The South Devon Railway sea wall is situated on the south coast of Devon in England. A footpath runs alongside the railway between Dawlish Warren and Dawlish, then another footpath forms a continuation to the sea front promenade at Teignmouth. Both of these form part of the South West Coast Path. The South Devon Railway was built to the designs of Isambard Kingdom Brunel; it takes a route from Exeter which follows the River Exe to Dawlish Warren, runs beneath the sea cliffs to Teignmouth and then follows the River Teign to Newton Abbot. It follows tidal waters for about 13 miles (21 km), 4 miles (6.4 km) of which are open sea.
Background The section of railway was opened by the South Devon Railway Company, running from Exeter St Davids railway station to Teignmouth railway station on 30 May 1846 and extended to Newton Abbot railway station on 31 December 1846. It was a broad gauge railway of 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) gauge and intended to be worked as an atmospheric railway, although atmospheric trains only ran from 13 September 1847 until 9 September 1848. The South Devon Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 February 1876 and the gauge converted to the standard 4 feet 8½ inches after 20 May 1892. A station was opened to serve Dawlish Warren in 1905, all the other stations on the sea wall having opened with the line in 1846. The Great Western Railway was nationalised into British Railways on 1 January 1948. The line is now owned by Network Rail and the stations and majority of trains operated by the modern-day Great Western Railway.
Storm damage
The sea wall has always been prone to damage during stormy weather as it runs alongside the open sea at the base of cliffs for four miles (6.4 km). The first time this occurred was just a few months after the line opened. In September 1846 repairs were necessary to the wall north of Parson's Tunnel which had been built with loose rock instead of the masonry wall seen elsewhere, and then on 4 October storms broke through the wall in several places and services had to terminate at Dawlish. That night the high tide flooded the line where it ran alongside the River Exe and more breaches occurred as the storm continued into Monday. South of Parson's Tunnel the sand was scoured from the beach and this caused another cavity under the wall. Repairs started on 7 October, when the storm had died down. Trains could run through to Teignmouth again after just 50 hours and the loose rock was replaced by a permanent wall the following winter. On the morning of 24 December 1852 there was a rock fall from the cliff at Breeches Rock, the same place that the wall had been damaged in 1846. A train was stopped before it hit the rocks and the passengers had to walk past the blockage to join trains on the other side, but the line was reopened after a few hours. Later that week a larger fall happened which blocked the line early on 29 December, this time knocking some of the wall into the sea. Passengers were transferred between Dawlish and Teignmouth by road for two days, after which trains could approach the blockage so passengers could again walk past to join trains on the other side. The line reopened for through trains after a total of four days. On Monday 12 February 1855 large portions of the sea wall were washed away. Despite repair work starting promptly four days later more of the sea wall and a long 70 yards (64 m) section of line were also washed away. Passengers were obliged to leave their trains and carry their luggage some distance to join another. A temporary viaduct was constructed by the resident engineer, Mr. Margery, and was in operation within a couple of weeks which allowed the through operation of coaches, pulled by hand and rope, although some nervous passengers still alighted and walked.
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