Plympton Station Holiday Memories

A Memory of Plympton.

My grandparents, my mother's parents, lived in Vicarage Road, Plympton until 1962 when they moved to Moorland Avenue. As children we always spent our holidays with them and I have early memories of accompanying my father or grandfather in the 1950´s to the road bridge overlooking the station to watch the trains go by. Bells ringing in the signal box and then signals moving into the "off position" signalled an aproaching train, steam of course. Up trains from Plymouth roared through in order to attack Hemerdon bank but down trains to Plymouth were moving more sedately due to the speed restriction on the curve just to the north of the station. In 1958, aged 10, I was allowed to go alone to trainspot on the station but alas it was closed in March in 1959.
Plympton station was the starting point for days out to Teignmouth and Paignton.
Other attractions nearby were the Tory Brook, which I called the "white water" due to its colour as it rose near the china clay pits, and Plympton cattle market, almost as good as a visit to Paignton Zoo, where the auctioneers carried on their business in incomprehensible language.
I last stood on the bridge in 2004 but hope to do so again in 2013 and quietly relive childhood memories.