OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

RAILWAYS IN OLD DEVONPORT  |  BRITISH RAILWAYS  |  WESTERN REGION MAIN LINE, 1955

DEVONPORT STATION GWR

When opened by the Cornwall Railway Company on Wednesday May 4th 1859 this was known simply as Devonport Station.  It was the only railway station in Devonport and the only stopping place on the Cornwall Railway between Plymouth Station at Millbay and Saltash Station.  A goods shed was provided on the Down sided squashed between the Station and Devonport Tunnel.  The line was double track only as far as Devonport Tunnel and Up and Down signals were provided but they were evidently controlled by railway constables as there was no signal box.  Devonport Station Signal Box came into operation on Friday November 9th 1877 and was equipped with twenty levers.

Gradually the Great Western Railway Company was doubling the track of its main line and the stretch from Devonport Tunnel to Keyham Viaduct was completed in October 1899 and a temporary signal box, Keyham Viaduct East Signal Box, opened at the Devonport end of the viaduct.  The Devonport Station Signal Box was also replaced in 1899, the new one having 29 levers, albeit with 9 of them not used.

The squashed goods shed referred to above was inconvenient for rail traffic to access and in 1902 local contractor Mr A N Coles, of Plymouth, started work on building a new goods depot adjacent to Valletort Road.  The new depot was some distance from the Station and to reach it two lines had to be laid from the Plymouth end of Devonport Station and carried through a cutting in Valletort Road and under an iron bridge.  The site of the shed was some 60 feet deep and had to be filled with some 50,000 cubic yards of rubble to make it level.   More convenient approach roads were made to the depot and the whole project was viewed as a vast improvement that served the needs of the Mercantile Association of the Town.  The cost of the work was about £20,000, exclusive of permanent way.

Two years later, in 1904, the Company once again contracted with Mr Coles to carry out improvement works at the Station.  Pedestrian access to the Up platform, for London, was by using the Down platform and across a footbridge at the Penzance end of the Station.  For the benefit of people from Morice Town and Keyham, a path some 700 feet long was cut into the embankment from Albert Road to the Up platform.  The old footbridge was closed and replaced with a temporary one.  The path was also extended to Havelock Terrace for the benefit of passengers living in that area.  A new steel footbridge, with a roof, was erected at the Plymouth end of the Station and the temporary one was removed on Saturday December 31st 1904.  Additional flights of steps were in the process of being installed to link with the paths with the platforms.  The platform on the Down side was lengthened by 150 feet and widened by 10 feet, which meant that the old offices had to be demolished and new ones erected further back.  This enabled the larger waiting-rooms, booking office, parcels office and cloakrooms to be built.  The UP platform was also extended by 150 feet but the original buildings were all retained.  The old lavatory was transformed into a booking office and the old store at the other end of the block became the lavatory.  The wooden verandas, which only extended the length of the buildings on each platform, and were very narrow, were replaced with much longer and broader ones supported on steel cantilevers and covered with iron and glass.

At the same time new sidings were laid in to the horse and carriage landings near the old goods shed.  The sidings were known as Up sidings although they were on the Down side of the track because they could only be accessed from the Up line.  Milk traffic was handled here.  This improvement work was expected to cost around £10,000 and the painting and finishing work was expected to be completed in January 1905.  The contactor's foreman of works for the project was Mr J Bonney.

The the railway network was nationalised on January 1st 1948 the Station name was altered to Devonport (Albert Road) to distinguish it fro the former Southern Railway one at King's Road.

By the end of the Second World War the milk traffic had ceased and the Up Sidings were removed in 1957.  The goods depot at Valletort Road was closed from Monday April 15th 1957 and the site turned over to the British Railways Civil Engineering Department.  The track into and within the depot was removed in September 1970.

Devonport Station Signal Box closed on Saturday November 26th 1960 when the new Plymouth Multiple Aspect Signalling System came into operation from the Plymouth Panel Box.

Now renamed "Devonport" once again, the Station remains in use but is completely devoid of any buildings other than the modern bus-stop type shelters.