Ashburton Station

As someone who lives in South Devon my support has to lie with the Dartmoor National Park. There is only one Dartmoor but there is a choice if it is Heritage railways you are after. Just over three miles - yes that is all it is - from Ashbuton you have the existing section of Buckfastleigh to Totnes of the former Ashburton Branch and within Devons borders, or close to them, lies the Paignton - Kingswear line, near Plymouth is the Plym Valley, near Launceston is the the Launceston railway, North Devon has the expanding L&B, and if you travel further away (by reasonably good roads), you will find the West Somerset, East Somerset and so the list goes on.
If you are after historical towns and buildings then Exeter, Totnes, Dartmouth and other towns offer that.
As far as tourism and the well being of Ashburton is concerned they really need all year around facilities. The principal tourist attraction in that area is already on their doorstep and that is Buckfast Abbey. Perusal of the SDR timetable shows only seven months of the year, plus parts parts of March and December (plus a few half tern days) when trains are presently running. I see no likely increase in days of operation and times (just nine trains in the peak season) if Ashburton was included in the timetable.

 

... but there are very few original overall wooden roof stations such as Ashburton. It was one of preservation's defeats that the Dart Valley Railway was truncated at Buckfastleigh, which has never (to my eye) seemed a natural terminus.

John

 

Maybe is best it does not happen if the numbers of passenger need to increase to fund and keep it do you risk changing the character of the south devon from being a branch line experience to being another line with long trains of mk 1 and class 4 locos.

 

Anybody would think this was a proposal to re-instate the Redlake Mire line .
Ashburton is hardly in the middle of the Moor, in fact it is not on the Moor at all, and was not in the original National Park. Why it was transferred from DCC to DNPA is a mystery. The DNPA has an appalling record with regard to industrial history on the moor, with much lost under their policies. Those interested in the Ashburton station buildings are right to be concerned.

 

I believe the overall train shed will still be there, just with another use. It should really depend on the folks who live in and near Ashburton, rather than those who live elsewhere I guess.

Anybody would think this was a proposal to re-instate the Redlake Mire line . Now that would be a most interesting project.

 

It was early days and wouldn't happen if it was now. It's like the MHR, crying shame that Itchen Abbas was lost, why oh why didn't they protect the trackbed?

Ashburton I love and to see trains there would be magic, I was on the last "merrymaker" into there decades go, but that's just it, it would have to take magic to make it happen. The SDR are keeping it at arms length and when they investigated re-opening, they settled on a station on the outskirts. I can't see too much pleasure in riding a train alongside the A38 and the obstacles in the way are immense. Added to that that the People of Ashburton don't seem to want it, then it's a non starter

 

My boss lives in a house on the Itchen Abbas station site. Some very nice(= large and expensive) houses round there now, some with bits of trackbed at the bottom of the garden.

 

From Google maps it looks as if only one house is built on the trackbed at the Alresford end (Bridge Rd level Crossing. Itchen Abbas is a lost cause though.