page_title: South Devon Railway Company
section_title: Laira Green to Plymouth and Devonport
hierarchical_section_title: South Devon Railway Company / Completion to Plymouth / Laira Green to Plymouth and Devonport
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Plymouth and Devonport about 1851
context_page_description: The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, England. It was a 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in broad gauge railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
  The line had to traverse difficult hilly terrain, and the company adopted the atmospheric system in which trains were drawn by a piston in a tube laid between the rails, a vacuum being created by stationary engines. The revolutionary system proved to have insuperable technical difficulties and was abandoned. The line continued as a conventional locomotive railway. The company promoted a number of branches, through the medium of nominally independent companies.
  Its original main line between Exeter and Plymouth remains in use today as an important part of the main line between London and Plymouth.
context_section_description: The differences with the proprietors of the P&DR were settled, and opening could take place to Plymouth. The original Eldad terminus had been omitted by Act of 1846, and a terminus in Plymouth at Millbay was adopted instead. There was intense rivalry between the Three Towns of Plymouth, Devonport and East Stonehouse at that time, and sensitivities were inflamed by the change. In an attempt to mollify opinion in Devonport, a branch to New Passage (on the Tamar) was now proposed, with a station in Devonport near Albert Road. The branch was built as far as the Devonport station with the junction there formed, but not extended to New Passage. The Devonport branch was transferred to the Cornwall Railway by the powers of an Act in the 1847 session, and it later formed the eastern part of its main line.
  The public opening of the extension to "Plymouth" (the station later named Millbay) took place on 2 April 1849. Goods traffic started on 1 May 1849.
caption: 1854 map of Plymouth and Devonport, showing the New Passage branch, which was not in fact built.
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