Strolling westwards along the sea wall

19 min read

Countless travellers regard the four mile section of railway from Dawlish Warren through to Teignmouth as the most beautiful stretch of main line in Britain, but on countless occasions the force of nature here has battered the permanent way and its neighbouring sea wall path, Peter Kerslake offering this photographic appreciation.

An early illustration of the sea wall walkway shows the South Devon Railway at Dawlish station, complete with trainshed and a manned lofty signal when the Exeter-Teignmouth section was operating as a broad gauge (7ft 0¼in) atmospheric railway, so between 13 September 1847 and 9 September 1848. A pumping house for the atmospheric system is on the right – such a premises was perceived as better than the public enduring the exhaust of steam locomotives. The atmospheric system used a vacuum within the cast-iron tube of about 1ft diameter seen between the running rails. Driven by atmospheric pressure, a piston moved inside the evacuated tube and was connected to the train through a groove in the top of the tube, an elaborate arrangement keeping the tube sealed on the vacuum side (ahead of the piston) as well as open for several feet behind it to allow air to enter. With no gradients and relatively light trains, the system was sound but gasket seal replacement and the poor options then available for lubrication led to impractical costs and so steam locomotives took over. Millbrook House/Kidderminster Railway Museum

Proposals for a pedestrian walkway running alongside Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s original single track of broad gauge line on the South Devon coast between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth had not been universally welcomed when initial plans for the South Devon Railway line were drawn up in the early 1840s, but a walkway was, in fact, incorporated despite continuing local objections from certain quarters. With the first passenger train running from Exeter to Teignmouth on Saturday, 30 May 1846 the die was cast for the path of the line’s accompanying walkway, which today comprises two sections, the first heading westwards from the 1873 built footbridge at Dawlish Warren and Langstone through to Kennaway tunnel within Lea Mount at Dawlish, and the second section running from Smugglers’ Lane at Parson’s tunnel to its end at Teignmouth Eastcliff.

Starting our westbound footpath excursion from Dawlish Warren and the Exe estuary, the line and walkway are protected from the ravages of any south-easterly storms by massive rocks deposited at this location from 1920, before both line and pathway curve

This article is from...

Steam Days Magazine

19 September 2023

Railways Illustrated

Victorious!

Having an idea is easy. Putting it into practice – well, that can be just that little bit harder. Back in the autumn of 2022, I’d had half an idea about arranging a photographic charter with Direct Ra

Steam Railway

Racing to the north

The Caledonian Railway at Brechin is a small railway with big ambitions. Chris Gilson ventured across the border to talk to its chairman, Jon Gill, and found out more.