Railway Herald
Recent years of barely controlled lineside vegetation at this location has changed this view almost beyond belief. This is the current state at Seaton Junction in 2025, the old station building almost completely hidden as nature continues to reclaim the land. One of the most bizarre services to work this sorry excuse of a main line is the one way weekday GWR working from Barnstaple to Axminster. This image captures the (16:31) Barnstaple to Axminster via Exeter St.Davids and Exeter Central during the descent of Honiton Bank on 10th April 2025. Even more odd is that on arrival at Axminster the unit returns ECS to Exeter taking a circuitous route via Yeovil Junction, Yeovil Pen Mill, Castle Cary and Taunton although on this occasion, for some unknown reason, the three-car Class 158 DMU Set No. 158958 simply reversed direction and took the direct route back to Exeter. This is the only GWR service to operate over this SWR (South Western Railway) route, a really strange operation all round.
Stephen Ginn
