Tormouth (No Longer Owned By Us!)

 

Tormouth is a town located somewhere on the South Devon coast.

 

Once a thriving Edwardian holiday destination which grew in popularity with the advent of the railways and it’s beautiful scenery, it found itself a main Terminus hub of the GWR with a thriving goods yard and small loco shed.  As the town prospered Mr Merwick built his funicular railway down the cliffs to the river Tor Estuary and Shingle beach. The GWR constructed a further branch line in the late 1890’s to serve industry and a few small towns further along the coast.

 

To this day the branch line and the Tormouth section of the ex GWR survive, avoiding the Beeching act of the 1960’s invariably due to the large volumes of China Clay traffic shipped along the branch from the clay pits of The SDCM (South Devon Clay Mines). 

 

Today, the once thriving Tormouth goods yard has been overtaken by a small BR Depot, the loco shed has become little more than a Diesel refuelling point and the branch south has been rationalised.

 

However for the avid enthusiast, there are often China Clay and Wood workings to be seen travelling North along the branch to further afield hauled by a multitude of Diesel power.  There is also a regular diesel hauled service which terminates at Tormouth (still a busy holiday destination and tourist attraction) whilst some Diesel Multiple Units still travel south the final 12 miles to the eventual 1890’s terminus of Sudley Balterton.

 

Tormouth as you can see from the array of pictures below is well into its construction phase and will hopefully be available for Exhibition running from Summer 2015