Southern Railway Routes West of Salisbury - Into Cornwall and To Plymouth

Into Cornwall and To Plymouth

Seeking further westward expansion, the L&SWR encouraged an independent company, the Devon and Cornwall Railway, to promote a line from Coleford Junction, north-west of Crediton, to Lydford round the northern edge of Dartmoor. At Lydford the line made a junction with the South Devon & Tavistock Railway, a broad gauge company that had reached there in 1865, and running powers were obtained to continue to Plymouth. The D&CR line was opened slowly in stages between 1865 and 1874, and the completion was accompanied by the opening of the L&SWR's own terminus station at Devonport; its trains ran through Plymouth from Tavistock Junction, making a Plymouth call at Mutley station and later North Road station, then continuing to the Devonport station.

The L&SWR enhanced its own goods and dock facilities at Plymouth, and later built its own line from Lydford to Devonport, now entering the former terminus station from the west, so that L&SWR trains from Exeter now ran from west to east, calling at Devonport and North Road, and then terminating at a new passenger terminal at Friary, to the east of Plymouth city centre.

The Lydford line enabled the L&SWR to launch a railway to Holsworthy, and important market town, in 1879, extending that line to the Cornish harbour town of Bude in 1898. This route is described in the article Okehampton to Bude Line.