Train times Plymouth - Newton Abbot 1972 & 73

[Essexman]

I’m not sure if this is the right forum or if I can get his information here?

I’m trying to find out the following historical train times.

25th August 1972 – Last evening trains from Plymouth to Newton Abbot. I think there was one at 20.00 or 20.20 or 20.30 then the next was midnight.

20th April 1973 – Early morning trains from Newton Abbot to Plymouth. The first two trains. Maybe around 7am.

Is anyone able to help with this or point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

 

[Gloster]

The 1973-1974 timetable, one year out, shows a 19.45 (dated), 20.20 and 20.50 (dated) from Plymouth on a Friday, then 00.15. On a Friday there was a 05.44 (the sleepers) and 07.44 from Newton Abbot.

 

[Essexman]

Many thanks, that's very helpful.

The reason I ask is that I'm writing a book about walks on Dartmoor that my father (and later I) did over the last sixty years. Catching the mid-evening train from Plymouth was often a target for the walk. Only once was it missed, in the 1950s, when my father and is then wife to be (she still married him!) missed the train from Shaugh Bridge Halt and had to get a train from Plymouth to Newton Abbot after midnight. That timing fits with her saying my grandfather picked them up at 1am at Newton Abbot. We would have missed it on another occasion had my father not thumbed a lift on the moor when we were hopelessly late for the last bus from Princetown.

The early train from Newton Abbot is of interest as I recall catching this when we set off for a long walk across the moor. I recall that the train was mostly parcels vans with only two coaches for passengers.

 

[Gloster]

On a Saturday in 1952 the evening trains to Plymouth from Shaugh Bridge Platform were 19.03, 19.32 and 21.35. The first two gave a connection into the 20.05 from Plymouth, while for the third the next train up country was at midnight. On Sunday the 19.37 from Shaugh Bridge connected into the 20.08 train. At the end of the decade the timings had only changed by a few minutes, but there was no Sunday service on the Tavistock line.

 

[30907]

The 1973-1974 timetable, one year out, shows a 19.45 (dated), 20.20 and 20.50 (dated) from Plymouth on a Friday.

I think you've quoted the arrival times - departures were 20.00, 20.32, 21.00 - and I would be prepared to bet that the times a year (or two) earlier were the same.

 

[Gloster]

I think you've quoted the arrival times - departures were 20.00, 20.32, 21.00 - and I would be prepared to bet that the times a year (or two) earlier were the same.

You are correct, sir. And I used to be proud of my facility with timetables: this really is ageing.

 

[nw1]

Timetable World has a WR timetable for 1973, which is free to download.