Newton Abbot Festival of Transport, 13/14 May 2000

This was a ‘millennium’ event celebrating the wide-ranging and long-standing links between Newton Abbot and transport. It was very well attended and received, and one of the highlights for me was being able to take the train from Newton Abbot to Heathfield on a branch line that has been closed for many years.

Newton Abbot has many links with transport through the ages but especially since the railway arrived in 1846. The town became the engineering centre for Brunel’s short-lived atmospheric railway that operated from 1847 to 1848. There have been many links with transport ever since, from building Ford special vehicles at Newton Abbot Motors from 1970 through to manufacturing blades for Rolls-Royce jet engines.

The event took place all over the town and the pictures I have taken here are at the railway station, the racecourse, Old Forde House and the bridge overlooking Jetty Marsh.