page_title: Sampford Courtenay railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sampford Courtenay railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: Sampford Courtney station, Devon
context_page_description: Sampford Courtenay railway station is a railway station at Belstone Corner serving the nearby village of Sampford Courtenay in Devon. The village lies 3 minutes away by car or around 30 minutes by foot via the B3215. In 2018/19 it was the least used station in Devon and in the South West and the tenth least used station in Great Britain.
context_section_description: The station was originally opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) as Okehampton Road when it formed the terminus and it was renamed as Belstone Corner when the line was extended to Okehampton in 1871, and later renamed again as Sampford Courtenay. Services on the line were extended further west to Lydford railway station with the inauguration of Meldon Viaduct in 1874. Constructed to rival the South Devon Railway route to Plymouth, the completion of the LSWR's own route to Plymouth saw this line become an important route with lines to Padstow and Bude as well as Plymouth. Boat trains carrying passengers from ocean liners calling at Stonehouse Pool, Plymouth and prestige services such as the Atlantic Coast Express and Devon Belle all used the route.
  Following publication of the Beeching Report in 1963, the Exeter to Plymouth Line was cut back to Okehampton in 1968.
  Bow, North Tawton, Sampford Courtenay and Okehampton lost their passenger services from 1972. The line survived, however, for the purposes of freight thanks to the activities of the British Rail ballast quarry at Meldon, three miles from Okehampton, which had an output of 300,000 tons per year. The quarry is not at present in operation and no freight originates from it. The quarry site is owned by Aggregate Industries.
  The station name is sometimes given as Sampford Courtney, but it is unclear as to whether it was ever officially spelt this way.
caption: The station in October 1969
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