymouth, opening to a temporary station at Laira Green on 5 May 1848. It extended to its Plymouth terminus at Millbay on 2 April 1849 for passengers, with goods traffic starting on 1 May 1849. Continuous rail transport from Plymouth to London was now possible.

Promoters in the important towns near the Devon-Cornwall border developed schemes to connect their region to the new railway main line, including an early Launceston and South Devon Railway, but that proposal expired in 1846; there were also competing schemes, including a Plymouth, Tavistock, Okehampton, North Devon and Exeter Railway for a line connecting with the London and South Western Railway.

It was the South Devon and Tavistock Railway which obtained its Act of Parliament on 24 July 1854, authorising construction of a 13 mile line from to a junction with the South Devon Railway east of Plymouth; the track gauge was to be the broad gauge, 7 ft 0¼ in (2,140 mm), and authorised capital was £160,000 with borrowing powers of £53,600.

As well as serving the connected communities, the line had the strategic purpose of blocking incursion by competing narrow gauge companies, sponsored by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). However, in the final stage of getting the Bill passed, it was in the Lords Committee stage. Anthony says

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