Lympstone Commando railway station

Notes
	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Lympstone Commando
Lympstone Commando
General information
Location	Woodbury, East Devon; England
Coordinates	50°39′44″N 3°26′28″W / 50.6623°N 3.441°W
Grid reference	SX982857
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	LYC
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	British Rail
Key dates
3 May 1976	Opened
Passengers
2018/19	64,294
2019/20	69,846
2020/21	19,050
2021/22	76,134
2022/23	83,160
Notes
Notes
	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Lympstone Commando railway station is a railway station situated on the Avocet Line, a branch line from Exeter to Exmouth in Devon, England.

Whilst signs on the station platform state that passengers alighting must have business with the Lympstone Commando Camp, this is no longer true and members of the general public can access the station via a public footpath.

History

The station was opened on 3 May 1976 by British Rail. This caused some confusion with the older Lympstone railway station, but this has since been renamed "Lympstone Village".^[1] It was built using cast platform sections recovered from Weston Milton railway station where the track had been singled and so one platform was no longer needed.

For many years troop trains were a feature of its operation about three times each year. The trains were operated with a locomotive at each end as there is no way to run around a train south of Topsham; the leading locomotive on arrival was dragged back to Exeter Central where it was detached. The trains were considerably longer than the platform and loading the passengers was a slow operation as they had to make their way through the train from the centre coaches. A similar operation today is difficult to arrange as the regular timetabled passenger service is much more intensive than in the 1980s.

During November 2020, the platform was extended by 25 metres (82 ft) to make it 89 m (292 ft) long.^[2]

Description

The station is situated on the banks of the estuary of the River Exe. It consists of a single platform, which is on the left of trains arriving from Exeter.

On 28 May 2010, a section of the Exe Estuary Trail opened between Lympstone village and Exton.^[3] This runs between the platform and the entrance to the camp^[4] so the public can now access the station, although the sign on the platform still remains stating "persons alighting here must have business with the camp". The Ministry of Defence have accepted that the station is the property of Network Rail and as such they cannot prohibit members of the public from using the station^[5] – however, persons wishing to take photographs from the platform should inform the guard room at the Commando Training Centre beforehand.^[5]

Services

About half the trains on the Avocet Line between Exmouth and Exeter St Davids call at Lympstone Commando, except on Saturdays where all services call here. It is a request stop, meaning that passengers alighting must tell the conductor that they wish to do so, and those waiting to join must signal clearly to the driver as the train approaches.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Exton		Great Western Railway Avocet Line		Lympstone Village

References

^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1992). Branch Lines to Exmouth. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-873793-00-6.
^ Brailsford, Martin (February 2021). "Trackwatch". Modern Railways. p. 88.
^ "East of the estuary". latest News from the Estuary. Exe Estuary Management Partnership. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
^ See Geograph photograph
^ ^a ^b "Lympstone Commando Railway Station - a Freedom of Information request to Ministry of Defence". WhatDoTheyKnow. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2021.