History
The station opened with the Cornwall Railway on 4 May 1859. It was described at the time as "built of rubble masonry, in the Italian style of architecture, which style is adopted at all stations on the railway. It consists of an arrival, departure, and goods stations, the two former being stone structures, and the last a wooden erection".
In 1865 the Royal Agricultural Show was held at nearby at Pennycomequick and so the opportunity was taken to enlarge the platforms at Devonport. A "refreshment booth" was also erected for the duration of the show to cater for the large number of visitors expected.
The Cornwall Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 July 1889. The Great Western Railway was nationalised into British Railways from 1 January 1948 which was in turn privatised in the 1990s.
For a while after 1948 the station was known as Devonport Albert Road to distinguish it from the ex-London and South Western Railway Kings Road station (now the site of the City College Plymouth). The name reverted to just "Devonport" from 6 May 1968.
The goods shed was originally situated in front of the station near the tunnel entrance, but a new goods yard was opened in about 1892 on a larger site east of the station. This was accessed beneath a girder bridge that carried Valletort Road. The old goods shed and sidings were removed in 1903 and replaced by new sidings which handled milk traffic until 1957.
Valletort Road goods depot was closed in April 1957 and was then used for about forty years by the railway civil engineers. The station became unstaffed from 19 May 1969.
Read more about this topic: Devonport Railway Station
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