{"id":11902,"date":"2025-08-22T10:25:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teignrail.co.uk\/scouting\/?p=11902"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:12:15","slug":"123-okehampton-to-friary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teignrail.co.uk\/scouting\/123-okehampton-to-friary\/","title":{"rendered":"123 Okehampton to Friary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is another refresher that the scout will do in stages, there being so much ground to cover.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the loud trumpeting made the return of a regular train service to Okehampton seem like a miraculous achievement, but the truth was that a line which had never really become disused was simply reinstated, in large part as an exemplar for the “Restoring Your Railway”<\/a>\u2014or “Reversing Beeching”\u2014diversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okehampton was a terminus after it first opened but the line soon went on, reaching its furthest extent west at Padstow, on the North Cornwall coast, and south at Turnchapel, outside Plymouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Okehampton is a terminus again<\/a> but 100 miles of dismantled railway lie beyond. This mileage does not include the Plymouth lines serving the Southern\u2019s former main stations, Devonport and Friary; Callington; and the humble N.D. & C.J.R. between Torrington and Halwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mileages:<\/strong> Okehampton to Bere Alston, 22\u00be; Meldon Junction to Bude, 28\u00bc; Halwill Junction to Padstow, 49\u00be. Total: 100\u00be miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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April, 2023:<\/strong> B.R. Totems<\/a> given to the groups campaigning for their lines to be reinstated are exhibited on the Up platform.
All four stations could once have been reached by going in this direction. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the scout followed the former main line to Coleford Junction<\/a> and the old turnpike to Exeter.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The compactness of the town suggests a turn of the century view, but actually this was taken from above in 1932.
The station can be seen at centre right, with the line curving towards the south-west, past the military sidings and beneath Park Road, today’s Tors Road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is one of the photographs found in “Okehampton in ’88 and ’91.”<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Men and horses at the military sidings before or during the First World War. They are on the way to, or have returned from, Okehampton camp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The dismal state of the former double main line in April, 2023. The rails were only visible in places when the scout rode this way in August, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meldon Quarry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite by surprise and at first shrouded in a cloak of mystery, the quarry was reactivated in 2025 by Meldon Aggregates, Ltd., which firm has a lease from Aggregate Industries. The mobile plant and machinery brought in reminded those at Christow of what happened at Ryecroft Quarry in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n