Plymouth Millbay railway station

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The South Devon Railway originally planned to bring its railway from Exeter to the Eldad area of Plymouth, on a hill above Stonehouse Creek. In the event, it was redesigned to terminate at a station between Union Street and the new Plymouth Great Western Docks that were planned in Millbay itself. At this time it was just known as Plymouth as no other stations existed in the town.

The railway reached a temporary station at Laira on the eastern outskirts of Plymouth on 5 May 1848 and was extended to Millbay on 2 April 1849. The South Devon Railway opened a new headquarters building a couple of years later, this superseded rented accommodation nearby at The Octagon.

The station was expanded ready for the opening of the Cornwall Railway on 4 May 1859 and the South Devon and Tavistock Railway on 22 June 1859.

The station became known as Plymouth Millbay after other stations were opened in the town in 1876-7 at Mutley and North Road.

A separate ticket platform was erected just outside the station in 1851 and was used until 1896. This enabled all tickets to be checked while the train paused outside the station. The opportunity was often taken for the engine to be detached and sent to the engine shed at this time and the train propelled into the platforms by a pilot engine.

When first opened, the platforms were covered by a large wooden roof, and this was expanded when the station was rebuilt in 1859. More conventional canopies were provided and the platforms redesigned in 1900-03.

Outside the station the line crossed over Union Street on an iron bridge and then passed a complex of carriage and locomotive sheds before the line to Devonport diverged to the left at Cornwall Junction near the bridge beneath Five Fields Lane, now North Road West.

The South Devon Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 February 1876. The station had been built to broad gauge but was converted to standard gauge on 21 May 1892, although standard gauge goods trains were working to Millbay Docks from 1878.

The station was closed to passengers on 23 April 1941 after bombs destroyed the nearby goods depot; the passenger station being used thereafter only for goods traffic and access to the carriage sheds. All traffic ceased from 14 December 1969 except for goods trains running through to the docks which continued until 30 June 1971.

The site is now occupied by the Plymouth Pavilions leisure complex. Two granite gate posts outside the Millbay Road entrance are all that is left of the station.

[edit] Further reading

• The Great Western in South Devon by Keith Beck and John Copsey, Wild Swan Publications 1990, ISBN 0-906867-90-8
• An Illustrated History of Plymouth's Railways by Martin Smith, Irwell Press 1995, ISBN 1-81760-841-4
• The South Devon Railway by R H Gregory, Oakwood Press1982, ISBN 0-85361-286-2

The records of the various railway companies can be consulted at The National Archives