This was a lovely route that was closed by politicians with no forward thinking. We have cycled from Fremington to Ilfracombe on the hold trackbed where we could. A beautiful journey it must have been by train.

Mmm, everybody does look smart, no ripped jeans, people looking like they've had a fight with a tiger and lost! A real shame the line isn't still open, even if it was only used from Easter until September, and for specials in the Winter.

I find this footage incredible, and can watch it over and over again. To bash a Hymek or Warship loco up the 3-mile gradient from Ilfracombe to Mortehoe must have been a treat to the ears and such a memorable experience. Oh for a time machine! 😊

Very sad!Runaway train never come back!

Done this line back in the 50/60s great mix of WR and Southern steam locomotives

Thanks.

Looking at the numbers getting off the train - it looks like it was gross stupidity to close it. And a vital link lost when snow stopped other traffic from moving .

Umberleigh railway 🚃 station 🚉 in north Devon used to have a double track is many years ago in 1963 because more people might have used the trains 🚊 where Umberleigh now has a single track because in the year 2023 plenty of people use their own cars 🚗 🚘 🚙 everyday and it’s a rural railway 🚃 line. It’s highly unlikely that trains 🚊 will run 🏃‍♂️ from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton again, even on Tuesday 31st December 2030 (New Year’s Eve) 🧨 💥 🎇 🎆 🥳 🤩 🥃 🍹 🍾 🍷 🥂 🍻 🍺 🧃 🧋 🥤 🎂 🍰 🧁 🍨 🍧 because the railway 🚃 line is hopeless 😩 😞 😔 and can’t be bloody trusted anymore because they lost 😞 😠 😡 plenty of customers 👩‍🦰 👱‍♂️ 👨‍🦰 🧑‍🦰 👨‍🦳 🧔 🧔‍♂️ 👴 👩‍🦱 🧑‍🦱 👱 so who bloody cares about the railway 🚃 business 👩‍💼. Perhaps 🤔 most people decline to use the trains 🚊 because when they use their vehicles 🚗, it’s more convenient. I honestly don’t think 🤔 that trains 🚊 are coming back to Ilfracombe in north Devon again. I honestly believe it to say it to myself that “It’s highly unlikely that trains 🚊 are returning back to Ilfracombe in north Devon again because the line was unviable and no one ☝️ has asked to put them back in service again so don’t worry 😉 about it”. I am right for what I said to myself about it. Goodbye 👋 trains 🚊 to see Ilfracombe and don’t come back again anymore. It’s the end of the matter. Trains 🚊 to Ilfracombe is a thing of the past and it’s water 💧 under the bridge 🌉. 👍 👍 😃 😁

I remember a shunter at Barnstaple called Bill (Ginger) Gregory. He was later the station cleaner for the branch and lived in Umberleigh after retirement in the early 1990s. Any relation?

Never knew it crossed over by the old bridge. I always assumed it came over the iron bridge at Rock Park.

It's amazing how many people got off the train at Ilfracombe, even Jackie Kennedy (@3.12), and then they close the line, utter madness!

Great👍

Trains 🚊 ran from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton for 96 years from Sunday 20th July 1874 until Saturday 3rd October 1970. They won’t be coming back to Ilfracombe anymore. 😄

The first train 🚂 ran from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton in north Devon southwest England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 was dated Sunday 30th July 1874. The railway 🚃 track was single until 1888 when it was increased to double track. This is because 2 trains 🚂 run on the different directions 🧭 at the same time 🕕. It was also that plenty of rail 🚊 passengers concentrated using the trains 🚊. It was steam trains 🚊 at the time until 1964 when they were replaced by diesel multiple units. The railway 🚃 track became singled in 1967 due to lack of passengers and were reducing down to limited amount of rail passengers everyday. The double track happened between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe via Braunton for 79 years from 1888 to 1967. By Saturday 3rd October 1970 was the last train 🚆 ran from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton because not enough people used the trains 🚊, sadly😢 losing money 💵. It was best to pack up the line. Trains 🚂 runs from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton is a thing of the past. Over 52 years since it last happened. As a result of north Devon is a small place happens to be a rural area, trains 🚊 won’t go to Ilfracombe anymore. People transport by cars between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe via front main road via Braunton, middle road via Prixford and finally back road via Muddiford. Also trains 🚊 last ran to Bideford in 1982 or 1983. Barnstaple railway station 🚉 is now the terminus railway 🚃 station 🚉 has a single track. It used to be called Barnstaple Junction. Of course Barnstaple railway 🚃 station 🚉 still goes strong 💪 everyday. People use the bus 🚎 is Stagecoach 21/21A Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton runs daily and public holidays except Christmas 🎄 Day, Boxing 🥊 Day and New Year’s Day 🎈. Also to Westward Ho! route 21 and to Appledore in north Devon route 21A via Bickington, Fremington, Yelland, Instow, Bideford and Northam runs daily and public holidays except Christmas 🎄 Day, Boxing 🥊 Day and New Year’s Day 🍾🎏🎈🎊🎉🪅. I honestly have walked on the Ilfracombe to Barnstaple and Bideford to Barnstaple line in the past. I honestly love💜❤️💘💕💓❤️‍🩹 Ilfracombe former railway 🚃 line. It makes me feel happy 😆. The cairn is in Ilfracombe. Very quiet 🤐 on the former line. At Mortehoe and Woolacombe railway 🚃 station 🚉 used to be Once Upon a Time. It was replaced by houses 🏘. The likely that trains 🚊 will return back to Ilfracombe is touchwood means it honestly won’t happen in the future when the time 🕥 comes. 🥰😍👍🚆🚇🚊🚉🚞🚂🚋🚃

The fact is, even by the standards of the day the branch line journeys were tediously slow. Cornwall Railway Society's website has a timetable from Taunton to Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, showing a journey time of 2hrs 44mins from Taunton to Ilfracombe. The last time I went from home just outside Taunton to the Pall Europe factory on the site of the old Ilfracombe station it took me 54 minutes. I suspect in the old Cortina in the video it wouldn't have taken more than 90 mins.

This is the route I wish I could have taken, behind steam, more than any other route in England. Thanks.

How long were you at Umberleigh station house? My father moved to a cottage near Chapleton circa 1981.

All that video says to me is trashed infrastructure, very very sad 😢

here you are Richard.!

Thanks for a great film! I started work in Ilfracombe in 1963 and had a few trips from Torrington to Ilfracombe--until I bought Viking 'Severn Valley' bike. Then I cycled to and from Torrington alongside the track in places--great memories. Many thanks.

Having not long ago cycled this route, it's amazing to see what was once there. Priceless footage of a line gone forever.

penalising popularity

One of the main excuses used by BR in those days for closing these lines was that nobody used them anymore!! Look at all of those people pouring onto those platforms!! That 1 train alone in its journey took probably at least 100 cars off the roads, possibly more!! We must have been completely insane and very short sighted to adopt the policy of line closure in the UK. Today we're now paying the price with heavily congested roads and motorways!!

Oops ... the Portsmouth Arms is still alive - n- kicking ( it's before Barnstaple ! ) ...

The Portsmouth Arms was an interesting little station on this line ( ? ) now , no more ...

What a wonderful set of pictures. My son just found them a few days after I'd called at Umberleigh to photograph the station, the first time I'd set foot there since August 1963 when my family stayed in the Camping Coach. Thank you for bringing back early childhood memories of the station and of unrebuilt Bulleid light pacifics there.

Great pictures of lost railways

I lived in Braunton way back in the late 1960s early 70s residing at 10b Abbotts Hill and working at Taw Garage in Barnstaple. I knew the line well... Such a shame that it was closed as today it would be a top tourist attraction making a fortune...

The line from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe should never have been closed. In this video note the passenger numbers at Ilfracombe. When the line closed Ilfracombe must have noted a decline in visitors and holiday makers. I reckon the line from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe should be reopened not only for the inhabitants of Ilfracombe but the many people who would just simply like to holiday in Ilfracombe arriving by train.

Was lovely to watch. Just got off a train at Umberleigh from a day rover for a walk around, and it's a very pretty, well kept station even nowadays 😊

Worked at the Lee Bay Hotel in the summer of 1972. a little west of Ilfracombe. Trains gone by then but saw the tracks. I was 26. Bus into ilfracombe on day off. On the Buses at the cinema.

Fascinating film. Seeing all the passengers get off the train at Ilfracombe and then the number of people get on the train, you have to think that the mandarins at the DoT and BR totally ignored the fact that all these people would then probably buy cars and clog up the roads of north Devon. If only they had the foresight to leave the track formation down, it could have been opened up again the 90's and would no doubt be very popular today, giving the communities a good transport link back down to Barnstaple and Exeter. I assume this train was Waterloo bound?

Lovely look back in time,look how smart everyone was.

Wonderful film; great quality for 8mm

How could they close a line that was being so well used? Crowds of people at every station. An utterly mad decision. 😢

Oh how I would've loved to go by train on my upcoming holiday in ilfracombe but because politicians didn't have the foresight I'm faced with a long drive from the North West of England down crowded motorways and A roads!

I did this journey countless times. Wonderful to see the glorious countryside and stations again. Slade was a particularly picturesque part of the journey. Thank you so much for uploading this!

i traveled this line many times as a youngster under the supervision of the gaurd as my father died while working on this line he was based at barnstable town and junction so my mother moved to north yorkshire to be near her parents but sent me many times to stay with my grandparents at ilfracombe i was born in ilfracombe and think of it as my home town . yes that beeching man and others have a lot to answer for its a shame it closed

Other countries invested in their railways after WW2 ... ...and what did we do? - ripped up half the network. Destroying an extensive network left to us by the Victorians. We totally trashed their legacy in the 60's and 70's. It was basically 'state sponsored' vandalism. The people responsible got away with it and should have instead gone to prison.

Hello Mr Gregory - I'm writing a novel set in 1971 with at least one scene set at Umberleigh Station I'd very much appreciate more information about the station (super information already - thank you!) Would you mind if I mentioned your father as the station master?(something like 'Good afternoon Mr Gregory!" please email me on author AT helenhollick DOT net ... thank you!

Hi Just Browsing, Thank you for your comments and interest. The early pictures of steam locos were taken by me on my Kodak 66 folding camera which I had saved hard for and wish I had kept. All the rest were also taken by me but on 35mm with a Zenith or a Practica.

I passed through Umberleigh Station each summer between 1959 and 1966 as a boy enroute for holidays at Westward How and Croyde. For me, attached least, the train journeys were the highlight of our family holidays.

Very evocative, didn’t need sound, just use your imagination. Also very informative with really good photos, well done for posting I learned a lot more of this lovely part of the world. Eddie 🤓

Born and bread in Barnstaple my father was stationed at Chivenor 1944/45 my mother used the railway line with us kids to go to Staunton & Woolacombe I remember it well lovely memories superb countryside proud to be Devonion & a Barnum Boy 🇳🇬👍🍺🏉

Great footage ,such a terrible shame that this line and the Torrington lines closed. Judging by the amount of passengers it should never have closed ..how much money has been spent on roads .

Nice film, thanks for the descriptions.

Thanks for sharing this footage 😀😀

Sad demise

Considering the number of passengers that got off at Ilfracombe I assume Dr B massaged numbers after he sampled selected journies where he knew passenger numbers would be light. Naughty Dr B ! - and you from Maidstone Grammar School ! Of course the real crime here was not to stop the service but to make it impossible to re-open by lifting the tracks. Good video despite all that.

my farther roger phillips and his farther bert phillips both workt on this line thay lived at chittlehampton, great western railways the best