Pilton railway station

Pilton Yard
Location
Place	Exmoor
Area	North Devon
Grid reference	SS55763360
Operations
Original company	Lynton & Barnstaple
Pre-grouping	LSWR
Post-grouping	Southern
Platforms	0 (Goods facilities only)
History
11 May 1904	Opened
29 September 1935	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Pilton Yard, in the village of Pilton, to the north of Barnstaple was, between 1895 and 1935, the main depot and operating centre of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway ('L&B'), a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in north Devon, England. Goods facilities were also provided at Pilton, but passengers were catered for at the nearby LSWR station, Barnstaple Town, which provided connections with trains on the standard gauge branch line to Ilfracombe. The L&B's main offices were also based at Pilton, in a building formerly belonging to the Tannery which had earlier occupied the site, and which took over the site after the railway closed.

Pilton was the site of the L&B's only turntable. Locomotives always travelled with their boilers facing "down" the line, i.e. towards Lynton (down as it was away from London by rail, although geologically, Lynton was higher, and geographically nearer to London). The turntable was used to turn rolling stock periodically to even-out bearing wear. After closure, the turntable was installed at the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in Kent, but is now owned by the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust and in storage for eventual restoration and reuse on the new L&B.

The carriage sheds, locomotive shed and other remnants of the railway were destroyed in a fire in 1992. Much of the site is now a car park, although there are still signs of its former railway use.

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Barnstaple Town (Change for LSWR)		Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (1898-1935)		Snapper Halt