OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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RAILWAYS IN OLD PLYMOUTH  |  PRINCETOWN BRANCH
BRANCH LINE, YELVERTON STATION TO PRINCETOWN STATION

ROYAL OAK SIDINGS

Just before reaching Mile Post 20 on the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway was a loop.  This was directly connected by a long siding to the eastern side of the Swelltor Granite Quarries.  It is not known if this loop and siding were part of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway but they are shown on the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1883, prior to the construction of the Princetown Railway, but not published until 1885 and with the line clearly marked "GWR Princetown Branch".  There is a building shown on the northern side of the line but there were no signals.

In July 1895 the operators of the Foggintor Quarries, Messrs Pethick Brothers, of Plymouth, builders and contractors, had taken out a Private Siding Agreement with the Great Western Railway Company.  By 1904, when the area was surveyed again, the loop had been removed and replaced by a loop going off the main line to the north, towards Foggintor Quarries.  These were known as Royal Oak Sidings and were controlled from a Ground Frame at 8 miles 75 chains fromYelverton.  The Sidings had a weighbridge.  There was no longer any siding to the eastern side of Swelltor Quarries and by the location of the footpath which marks the route of the original siding, then the loop, mentioned above, was slightly further north of the Royal Oak Sidings.  Mile Post 9 was just beyond the Sidings.

King Tor Halt was opened in 1928 for the benefit of the workmen and their wives and children.

The Quarries ceased to be worked and the Royal Oak Sidings were removed during 1934.