It’s time for another branch line discovery and we are going to follow the Riviera Line from Exeter to Paignton.
The line was opened in 1846 by the South Devon Railway and (in a fit of corporate madness) they specified it to be an atmospheric railway! Not only that, great engineer IK Brunel signed off on the idea whereby a train drops a piston into a tube between the rails and a pumping station a few miles ahead sucks it along by drawing air out of the tube.
I’m surprised it even worked at all, but after one year of operation, they switched to propulsion by steam locomotives.
Anyway, the line has a fair selection of interesting stations on the way and a host of Grade 2 listed structures that we can investigate. So join me on a trip from Exeter to Paignton on the Riviera Line.
Departure: Exeter St Davids, England, UK
Destination: Paignton, England, UK
Month of Travel: October 2025
Operator: Great Western Railway
Motive power: Various GWR DMUs
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