Growing up in South Devon, I appreciated how lucky I was to be able to walk around the coast and through country lanes, lined by deep hedges, to woods and meadows with abundant wild flowers. Solitary walks were a source of solace from unhappy times and they also enabled me to recognise the importance of the natural world; something that has stayed with me ever since. It influenced my choice of subjects to study in the Sixth Form at school and then at university, and, although I could be called a scientist, I prefer to think of myself as a natural historian, as physical sciences are still a bit of a mystery to me and the study of biosciences is now dominated by one animal, rather than the wide range of animals, plants and micro-organisms that make up most of the natural world.
My other passion as a boy was trainspotting [1] and we were lucky in having a large number of trains bringing visitors to Torbay, especially on summer Saturdays. One train stood out: this was the Torbay Express that ran daily from Paddington to Kingswear and I looked on it with both admiration and envy; the former coming from the condition of whichever Castle Class locomotive pulled the train in the 1950s, and envy because I felt that there was no chance of me travelling on anything so prestigious. The Torbay Express was second only to the Cornish Riviera Express (called the Reveera by us) that didn’t come along our line and, as its name suggests, went to Plymouth and then on to Cornwall. Like “The Torbay”, it was not a train used much by holidaymakers; more by those in business and similar occupations, or by those who preferred smart, and rapid, travel.
The Torbay Express was originally called the Torbay Limited and ran on the GWR’s direct line through Berkshire, Wiltshire and Somerset, rather than on the earlier main line through Bristol. After Taunton, the line climbed to Whiteball tunnel and then entered Devonshire (an image of the express at this point is shown below, together with one of the train entering Exeter, where it made its first stop in the 1950s).
Emerging from the western end of Parsons Tunnel [see image below] the coastwise prospect is completely changed and extends to the rocky islets at the entrance to Tor Bay that we shall see at closer range later. The red cliffs are higher than ever here though less dramatic in their formation, but the sea wall, an invaluable protection for the railway in winter, is a favourite promenade for the holiday-makers of Teignmouth, whether they are railway enthusiasts or not..
..The line runs through the back
of Teignmouth town between high retaining walls, in Dartmoor granite, but
quickly enough on the left hand side there come delightful glimpses across the
harbour, boat yards, and the estuary of the River Teign, with the beautiful
little town of Shaldon beneath the high red cliff of the Ness.
The description by Nock continues after the Torbay Express has run through Newton Abbot (see image above) and then on through Kingskerswell and Torre to its next stop in Torquay:
The present main station, by Livermead Sands, is near enough to the beach for some enticing glimpses of the waters of Tor Bay, and as the train starts away for the south, and negotiates some sharp though short gradients the line comes right out above the beach [at Hollicombe] and the full beauty of Torquay’s situation and its superb and rugged coastline is displayed. At this stage in the journey the prospect is soon cut off, by the houses of Paignton..
..On leaving Paignton, and
climbing on to the cliff edge beyond Goodrington Sands (see image below) the
wide panorama over the entire sweep of Tor Bay reveals some of its interesting
and complex geological features. The red sandstone cliffs of Dawlish and
Teignmouth recur at Paignton, in an even deeper shade of red, but at each end
of the bay, on the north side extending outwards from Torquay to Hope’s Nose,
and at the south beyond Brixham to Berry Head, the tattered and splintered rock
formations from “London Bridge” to the outlying Thatcher and Oar Stones, and Berry
Head itself are examples of carboniferous limestone, and provide such striking
and spectacular cliff structure as to cause at least one eminent geographer to
compare it with those of the Mediterranean Riviera resorts.
Passing over the summit at Churston the express then ran down to the beautiful Dart valley, skirting along the river bank to the terminus at the small town of Kingswear at the mouth of the river. Remaining passengers could then travel over to Dartmouth by ferry, the town having a railway station but no railway lines (there were never any!). What a contrast it must have seemed to London and its suburbs, and what a pleasure to be able to study the landscape from a railway carriage as it passes down the line.
All this was for the passengers. Trainspotters could either find a location where the express sped past or see it at Exeter, Torquay or Paignton. There, the polished locomotive could be admired and one could take in its metallic, oily and smoky smells after the rapid, and hard-working, journey down from London. All very special memories and, as Nock points out in his descriptions of the section of line through South Devon, a link between the wonders of steam locomotives and the geology of the terrain through which the Torbay Express passed at the end of its journey. Geology is part of natural history after all, but my main interest in that subject did not involve distant views, rather in what plants and animals could be seen first-hand on shores, or in hedgerows, and what could be seen with a simple microscope.
I still like steam locomotives and, as my career has shown, I have an abiding love of natural history. Both started when I was in a boy in Torbay and I’m pleased that, in this regard at least, I have failed to grow up.
[1] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2021/07/memories-of-privet-in-torbay.html
[2] O.S.Nock (1985) Great British Trains: An evocation of a memorable age in travel. London, Pelham Books.
Photograph credits (in sequence) R.J.Blenkinsop; S.Creer; Ben Brooksbank; R.J.Blenkinsop; and Derek Cross.
