Bow railway station (Devon)

Bow
Bow railway station in 1970
General information
Location	Bow, Mid Devon England
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	London and South Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
1865	Opened
5 June 1972	Closed to passengers

Bow railway station was a railway station serving the village of Bow and the hamlet of Nymet Tracy in Devon. Bow lies about 8 miles west of Crediton.

History

The station was originally opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1865.^[1] The station building is a two-storey construction of Dartmoor granite with ashlar dressings and round headed windows. The platform canopy has cast iron brackets with a creeper design. There is also a single-storey waiting room and offices.^[2]

Services on the line were extended further west to Lydford railway station with the inauguration of Meldon Viaduct in 1874. Constructed to rival the South Devon Railway route to Plymouth, the completion of the LSWR's own route to Plymouth saw this line become an important route with lines to Padstow and Bude as well as Plymouth. Boat trains carrying passengers from ocean liners calling at Stonehouse Pool, Plymouth and prestige services such as the Atlantic Coast Express and Devon Belle all used the route.

Following publication of the Beeching Report in 1963, the Exeter to Plymouth Line was cut back to Okehampton in 1968. The line was singled on 17 October 1971.^[3]

Bow, North Tawton, Sampford Courtenay and Okehampton lost their regular passenger services from 1972. The line survived, however, for the purposes of freight thanks to the activities of the British Rail ballast quarry at Meldon, three miles from Okehampton, which had an output of 300,000 tons per year. The quarry survived until the 2000s, operated by Aggregate Industries. British American Railway Services, a new company created by Iowa Pacific Holdings of Chicago, became the new owner of the Dartmoor line on 4 September 2008. The company sought to develop freight, passenger and tourist services on the railway.^[4] Subsequently infrastructure ownership transferred to Network Rail and on 20 November 2021 regular passenger services between Exeter and Okehampton resumed, operated by Great Western Railway.^[5] Crediton is the only intermediate stop on that service.

Future options

The Dartmoor Railway formerly proposed to restore the interchange at Yeoford, running passenger trains past Bow, where its line meets Great Western Railway's Tarka Line.

Dartmoor Railway

Legend

miles

Tarka Line to Exeter St Davids

0¾

Crediton

Salmon Pool level crossing

3¾

Yeoford

Coleford Junction

Tarka Line to Barnstaple

8½

Bow

11¾

North Tawton

14½

Sampford Courtenay

18¼

Okehampton Parkway

(planned)

18¼

Okehampton

20¼

Meldon Viaduct

London & South Western Rly

and Exeter–Plymouth line

to Padstow and Bude

to Plymouth via Bere Alston

References

^ Nock, O. S. (1965) The London & South Western Railway. Pub. Ian Allan. London. P. 48.
^ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget. The Buildings of England. Devon. Yale University Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780300095968.
^ Mitchell, David (1994). British Railways Past and Present - Devon. Peterborough: Past and Present Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 1-85895-058-9, Page 81
^ Heritage Railway, Pub. Heritage Railway Magazine. Issue 116, 2 October 2008 – 29 October 2008. P. 18.
^ "Trains restart on Dartmoor rail line after 49 years". BBC News. 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.