Plymouth, Turnchapel Branch (BRSR)

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

TURNCHAPEL BRANCH (BRSR)

CLOSURE

The Turnchapel Branch was closed temporarily on January 14th 1951 due to coal shortages nationally and as a result many of its passengers transferred their custom to the Western National motor buses that provided services into Plymouth. Thus, when the line re-opened on July 2nd a lot of the customers had been lost forever.

B4 class locomtoive running light engine to Bayly's timber yard, circa 1954

B4 class 30088 running light engine on its way to
Bayly's timber yard, circa 1954.
Photo by the late Mr R C Sambourne

As a result, the last train left Turnchapel at 10.45pm on Saturday September 8th 1951 and the was line closed to passengers from Monday September 10th 1951.

Mr Jack Lambert was the signalman at Turnchapel at that time. He had been signalman for the last 18 years and had worked on the Branch since 1913, except for three years during the Great War, when he served with the Railway Operating Division in France. He recalled that during the Second World War the platform at Turnchapel Station would be choked from end to end with servicemen and how before the War around 1,500 passengers would have used the line on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. There was also a great deal of freight traffic to and from Turnchapel Dockyard and he anticipated that this would continue.

The final train carried about 50 railway enthusiasts including the vice-president and honorary secretary of the Plymouth Railway Circle, Messrs Chris Soper and Bernard S Murton, which prompted the British Railway's inspector, Mr C Bishop, to comment to the press that: 'If they turned up like this for every train the service would be running next week. It takes about 35 passengers a trip to make it pay.' The train was greeted at Friary Station by the explosion of detonators on the track.

Friary Station closed to passengers from Monday September 15th 1958, with the Friary Junction Signal Box following on the 27th.

The Turnchapel Branch closed to freight traffic from Monday October 2nd 1961, the access to the Plymouth & Oreston Timber Company's yard (otherwise known as Bayly's siding) remaining open until Friday October 20th, when the last train ran.

It was reported in March 1963 that the track was being lifted and would be shipped to Spain for scrap. On May 12th 1963 Stamps Bridge, over the main road at Pomphlett, was demolished by a crane wielding a 2-ton weight. Work began at 5am and was completed inside 30 minutes. It was reported on October 7th 1963 that the swing bridge across Hooe Lake was being broken up for scrap.