Swimbridge railway station

Swimbridge railway station served the village of Swimbridge, Devon five miles east of Barnstaple. The station was on the Devon and Somerset Railway that ran between Taunton and Barnstaple. The Devon and Somerset was operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway and was taken over with the B&E by the Great Western Railway.

The section of the line between Wiveliscombe and Barnstaple opened on 1 November 1873. Swimbridge station was originally on a single track part of the line and had a single platform on the down side of the line (towards Barnstaple), where the main building was situated. A crossing loop was installed with a second platform in 1904, and this up platform had a large brick and wooden shelter. There was a goods loop behind this platform and a goods shed that straddled the loop line with its flank wall on the up platform.

Goods traffic was withdrawn from Swimbridge in 1964 and the station closed to passenger traffic with the closure of the Devon and Somerset line on 3 October 1966. The station building was demolished when the railway alignment was used for the North Devon Link Road.

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References

* Devon Railway stations, Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2007. ISBN 1 904349 55 6