Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway facts for kids
The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway (P&DR) was a railway built in Devon, England. It used a special track width of 4 feet 6 inches. The railway aimed to help the economy of the moorland areas around Princetown. People could use their own horse-drawn wagons on the railway and paid a fee. It opened in 1823, and more short lines were added over the next few years.
The Lee Moor Tramway (LMT) started as a branch of the main line in 1856. By then, getting china clay out of the ground had become a big business. The LMT carried this clay down to factories and to ships in Plymouth. The LMT also used horses, but it also had steam engines and special rope-pulled slopes called inclines.
The Omen Beam Tramway was a separate small railway. It was used to collect peat from the moor above Dartmoor prison. This peat was then used to make a fuel called naphtha.
Building the P&DR cost much more than planned. Also, the idea of helping farming on the moor didn't really happen. One trading company mostly used the railway to bring granite to Plymouth for shipping. Later, china clay was found on Lee Moor, and a branch of the P&DR was built to carry it to Plymouth. The original P&DR line was used less and less. Its top part was later used for the Princetown Railway. However, the LMT branch and a small part of the lower P&DR line were used until 1960. The railway famously crossed the main Exeter to Plymouth train line. Many old photos show horse-drawn wagons crossing the busy main line, which looked very unusual!
Contents
How the Railway Started
The Big Idea
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt was a kind and wealthy landowner in Devon. He had started a new town called Princetown on Dartmoor. He really wanted to make life better for the people living there. Dartmoor prison was finished in Princetown in 1809. It was built to hold prisoners of war. But after the war ended in 1815, the prison became empty.
Sir Thomas wanted to improve farming and mining on Dartmoor. He thought of building a railway to connect Princetown and Plymouth. This railway would bring important things like lime, sea-sand, wood, and coal up to the moor. These materials would help improve the land for farming. It would also carry granite, peat, minerals, and farm products down to Plymouth. Wagons would be pulled by horses. Anyone could use the railway by paying a fee, like on a toll road.
In 1818, he suggested his plan to the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce. He said the railway could make a lot of money. People liked the idea and invested in it. William Shillabear, a schoolmaster, surveyed the route. William Stuart, an engineer, estimated the building costs. A law was passed on July 2, 1819, to create the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway. It had money to build a line from Crabtree to Princetown.
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt officially laid the first rail on August 12, 1819. But the actual building contracts hadn't been signed yet. The railway's design still needed some changes.
Extending the Line
The railway was planned to go from Crabtree to Princetown. Crabtree was chosen because it was close to the water, at a small dock on the River Plym. This spot was about 4 kilometers east of Plymouth's center. However, ships could only reach the dock at high tide, and the river path was long and tricky. So, they decided to extend the railway further west to reach Sutton Pool.
Another law was passed on August 8, 1820, to allow this extension. It also allowed a branch line to Cattewater. This added about £7,200 to the expected cost. William Stuart was put in charge of building. The company also thought about selling granite themselves, not just carrying it. But they didn't add this to the 1820 law.
In April 1820, they ordered cast iron rails. They were shaped like a "fishbelly," about 86 cm long and 15 cm deep. They would be joined end-to-end on stone blocks. The track width was set at 4 feet 6 inches. No one knows for sure why this specific width was chosen.
In June 1820, Hugh McIntosh was hired to build the railway path. It would be a single track with passing places every mile. Some of these passing places, like at Roborough and Yelverton, were made of granite blocks.
On September 21, 1820, the company made a very important deal with Johnson and Bryse. This company had rights to get granite from Dartmoor. They needed to bring it to Plymouth for the breakwater project and to ship it elsewhere. They agreed to pay a fixed price per ton for at least 8,000 tons a year. This meant the railway company would get a steady income of £1,000 a year.
Changing the Main Route
On December 26, 1820, the engineer Stuart reported a problem. The route surveyed by Shillabear, up to Jump (later Roborough), was too steep for horses. He suggested a new path that would make the slope less steep. This was a problem because they had just gotten approval for the second route and started building. Some earthworks near Roborough were already done. The company blamed Stuart and hired Roger Hopkins as an assistant engineer.
A new route with easier slopes was found and approved. It went east of the old path but needed a tunnel (Leigham Tunnel). This added another £5,000 to the cost. A law allowing this was passed on July 2, 1821. The total estimated cost became £40,000, and the line was 41 kilometers long.
The new route had to cross land owned by the Earl of Morley. He had a quarry nearby at Cann. He demanded that the railway connect to his quarry. Three committee members agreed to this without asking the full committee. This connection could be a regular branch line or a slope crossing the River Plym.
Engineer William Stuart argued with the committee about who was responsible for the route choice. He was fired in October 1821. The builder McIntosh was also fired in June 1822 because of poor work. Johnson Brothers then took over the building. Hopkins became the main engineer. He changed the design for later rails. They were to be 117 cm long, with overlapping joints at the stone blocks.
Opening and Growth
Building the railway was very hard financially. They only kept going with many loans. So, everyone was very happy when the line finally opened on September 26, 1823, with a celebration breakfast. The first part opened was between Crabtree and the bottom of Kings Tor, Walkhampton.
The line twisted and turned a lot to keep a gentle downhill slope towards Plymouth. In a straight line, the distance was about 21 kilometers. The tracks were 4 feet 6 inches wide. The rails were bolted to cast iron holders on stone blocks. The Leigham tunnel was 567 meters long. There was also one stone bridge near Plym Bridge over the Roborough to Plympton road.
John and William Johnson ran the quarries at Walkhampton. The railway company soon found that traffic from their quarries made up most of their money. The hoped-for farm goods and other general traffic didn't appear. Also, the company had spent all its money and couldn't pay back its loans. So, the Johnson Brothers built the extensions to Sutton Pool and Princetown themselves. In return, they got special deals on tolls. This way, the line reached Princetown in 1826. The Princetown end was a bit east of where the later Great Western Railway station would be.
The Earl of Morley had given land for the railway. But he had a condition: a branch line had to be built to his quarry in Cann Wood. He pushed the company to do this. However, he actually turned an existing water channel into a canal, the Cann Quarry Canal. This canal went from his quarry to near Marsh Mills. The Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway then built a short branch line (about 800 meters) from near Crabtree to a basin on the canal. These parts opened in late 1829 or early 1830. This meant goods had to be moved from the canal to the railway. Operating boats on the fast-flowing canal was hard. So, the branch was extended north to Plymbridge in 1833, mostly along the canal's path.
Lord Morley also had interests in china clay (a type of kaolinite) at Lee Moor, north-east of Marsh Mills. In 1833, he arranged with Johnson Brothers to extend the P&DR east from Marsh Mills to Plympton. China clay could then be brought down from Lee Moor by packhorse. This part opened in 1834. It's not clear if this extension belonged to Morley or the Johnsons, but it's usually seen as part of the P&DR.
No Passengers Planned
The P&DR was not meant to carry passengers. However, one old diary mentions seeing a "vehicle not much unlike a rude kind of vis-a-vis with an awning." The writer thought it might be for pleasure trips from Plymouth. But it was probably just a stone wagon with boards for seats, used by the engineer to check the line.
After the Opening
The railway was supposed to cost £27,783 and make a lot of money. But it ended up costing much more. They had borrowed £28,000 from the government. The Johnson Brothers had a very good deal for their granite transport. Any money from their traffic went back to them to pay off what the company owed them. There wasn't much other general traffic. For example, from 1823 to 1825, the Johnson Brothers' traffic brought in £1093, while everyone else's brought in only £29.
Lord Morley then demanded that the promise to connect his Cann Wood Quarry be kept. With the government asking for loan payments, the company was in serious trouble.
Despite the problems, the Sutton Harbour extension was finished in December 1825. The final section to Princetown was done in December 1826. The end of the line in Princetown was behind what later became the Railway Inn.
The company was desperate. They agreed to lower the tolls for the Johnson Brothers. In return, the Johnson Brothers' special deal would end seven years later. Lord Morley, seeing the situation, built a canal from his quarry to Marsh Mills. This was just a wider version of an old water channel and didn't work well as a canal. However, a branch from the P&DR to Marsh Mills, crossing the River Plym, opened in late 1829 or early 1830.
Lord Morley had interests in china clay at Lee Moor. In 1833, he agreed with the Johnson Brothers that they would build a branch line to Plympton. This line mostly followed the north side of the Exeter Turnpike road. China clay was brought from Lee Moor by packhorse to Plympton. The line was finished by mid-1834 and leased to the Johnson Brothers for 75 years.
The seven-year agreement with the Johnson Brothers gave them control over granite transport until 1834. But after that, no other company came forward to challenge them.
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt died in 1833. His dream of developing farming on the moor had failed. As early as 1825-26, visitors from Germany noted that the railway was built well, but the farming plan had failed. They said the railway could barely pay its costs because it only carried granite.
The huge extra costs were partly covered by government loans of £28,000. The government kept asking for repayment, but the company couldn't afford it. The line was basically the private property of the Johnson Brothers. They likely made some payments to prevent the government from taking over.
The Johnson Brothers' business grew over the years. In 1846, Rachel Evans wrote about the quarries. She described many workers drilling, blasting, and shaping granite blocks. Horses, carts, and railway wagons were constantly moving heavy stones. This granite was used in big projects like the Post Office and London Bridge in London. Three hundred men worked there regularly.
How the Railway Looked
Main Line Details
The P&DR was a horse-powered railway. It used short cast iron rails on stone blocks. The track was 4 feet 6 inches wide. It was built to help the moorland areas around Princetown. But granite quarries became its main business. The main line went downhill from Princetown to Crabtree, east of Laira. It had many curves to keep the downhill slope gentle for horses. It had very tight curves in some places to avoid big digging projects.
A writer in 1831 said the railway started near Dartmoor prison. It then twisted and turned south, passing through several places, until it reached Crabtree. From there, it was extended to Sutton Pool, south of Plymouth.
From Princetown, the line went west. It passed between Foggintor Quarry (north) and Swelltor Quarries (south). It curved around King's Tor and west of Ingra Tor, heading south past Peekhill. South of Dousland, it made a sharp turn north again to stay on the same level. It passed west of Yelverton, going through the center of the common land. Near the Roborough road, the line went south, curving past Clearbrook. Then, with many more twists, it went west of the Tavistock Road through woods. Finally, it turned west through Leigham Tunnel. After more turns, it went west of the River Plym to a spot west of Marsh Mills. Here, it turned west again and followed the north bank of the Plym, eventually reaching Crabtree wharf.
On some similar railways, horses would ride on a special wagon when going downhill. But there's no sign this happened on the P&DR. The line had a single track. There were many passing places so that wagons going in opposite directions could get by each other.
The line was designed for anyone to use by paying a toll. But the Johnson Brothers' quarry traffic was so huge that the main line was basically their private railway.
The land in between was mostly moorland and farmland. There were few big towns. Sidings, probably for general goods, were at Yelverton and Roborough. Closer to Plymouth, the line went to a wharf at Crabtree. The later extension reached Sutton Harbour and a wharf on the River Plym at Laira. At the time, Plymouth hadn't grown much in these areas.
Branch Lines
The extension to Marsh Mills was built similarly. But it was on flatter land. The further extension to Plympton ran along the north side of the Exeter turnpike road. There was a two-span cast iron bridge at Marsh Mills. When the line was extended to Cann Quarry, it was laid on the path of the old canal.
Where the P&DR crossed the South Devon Railway main line, wooden boards were laid between the P&DR rails. This was so the horses could walk across easily.
The Track Itself
The track width was 4 feet 6 inches. The rails were cast iron, shaped like a fishbelly, and were 91 cm to 122 cm long. Unlike later railways, each rail only covered one space between stone sleeper blocks. They were held in cast iron chairs. The later rails (after Hopkins' changes) were 118 cm long with a 6.3 cm overlap. The top of the rail was 4.4 cm wide, and the web (middle part) was 1.9 cm thick. The rails were 10 cm deep at the sleeper block and 15 cm deep in the middle. In some places, wooden sleepers were used. These were 152 cm long, 15 cm wide, and 7.6 cm thick. The earlier rails were butt-ended and 91 cm long, with a top width of only 1.2 cm. These early rails were not as securely fastened as the later ones with overlapping ends.
Wagons and How They Worked
The main line mostly went downhill. It was steep enough that good brakes were needed. The wagons had two main beams, 2.7 meters long. The wagon bed was made of 6.3 cm thick planks, covered with iron strips. The wheels were cast iron, 74 cm in diameter, with 11.4 cm wide treads. The wheel treads were cone-shaped. The axles were 105 cm apart. The brakes were cast iron and worked by a long wooden lever, acting on both wheels on one side. The wagons were connected by links 38 cm long.
There was a mobile crane on a wagon. It could lift loads of up to 4 tons. This was in addition to the fixed cranes.
South Devon Railway
Crossing at Laira Green
For some years, the P&DR was the only important railway in the area. But in 1843, the South Devon Railway (SDR) planned its line from Exeter to Plymouth. When the plan went to Parliament in 1844, it stated that "Messrs John and William Johnson are in possession of and claim to be entitled as mortgagees or assignees to the said Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway..." This was true, and the P&DR owners couldn't get these words removed. The section from Plympton to Marsh Mills was sold to the SDR. It closed in 1847 so the SDR could build its main line without having to cross the P&DR. Lord Morley seemed to agree to this. His china clay traffic from Lee Moor used Plympton as a railhead. He might have thought the SDR would be better for carrying his clay to Plymouth.
The SDR got permission in 1846 to take over the P&DR line between Crabtree and Sutton Pool. But the terms had to be agreed upon, and this was slow and difficult. At one point, the SDR tried to build a crossing over the P&DR without an agreement:
The SDR's progress was stopped by a fight with the owner of the Dartmoor Railway. The Dartmoor Railway was crossed by the South Devon line at a right angle. The Dartmoor Railway owner, not getting the deal he wanted, brought huge granite blocks from his quarries. He put them on the line where the South Devon wanted to cross. This stopped the railway from building. They soon reached a deal, and the granite blocks were removed.
This crossing became known as "the well-known oblique crossing at Laira." The actual spot was Laira Green, not Laira Wharf on the River Plym.
The South Devon Railway opened its line to Laira Green on May 5, 1848. The station was just before the Laira crossing. The line was completed to Millbay on April 2, 1849.
Sutton Pool Line Sold
The South Devon Railway wanted to reach Sutton Pool by rail. On April 23, 1851, they made a deal with the Johnson Brothers. The SDR took ownership. The SDR would lay mixed-gauge track (both broad gauge and 4 feet 6 inches) to let the P&DR still reach Sutton Pool, while also giving the SDR access from Laira. The Cattewater section (a short line to a wharf on the Plym) was not included. The junction between the Sutton Pool line and the Cattewater line had very tight curves. This area, called "the Granite Works," and wharves at Laira, were operated by horses at first. The curve was improved, and the broad gauge rails opened in May 1853. The SDR got permission on July 3, 1854, to make the line stronger for steam locomotives. They also made a change near the Granite Works to ease the curve even more.
Tavistock Line
When the South Devon Railway reached Plymouth, people were already suggesting a branch line to Tavistock. The South Devon and Tavistock Railway (SD&TR) took the lead. On July 5, 1852, they made a deal with Lord Morley, who owned the china clay mines on Lee Moor. The SD&TR agreed to build a branch line to Lee Moor for Morley. By doing this, they would get the right to take over the P&DR Cann Quarry branch from Marsh Mills, which they needed for their line. The Lee Moor line was supposed to be built right away.
Building the Lee Moor branch started in September 1852. It was meant to be part of the SD&TR lines. Trial operations on the Lee Moor line began in August 1854 but stopped after an accident on October 4, 1854. An investigation showed that the line was not built well enough.
William Phillips was leasing Morley's china clay mines. He was counting on the line being finished to get the clay to Plymouth. After his own investigation, it was clear the work was bad. So, in an agreement on June 5, 1856, the SD&TR gave up its interest in the line, and Phillips took over.
The SD&TR opened its line to Tavistock on June 21, 1859, but without taking over any of the P&DR line.
Sutton Pool Improvements
The SDR closed the Laira to Sutton Pool line in 1856. They rebuilt it for steam locomotives, as allowed by the 1854 law. When it reopened in 1857, the 4 feet 6 inch gauge and broad gauge lines were separated between Laira, Prince Rock, and Cattewater. In 1869, the SDR's duty to keep the 4 feet 6 inch gauge access to Sutton Pool ended. On April 19, they started using locomotives, after removing the Dartmoor gauge rails.
Lee Moor Tramway: Building It
The heavy china clay that William Phillips was getting from Lord Morley's land was on Lee Moor, about 274 meters high. After the SD&TR failed to build a branch line to Lee Moor, Phillips took over the line on December 20, 1855. He was determined to build the line himself. This became the Lee Moor Tramway. It went from Lee Moor to join the P&DR line near Plym Bridge (on the Cann Quarry branch), a distance of about 4.2 kilometers. This included a short line to Wotter village. His line was built to the same track width as the P&DR. There was a lot to do, including a completely new path at the Torycombe incline and rebuilding several bridges. Phillips finally opened the line on September 24, 1858.
There were two inclines, called Cann Wood and Torycombe. They worked by balancing loaded wagons going down with empty wagons going up. There was a passing loop in the middle of each. Above the loop, there were three rails, with the middle rail shared. Below the loop, there was a single track. When wagons crossed at the loop, the descending wagons pushed through the points at the bottom of the loop. This set them correctly for the next wagons going up.
The Cann Wood incline was 2,012 meters long with a slope of 1 in 11. Torycombe was 654 meters long with a slope of 1 in 7.
The line went through Lee Moor village to Cholwichtown. A short line also went to Wotter Village (the Wotter Tramway). The original path and incline near Lee Moor were closed. But part of it was used as a dead-end path to kilns.
The P&DR from 1865 Onwards
On May 3, 1865, an agreement was made to restart the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway Company. William Johnson owned all the special shares. The new company made enough money to pay a small dividend in 1870.
New rails were laid on the P&DR main line. About 600 tons of new rail were put down in 1873-74.
Princetown Railway
However, in November 1877, plans were made for the Princetown Railway. This would be a standard gauge line from a junction on the Tavistock line at Yelverton. Near Princetown, it would serve the town and the quarries on the P&DR line, which it was meant to replace. Some small changes were made to the P&DR line to allow steam locomotives. A major new section was built to go east of Yennadon Down and down to the Tavistock line at Yelverton.
The change happened in 1878. The Princetown Railway paid £22,000 in shares for the necessary part of the line. It opened on August 11, 1883. The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway's activities were now limited to the Lee Moor traffic from where that line joined. In Plymouth, there were connections with the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Laira, and a wharf on the Plym, also at Laira.
Turnchapel Branch
In the 1870s, the GWR and the LSWR were competing for land around Plymouth. The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway worked with the LSWR to promote local branch lines. They got permission in 1875 to build short branches from the P&DR line at Cattewater. The LSWR took over these permissions in 1882.
On August 2, 1883, the P&DR got permission to build a line to Turnchapel. It successfully built a bridge over the Plym near Laira road bridge. The line opened as far as Plymstock (then called Pomphlett) in 1887. The LSWR took over the permissions for the branch, and they opened it on January 1, 1897.
Final Years of the P&DR
Towards the end of the 1800s, the P&DR had lost the quarry traffic from Dartmoor (to the Princetown Railway). It also lost almost all its general goods traffic. The Lee Moor line did well as the china clay business grew. So, the china clay work became the main focus of the remaining company. In 1916, the rails on the unused section above Cann Wood were taken up for scrap metal. Under the Railways Act 1921, the company was transferred to the new Southern Railway. In practice, this only applied to the short branches around the Cattewater. The Lee Moor Tramway continued to be used, running over the southern end of the P&DR main line. The whole route from Lee Moor to Laira became commonly known as the Lee Moor Tramway.
Lee Moor Tramway in Action
In 1862, Phillips, after all the hard work of building the Lee Moor line, sold his china clay business and the lease of the line to Mrs R Martin.
The main traffic was china clay going downhill to the Cattewater or Laira exchange sidings. Stores and coal went uphill to Lee Moor. The inclines worked by balancing loaded wagons going down with empty wagons going up. At Cann incline, five loaded wagons going downhill would pull three empty wagons and two loaded wagons up. At Torycombe, water tank wagons were kept ready for when an unbalanced uphill movement was needed.
As traffic increased, steam locomotives were bought in 1899. They worked the section between the inclines. Horses continued to pull wagons above and below the inclines. Heavier rails were installed for the locomotives.
At Lee Moor, there had been short branches to Wotter and Cholwich Town. But these closed in 1900 and 1910.
In 1919, the china clay business and the Tramway were sold to English China Clays Limited (ECC). This company later became part of English Clays, Lovering Pochin Ltd (ECLP). From 1936, the section above Torycombe incline was no longer used. The company increasingly used pipelines to send the china clay as a liquid slurry, and also used roads.
The last commercial use of the Tramway seems to have been at the end of 1945. A major pipeline from Lee Moor to Marsh Mills was finished in 1947, making the railway's closure permanent. However, the owning company didn't want to give up their right to use the path. So, they made token movements, carrying sand from Marsh Mills to Maddock's concrete works, every three months. This continued until the very last movement on August 26, 1960. That was the last time the Lee Moor Tramway horses pulled wagons across the Great Western Railway main line. The tracks on the main line were removed in October–November.
Omen Beam Tramway
In 1844, two businessmen from Plymouth, Jacob Hall-Drew and Peter Adams, tried to start a business making naphtha from peat. They rented Tyrwhitt's mill at Bachelor's Hall, east of Princetown. In 1846, they moved to Dartmoor Prison, which was empty at the time. They formed the British Patent Naphtha Company. They built a tramroad to Yearlick Ball, north of the prison. This brought peat down to a factory at the prison building. They also built a branch to Omen Beam near Fice's Well. The track was probably 4 feet 6 inches wide, and horses pulled the wagons.
The peat was processed to make naphtha, which was used for candles and mothballs. The fibrous material from the peat was used to make paper. Over 30 tons of peat were used every day.
The rails were nailed directly to wooden sleepers, not stone blocks. Fine gravel was laid between the rails for the horses to walk on. The total cost (probably including the factory) was £19,000. The total length was about 4.4 kilometers.
When the prison reopened for convicts, the entire building was first lit using naphtha gas. In the 1900s, a gas engine ran on this fuel.
The old track can still be easily seen from the Two Bridges Road east of Rundlestone Corner.
See also
- Railways in Plymouth
