Seaton Junction, situated 3 miles west of Axminster and 7 miles east of Honiton, is a railway station – now closed – on the West of England Main Line from London Waterloo to Exeter. Originally named “Colyton for Seaton”, the station opened on 19th of July 1860 on completion of the Exeter Extension of the London and South Western Railway from Yeovil Junction to Exeter Central on Queen Street. With the opening of the Seaton & Beer Railway in 1868, the name was changed to “Colyton Junction”, before finally becoming “Seaton Junction” on 18th of  July 1869.

The Seaton branch was constructed by the Seaton and Beer Railway Company. It opened on 16th of  March 1868 – unusually without celebrations – from Colyton (Seaton) Junction, with intermediate stations at Colyton Town, Colyford and Seaton. The line was leased by the London & South Western Railway from 1st of  January 1880 and absorbed by it on 1st of January 1888, as goods traffic declined in favour of tourism. The LSWR was incorporated into the Southern Railway in 1923, and in its heyday the line’s motive power was provided by M7 Tank locomotives, with through coaches coupled to Waterloo-bound trains at Seaton Junction.

Originally trains arriving from the Seaton branch had to reverse into the “down” (westbound) platform. However the station was reconstructed in 1928 with two through tracks on the main line and loops to the newly extended platforms. At the same time a new branch line platform was added, set at an angle of 45° to the main line, on the down side.  The large Express Dairies enterprise meant that there was much traffic on the railway. In 1935 a pipe line was built to take water from springs right up near Honiton Tunnel to Seaton Junction. This water also supplied the station – imagine how relieved the poor porters were not having to pump water by hand for hours!

The location of the station created a major problem for westbound trains stopping at Seaton Junction since it was situated at the start of a six miles climb (at 1 in 80) to the summit of the line at Honiton tunnel, a very straight tunnel which, at 1,345 yds long, was the longest on the LSWR. Only one man – crushed to death by a fall of rock – was killed in its construction. It took nearly 12 million bricks to line this tunnel!

This is a photo of the Shute Arms Hotel in about 1888, just after it was built. The photo was taken from Seaton Junction.

The branch line platform curved away sharply from the station buildings, under the concrete footbridge that spanned the whole station site. There were extensive sidings on the up side serving a milk depot and more sidings on the down side where, on Summer Saturdays, light engines could be seen awaiting a path to Exmouth Junction for servicing.

(from a painting by Barry J. Freeman GRA “Heavyweights at Seaton” featuring the impressive Southern Railway ‘Merchant Navy’ class ‘Pacifics’ of Oliver Bulleid (from 1941) in both original and rebuilt (late 1950′s) form.  Rebuilt locomotive No.35016, Elders Fyffes, is pictured storming through Seaton Junction with the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’. Un-rebuilt locomotive (or ‘Spam Can’) No. 35019, French Line CGT is stationery in the adjacent platform heading an eastbound parcels train.)

One of the prominent features of Seaton Junction was the height of the signals on the up platforms. Due to the curvature of the line through the station the view for drivers of up trains was restricted so the up starting signals were elevated on high in order that they could be seen from a distance above the station buildings. For the benefit of drivers whose trains stopped in the station, co-acting arms were placed lower down on the signal posts.

(From a watercolour painting by Frederick Lea GRA, a well-known painter of railway scenes, featuring the 34034 Honiton hurrying into Seaton Junction on the East bound track ).

(Also from a watercolour painting by Frederick Lea featuring

35006 “P & O” facing towards Exeter). Our thanks to F. Lea for his permission to feature these 2 paintings.

( photograph by Stephen Hughes, courtesy of Terry Heeley -of the Seaton pull ‘n’ push train in the branch platform during the 1950s.)

The Seaton to Seaton Junction branch line flourished, showing a profit for both its owners and the LSWR who leased it for the first twenty years until, on 3rd of January 1888, the latter bought the smaller company. 76 years and 1 month later, on 3rd of  February 1964, goods traffic was withdrawn.

Nurse Pearse who was a nurse and midwife in Shute for 25 years, recalls:

” At Seaton Junction there used to be 3 platforms there and there was a little cafe on the station where you could nip over the bridge and go in and have a cup of coffee. There was a train down to Seaton – part of the station at the side was for the little train to Seaton which used to go through 2 or 3 times a day. It was all double lines in those days. And then, of course, you had the Express Dairy there at Seaton Junction, where all the eggs and the milk came in. Seaton Junction was quite a station – all the main line trains stopped there and the old station master lived in the house down there.The station always had beautiful flowers – he was a great gardner.” ( From Brian Vaughton’s Life … As it was)