Exeter Railway

Opening

The Teign Valley Railway Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. clix) was given royal assent in 1863 and the line opened on 9 October 1882, branching from the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway's station at Heathfield, to Christow. Under the Exeter Railway Act 1903 (3 Edw. 7. c. xv) the line was extended by the Exeter Railway Company from Christow to a junction near Exeter St Thomas station. It served mineral quarries in the valley and had a passenger service. For a brief time there was an engine shed at Ashton.

Decline

The mineral traffic that had provided much of the line's revenues was also its downfall, as the quarries provided roadstone for Devon's expanding and improving road network. In the 1920s and 1930s, the new motor bus services meant that passenger traffic dwindled. The mineral traffic soon followed. Meanwhile, the Great Western Railway placed camp coaches in some of the stations providing holiday accommodation. A small station was opened at Chudleigh Knighton Halt on 9 June 1924.

Closure

The line saw a resurgence of traffic during the restrictions and petrol rationing after the Second World War however passenger trains were withdrawn in June 1958. This was five years before the publication of The Reshaping of British Railways which led to the closure of many similar routes. Flooding caused the line to be closed entirely between Christow and Exeter in 1961, following which the gradual withdrawal of freight saw the line finally close in 1967.