Exeter St David's

Layouts at Exeter St David’s and Newton Abbot emerged from the 1960s relatively unscathed. In spite of line closures and the passing of steam traction, the expanse of sidings at both sites remained decidedly extensive. At St David’s, notable losses included the engine shed and inclined coal stage, but much else remained the same. Five mechanical signal boxes were still in evidence: Exeter West, Exeter Middle, Exeter East, Exeter Goods Yard, and Exeter Riverside. West Box had since been fitted with a 131-lever frame in 1959, replacing the original 114-lever frame of 1913. Goods traffic continued to be handled at the site, and freight trains were still able to use the double-track avoiding line west of the platforms.

On 22nd November 1973, Exeter East Box was closed. Exeter Riverside Box was retained to control those sidings north of Red Cow Crossing, which included the yard laid on the ‘’up’’ side during 1943. At the southern end of the station layout, two artefacts of the long-dissolved South Devon Railway still existed: the Broad Gauge carriage shed and atmospheric pump house. As mentioned earlier in this section, the carriage shed was sandwiched in-between the end of the main ‘’down’’ platform and the incline to Exeter Central, being served by a series of tight lines forming a head shunt. In 1977, the shed’s tracks were lifted and, in June of that year, the historic structure was destroyed. The site was subsequently absorbed by a nearby Royal Mail sorting centre. Across the running lines, the former pump house remained largely intact.

In the meantime, the layout at St David’s had been dealt a blow by the closure of the freight avoiding lines, on 25th February 1978. Exeter Goods Yard Box was, too, closed at this time, and all those sidings which intercepted Red Cow Level Crossing were split in two. Thus, the only lines which now remained operational over the level crossing were the main platform tracks. In the following year, more economies were enacted, this time on the main ‘’down’’ side station building: the attractive line of arched windows, which ran the length of the structure’s upper floor, were removed. These had originally been installed during the time of the 1912 rebuild, allowing light through to the main ‘’down’’ platform. Their replacement came in the form of austere corrugated plastic sheeting, which remains in place to this day.

On the turn of the 1980s, rationalisation and modernisation gathered apace. On 5th April 1981, Exeter Riverside Signal Box was taken out of use, leaving Middle and West Boxes as the last two operational cabins within the station’s immediate environs. Indeed, to the north, the signal box at Cowley Bridge Junction remained in use, having controlled a single-track connection between the Crediton and Paddington lines since 28th November 1965. This bastion of semaphore signalling was soon to fall, and work began in earnest to provide a new electric ‘’power box.’’ This would eventually control a complete series of multi-aspect colour lights with continuous track circuiting, stretching from Totnes to Athelney, Somerset. Work commenced in 1983 with the demolition of the former atmospheric pump house at the south end of St David’s station, its 76,000 gallon water tank first being removed. Its site had been identified as the preferred location for the then new signalling centre. The first stage of re-signalling involved the St David’s station area, northwards to Stoke Canon on the main line, and to Crediton on the Barnstaple branch. The changeover from mechanical to electric signalling formally began at 20:10 on Friday 29th March 1985, works being finalised over the weekend. At 06:10 on Monday 1st April 1985, the new signalling centre and colour aspect lights were commissioned, and Exeter Middle and Cowley Bridge Junction signal boxes were taken out of use. Exeter West Box lingered on until 6th May 1985, when both it and the remaining cabin at Exeter Central were decommissioned. Exeter West Box had the good fortune of being saved for preservation. In 1982 the ‘’Exeter West Group’’ was formed to raise funds to purchase the signal box, it being evident at that time that the cabin was nearing life’s end. On closure, all components were meticulously labelled and the cabin dismantled. After abortive attempts to re-erect the signal box at Bristol and Swindon, the cabin finally found a new home at ‘’The Railway Age’’ display at Crewe in 1991, where it was pieced back together.

On 4th May 1987, the Exeter Panel’s scope was extended to Newton Abbot, and on 9th November of the same year its control reached Totnes. Taunton had earlier been absorbed into the signalling centre's scope on 21st March. The track layout at St David’s had been extensively altered, the number of points and crossings being far reduced. The centre track between platform line Nos. 1 and 3 had gone. At the southern end of the station, trains approaching on the spur from Exeter Central were now signalled into the eastern-most through platforms – Nos. 1 and 3 – leaving the main line clear. Formerly, Waterloo services had used the central island platform at St David’s, and were required to cross the paths of Paddington trains on the level. It was now no longer possible to reach platform 4 (the western side of the central island platform) from the Exeter Central spur. In spite of station rationalisation, extensive sidings remained in existence north of Red Cow Crossing. These included those tracks of Riverside Yard, which retained points controlled by manual levers. On the ‘’down’’ side, a pair of sidings was kept for rolling stock storage (these became known as ‘’New Yard’’). Across the main line from these could still be found the former Broad Gauge transfer shed, which lost its original function as far back as 1892.

From 1st April 1991, the Western Region was no more. Responsibility for the infrastructure and permanent way between Paddington and Plymouth passed to the InterCity Business Sector. The latter had previously been formed on 4th January 1982 as a dedicated operation to deal with running the train services. Exeter St David’s became an ‘’InterCity’’ station, whilst nearby Exeter Central was brought under the wing of ‘’Regional Railways’’ (RR). Routes were allocated to sectors through the concept of ‘’prime user’’: thus, since the InterCity sector ran the largest proportion of services between Paddington and Plymouth, it was responsible for all the maintenance costs of Castle Cary and Bristol routes. A consequence of this arrangement was that other Business Sectors, which ran a handful of services over InterCity-owned lines, did so for free. Between Paddington and Reading, where the main line comprised four tracks, the InterCity sector funded the maintenance of the ‘’fast’’ lines, whereas Network SouthEast (NSE) was accountable for the ‘’slow’’ lines. However, InterCity Civil Engineering teams looked after all tracks, in spite of the fact that NSE had financial obligations for the ‘’slow’’ lines. At Exeter St David’s, NSE services had free use of the tracks, paid for by InterCity. The reverse of this situation was in evidence on the Waterloo main line between Bournemouth and Basingstoke, where InterCity Cross Country services to/from Glasgow used NSE tracks free of charge. Except for the small amount of goods-only lines, the TrainLoad and Railfreight Distribution sectors had very little mileage for which they were accountable; thus, their trains used passenger lines free of charge. This arrangement ended on 1st April 1994, when the entire infrastructure became part of ‘’Railtrack’’. The Business Sectors were reformed into shadow franchises in the run up to privatisation. The infrastructure became privately-owned after Railtrack was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 20th May 1996.

In October 1997, after just over 100 years use, the railway bridge span over the River Exe, at the south end of St David’s station, was replaced. Into the new millennium, destruction was the order of the day when, early in 2002, the northern end of the timber goods shed was inexplicably torn down. A gaping hole of 110-foot length now exists, and the exposed area once covered by this part of the goods shed has become a vehicle compound. During 2006, work got underway to install automatic ticket barriers within the ‘’down’’ side station building; these went ‘’live’’ on 20th September of that year.

Exeter St David's

5th December 1989

5th December 1989

5th December 1989