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Vintage Spirit Article October 2020 AN ATMOSPHERIC STAR MAIN PHOTO: A Great Western Railway Class 150 Sprinter slows to AN ATMOSPHERIC STAR a stop at Starcross Station on the west side of the River Exe estuary. ack in mid-March, I had a The car park for the village is to the Royal Marines Commandoes training A village on the west business appointment south north of the railway station, and the path base half way along. of Exeter but arriving a bit too to the station runs alongside the railway, As it nears the station, the path side of the Exe estuary early, I decided to follow the the railway fence being punctuated in a drops down to road level, and so access Broad towards Dawlish for a few miles to couple of places by cast iron gate posts to the station is up a flight of steps. in Devon is home to kill time. After a few minutes, I came made by Bayliss of Wolverhampton, and The station itself is nothing to really a unique relic of a to Starcross, a village of around 1,800 certainly of a Victorian age. The fence is write home about, though it is served people on the west bank of the river tensioned by old pieces of broad gauge by Class 150 Sprinter stopping trains, railway idea that Exe Estuary. bridge rail. while the expresses, mainly the ‘new’ Between the village houses and the Before reaching the station, on the electric or diesel Intercity Express Trains didn’t really work out. estuary are the main road to Dawlish opposite side of the road is a pub named introduced in late 2017 speed through, Brian Gooding went and the railway from Exeter to the West ‘The Atmospheric Railway’, a very apt an impressive sight. Country, and it is the railway that makes name as will become clear. The view to Looking south from the station, a to see. this Devon village well known among the other side across the railway is of the square red sandstone tower is visible railway enthusiasts, especially aficionados wide river estuary, across to Exmouth beyond some other buildings. This of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. at the seaward end, and Lympstone, the tower was once much taller and is part One of the foot crossings over the railway with cast iron posts and bridge rail The Atmospheric Railway pub whose name is a reminder of the railway’s Looking across the estuary from the south end of the station platform, supports for the fencing. first incarnation. with Exmouth and the sea in the distance. 50 Vintage Spirit • October 2020 October 2020 • Vintage Spirit 51 AN ATMOSPHERIC STAR AN ATMOSPHERIC STAR The tower with the Union flag is the truncated former chimney of the pumping house. Seen from the south end of the station. Today the pumping engine house is home to the local fishing and cruising club. This is the old boiler house. the end of the pipe from which the air building though they have long since had been evacuated, the brakes released, disappeared. The top of the chimney and pressure from the atmosphere would (the tower) was removed as it presented a push the piston up the pipe, behind the danger to the main railway line that runs Seen from the road is the former engine house, still an ornate building. The boiler house is just vacuum created by the pumping engine. along the top of the sea wall in visible to the right. The valve in the pipe gave problems, the foreground. and the pumping engines were taking The railway was relaid from broad of a building that dates to the original ran from Exeter to Newton (later longer than expected to exhaust all gauge to standard gauge in the 1890s opening of the railway. Today the building Newton Abbot). the air from the pipe ready for a train. and is now a busy and vital link between is the home of the Starcross Fishing & Known as the South Devon Railway, This increased coal consumption at the London and Penzance, and is the only Cruising Club, the name emblazoned the line was a single track broad gauge pumping stations, and hence costs. rail link between Devon and Cornwall, a over the door of the building. Close by is line, controversially worked by the This plaque commemorates the orginal In August 1848, the Board of the fragile link as proved when the line was a brass plaque with the legend: experimental system of atmospheric function of the building. South Devon Railway Company decided washed out at Dawlish a few years ago. propulsion. The current station at that atmospheric working would cease I am sure many people drive through ‘Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Starcross was built in 1861 when the were constructed every three miles The former boiler and engine house as seen on 9th September and steam locomotives Starcross with barely a look at the Atmospheric Railway Pumping House, track was twinned. at Exeter St Davids, Countess Wear, from the road. Even the boiler house had replaced the pumping houses, and the interesting red building on a narrow Built 1845-1846’. The system used a 15 inch pipe with Turf, Starcross, Dawlish, Teignmouth, ornate window frames. atmospheric equipment sold off. The only part of the main A379 road to Dawlish a slit along the top that was covered Bishopsteignton and Newton Abbot. reminder of Brunel’s atmospheric railway and ultimately Torquay. Although The plaque commemorates that with a flap valve to maintain an internal Each pumping station would evacuate Beneath the leading carriage hung a is the engine house at Starcross. not open to the public, the building the building was once the Starcross vacuum, positioned between the rails. the pipe of air, according to the 15ft long piston shaped like a dumbbell, The pumping station at Starcross was at Starcross is a unique memorial to Atmospheric Pumping Station, a The valve had a leather seal which was timetable, which proved to be very with small wheels outside the pipe that built in an Italianate style, popular at a flawed system of railway operation. stationary steam engine house on greased, initially with lime soap and later wasteful if the train was not ready to opened and pressed close the iron and the time. The two engines used to stand Brunel was a great engineer but he didn’t Brunel’s Atmospheric Railway which with cod oil and soap. Pumping stations leave the previous stop. leather flap valve. The piston entered about 30ft high in the main part of the always get it right! 52 Vintage Spirit • October 2020 October 2020 • Vintage Spirit 53.
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