Southern Railway Routes West of Salisbury - On To Exeter

On To Exeter

When the S&YR had been authorised and the Coastal Scheme abandoned, the course of the L&SWR route to Exeter was clear, and they now easily got an Act for the line on 21 July 1856. Construction was swift, and the line opened throughout from Yeovil to Exeter Queen Street on 19 July 1860—seven weeks after the opening of the S&YR. The Bristol & Exeter Railway, a broad gauge company, had reached Exeter 16 years previously.

The L&SWR line made a junction with the S&YR—in reality simply a continuation of the main line—at Bradford Abbas, and built a station called Yeovil Junction, and a connecting line from the Hendford line, forming a triangle. The LS&WR worked the S&YR line from the outset. The main line from Salisbury to Exeter Queen Street was single throughout, with intermediate crossing stations at Wilton, Dinton, Tisbury, Semley, Gillingham, Templecombe, Milborne Port, Sherborne, Yeovil Junction, Sutton Bingham, Crewkerne, Chard Road, Axminster, Colyton, Honiton, Feniton, Whimple, and Broad Clyst.

The route traversed difficult terrain, with most river valleys running transverse to its direction, so that gradients were significant, 1 in 80 being typical. Nonetheless only three tunnels were needed: Buckhorn Weston (sometimes known as Gillingham Tunnel, 742 yards long, two miles west of Gillingham; Crewkerne (206 yards, a mile west of Crewkkerne station) and Honiton (at 1,345 yards the longest on the L&SWR system, two miles west of Honiton). Due to the difficulty of the landscape, the line passed by most of the important towns in the area, and this led to the eventual construction of several branch lines to bring railways to the towns.

Yeovil Town station opened on 1 June 1861, and L&SWR passenger trains ceased to run on to Hendford; goods trains continued to use the yard there. In 1860 there were four passenger trains each way between Salisbury and Exeter, and at least one each way ran via Hendford, using the Bradford Abbas curve between the Salisbury line and Hendford, with others having a connecting shuttle from the Junction station.

The siding accommodation at Hendford was very cramped, and to facilitate goods exchange traffic, the GWR built a short goods branch line to Yeovil Junction from the Weymouth line; it was officially referred to as the Clifton Maybank Siding, and it opened on 13 June 1864. It was broad gauge and there was no common siding accommodation; the exchange was by transhipping the goods.

The east curve was closed on 1 January 1870, after which trains from Salisbury to Yeovil Town reversed at Yeovil Junction. On 1 July 1870, the entire line between Salisbury and Exeter was doubled.