Plymouth Friary Railway Station - Harbourside Lines

Harbourside Lines

On 22 October 1879 an extension was opened through a short tunnel beneath Exeter Street to North Quay on Sutton Harbour, from where wagon turntables allowed access to Sutton Wharf and Vauxhall Quay; an LSWR office was established on the Barbican opposite the Fish Quay A connection from the GWR Sutton Harbour depot to North Quay was opened on 6 November 1879 and both companies then served the quays.

A longer branch to Cattedown was started soon after the Friary goods branch had opened in 1878; it was completed in 1888. It served the Corporation Wharves just south of the Laira Bridge across the River Plym which had been served by the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway (P&DR) for many years. It then continued to follow the water from along Cattewater to terminate at the Victoria Wharves, a short distance south of the GWR's Coxside Depot on Sutton Harbour. Along the way it served a number of sidings: the electricity power station at Princes Rock; a Plymouth Corporation depot, Blight and White, Regent Oil, and the wharves at Cattedown; the railway's own goods depot at Cattewater; South West Tar Distillers; and Esso in Cattedown Quarry. There is a 48 yards (44 m) tunnel at Cattedown.