OLD DEVONPORT . UK
Plus parts of East Cornwall and West Devon
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: May 06, 2018
Webpage updated: December 14, 2022

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RAILWAYS IN OLD DEVONPORT  |  CALLINGTON BRANCH
BRANCH LINE, BERE ALSTON STATION TO CALLINGTON STATION

GUNNISLAKE STATION

A very early view of Gunnislake Station with a goods train in the platform.
From the author's collection.

Gunnislake Station was opened by the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway Company on March 2nd 1908.

The  Station comprised an island platform which the public accessed by means of an underpass.  It was the only point on the line where passenger trains were permitted to pass each other.

In 1914,under the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway Company, the Station Master at Gunnislake Station was 43-years-old Mr Arthur Godfrey, who hailed from Ottery Saint Mary, Devon.

From Monday May 5th 1941 until further notice passenger trains departed from Gunnislake Station for Bere Alston Station the following times: 7.38am; 10.07am Third Class only; 1.17pm; on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays there was an extra departure at 2.40pm Third Class only; 4.42pm Third Class only; 6.40pm; with an extra departure on Saturdays only at 9.25pm.  The journey to Bere Alston Station took twenty-three minutes (although the 6.20pm train managed it in 21 minutes), with a stop at Calstock Station.  Two of the trains, as indicated above, were Third Class only; the others conveyed First Class passengers as well.  On Sundays trains departed from Gunnislake Station for Bere Alston Station at 8.43am; 11.49am; 6.49pm; and 9.39pm.  Passenger trains left Gunnislake Station for Callington Station at the following times: 8.41am Third Class only; 11.11am; 1.16pm Saturdays only; 3.42 pm Third Class only; 5.42pm; 7.30pm; with an extra service at 10.25pm on Saturdays only.  The journey took twenty-five minutes.  On Sundays passenger trains departed from Gunnislake Station for Callington Station at 9.46am; 12.42pm; 7.41pm; 10.40pm.    

Mr E S Tubb, Station Master at Calstock Station, was also temporarily responsible for Gunnislake Station in June 1948.

On Weekdays and Sundays, 'where train service permits', commencing on May 1st 1953, the following cheap day return tickets, first and third class, were available from Gunnislake Station to: Callington, 2 shillings (s) 3 pence (d) 1st, 1s 5d 3rd; Devonport King's Road, 5s 3d 1st, 3s 6d 3rd; Plymouth Friary Station, 6s 1st, 4s 3rd; Plymouth North Road Station, 5s 3d 1st, 3s 6d 3rd; and Tavistock North, 4s 1st, 2s 9d, 3rd.

Loco 41315 shunting a Down freight train at Gunnislake Station in August 1954.
© the late Mr R C Riley.

According to the "The Official Hand-book of Station 1956" Gunnislake Station, which included Cocking's siding, Messrs Hill, Westlake and Company Limited's brick and tile works at Chilsworthy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's Chilsworthy Siding, Pearson's siding, Messrs Perry, Spear's Drakewall Siding, and Messrs J Westcott Limited's Sandhill Park Siding, dealt with goods traffic, passengers, parcels, miscellaneous traffic, furniture vans, carriages, motor cars, portable engines and machines on wheels, live stock, horse boxes, prize cattle vans, and carriages and motor cars by passenger or parcels trains.  It was not equipped with a crane.

It was closed to goods traffic on or as from February 28th 1966 and all but one of the siding accommodation was taken out of use on August 2nd 1966.

The Branch beyond Gunnislake Station was closed on or as from November 7th 1966 and the track removed during June 1967.  Gunnislake Station then became the terminus of the Branch line.  The Down Loop and remaining siding were taken out of use on May 5th 1968 and trains used the Up Platform only.

During the 1970s the station buildings were demolished and a shelter provided instead.

A new Gunnislake Station, used by the present Plymouth Station to Gunnislake Station branch trains, was built on the site of the former ECMR Drakewalls Depot and opened in 1994.