Pilton railway station

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Pilton Yard, in the village of Pilton, to the North of Barnstaple was, between 1895 and 1935, the main depot and operating centre of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon. Goods facilities were also provided at Pilton, but passengers were catered for at the nearby Barnstaple Town station, which provided a junction with the LSWR main line to Ilfracombe. The lines main offices were also at Pilton, based in a building belonging to the Tannery which had earlier occupied the site.

Pilton was the site of the L&B's only turntable. Locomotives always travelled with their boilers facing "down" the line, i.e towards Lynton (down as it was away from London by rail, although geologically, Lynton was higher, and geographically nearer to London). The turntable was used to turn rolling stock periodically to even wear bearing wear. After closure, the turntable was installed at the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in Kent, but is now owned by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust and in storage for eventual restoration and reuse on the new L&B.

The carriage sheds, locomotive shed and other remnants of the railway were destroyed in a fire in 1992. Much of the site is now a car park, although there are still signs of its former railway use.

Perchance it "is not dead but sleepeth" - Inspiring the L&B Project

As described by JW Dorling, writing in The Railway Magazine a month after the event, on Monday 30 September 1935, the day after the railway closed, Barnstaple Town stationmaster Harold Ford and Porter Guard Walkey laid a wreath of bronze crysanthemums on the Barnstaple Town Station stop block. Sent by Paymaster Captain Thomas Alfred Woolf, R.N. (Retd.), of Woody Bay.

The wreath bore a black-edged postcard, hand-written on both sides:

TO BARNSTAPLE & LYNTON RAILWAY WITH REGRET & SORROW FROM A CONSTANT USER AND ADMIRER

Perchance it "is not dead but sleepeth"

Captain Woolf died on 12 May 1937, aged 55 and is buried in Martinhoe Churchyard. Each September, at the Woody Bay Steam Gala, a wreath of bronze crysanthemums is carried on the pilot loco, and afterwards, laid on the Captain's grave in remembrance, and as thanks for his inspirational words.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Association was founded in 1979, intending to restore the line to its former glory, serving tourists and the local community alike, making the Captain's prophesy a reality.

Headed by the Association (now the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust), a number of groups, and over 1500 volunteers, run The L&B Project, researching, restoring, rebuilding and operating the railway, from its base at Woody Bay station.

Pilton yard is at: grid reference SS55763360