| Milk by rail - [otd] 12 Oct 1978 - last tankers from Torrington Posted by grahame at 08:52, 12th October 2023 |      |
Milk churns on the platform to be loaded onto the passenger and parcels train, hauled by a tank engine and a couple of carriages long. A couple of passnegers waiting and a ticket clerk and porter going about theie business on a sunny summer afternoon. The quintesential scene from films set in the 1950s. Milk traffic was consilidated from multiple wayside stations but in time that ceased too. The Southern Railway email group tells us:
The 1960s saw passenger traffic levels dropping away and from 27th February 1965 passenger traffic was withdrawn between Halwill and Torrington and general goods traffic was withdrawn bewteen Halwill and Barnstaple. Then the following October passenger services were withdrawn between Torrington and Barnstaple Junction, with the last train the steam-hauled "Exmoor Ranger" railtour on 3rd October, the day after the cessation of the regular passenger services. The line was not closed, however, as it remained open northwards for the Torrington milk traffic and the clay traffic from Meeth. Initially the line prospered as a goods-only line, with empty clay wagons and milk tankers coming in and loaded ones leaving to the north. Torrington signalbox remained in use until 20th September 1970 when the down loop was converted to a siding and the 'box closed. A new milk loading depot was built in the mid-1970s, coming into use in March 1976, but this was very short-lived as the last milk tankers left Torrington on 12th October 1978. The very last train of all was the "Last Train to Torrington" railtour, of 6th November 1982, which ran from Bristol (Temple Meads).
