HERITAGE TRAMS
Seaton Tramway and the New Age
John Heaton FCILT visits the Seaton Tramway in Devon and finds a rare example of a former railway branch line reinvented to satisfy the modern focus on conservation and climate change.
The view from the upper deck of a tram approaching Seaton terminus on March 25. Nos. 8 (left) and 14 can be seen. The two ‘vehicles’ behind No. 8 are actually paintings on the doors of the exhibition area.
ALL PHOTOS BY JOHN HEATON UNLESS STATED
GREEN electric vehicle No. 6 glides imperceptibly over the marshes of the nature reserve, passing a fidgeting flock of Canada Geese sensing springtime. Swans smooth their way across the shallow ponds causing barely a ripple, and native ducks gabble to each other against the off-shore breeze.
This is the Seaton Tramway in 2023 at the new Wetlands Halt, where two silent vehicles, with no pollution at the point of use, cross paths in the passing loop every 20min on all its operating days – this year numbering an impressive 267.
Over 50 passengers absorb the tranquillity of the scene, as a dozen or so alight with binoculars and notebooks, sandwiches and flasks at the ready, to be replaced by almost equal numbers on their way to the Seaton town centre terminus. The cost of the halt was around £120,000, shared between the Tramway, the Wetlands Trust and the Fine Foundation, endowed by a local family.
Few former railway branch lines have been reinvented in such an appropriate way to satisfy the modern focus on conservation and climate-change.
There are many examples of tracks reverting to footpaths or cycle-ways, and then all our favourite heritage lines with steam or diesel locomotive noise punctuating the air waves, but none of these achieve the twin goal of the Seaton Tramway to make a nature reserve accessible to all while delivering undetectable disturbance.
The branch is built
The financial arrangements for the construction of the original railway followed the template of most similar Victorian developments featuring small towns.
In the 1860s, the Seaton & Beer railway company raised capital to construct the 4¼ miles from the ancient port of Seaton, by then reduced to only a fishing village, to meet the London & South Western Railway main line from London Waterloo to, ultimately, Plymouth and the North Cornwall coast. The railway would provide an outlet for valuable Beer limestone and it was hoped to siphon off some of the incipient West Country holiday traffic.