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 and 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.

Pilton yard is at: grid reference SS55763360