The hilly terrain was very difficult, but an Ilfracombe Railway was authorised in 1864 but failed when a major shareholder was unable to respond to a subscription call.

Ilfracombe began to be recognised as a watering place from the 1830s, and in following decades its attraction became more widely known and visitor numbers increased considerably.

Access was difficult as the roads approaching the town were steep and inconvenient, and most visitors arrived by steamer, from Bristol and elsewhere.

[1] An Exeter solicitor, Thomas Wreford, was active in promoting the idea of a railway connecting Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, but after considerable effort and expenditure was unable to get sufficient support.

It had not yet established its ability to reach Barnstaple, and it indicated that negotiations with the North Devon company for its acquisition were dominating its attention at the time.

[3][4] When the bad news was brought to Braunton and Ilfracombe, violent disquiet was in evidence, and the Riot Act was read at 02:00 on Sunday 26 April.

Parliament required the Ilfracombe Railway to build all bridges and structures in such a way that broad gauge trains off the D&SR might pass over the line.

From the point of view of the Great Western Railway, "the chance of extending the broad gauge to Ilfracombe was missed".

The western route via Braunton was eventually seen to the better option and in the 1870 session of Parliament the Barnstaple and Ilfracombe Railway's bill was considered.

The configuration of a light railway was vague, and section 28 of the Act merely specified: A light Railway shall be constructed and worked subject to such Conditions and Regulations as the Board of Trade may from Time to Time impose or make : Provided, that (1) the Regulations respecting the Weight of Locomotive Engines, Carriages, and Vehicles to be used on such Railway shall not authorize a greater Weight than Eight Tons to be brought upon the Rails by any One Pair of Wheels; (2) the Regulations respecting the Speed of Trains shall not authorise a Rate of Speed exceeding at any Time Twenty-five Miles an Hour.

[12][5][13] At first the take-up of share subscriptions locally was extremely slow, and the LSWR had to relax some of its financial conditions for working the line to encourage investors.

[14] This was successful and construction continued, and on 13 July 1874 Col C S Hutchinson[note 2] carried out an inspection of the line for the Board of Trade.

In fact the Devon and Somerset Railway had opened its line between Taunton (actually Norton Fitzwarren) and its own Barnstaple station on 1 November 1873; affiliated to the Great Western Railway it had a shorter route to London, via Bristol, and operated a coach service from its Barnstaple station to Ilfracombe.

[18] On 1 November 1873 the Devon and Somerset Railway had opened its line throughout from Taunton to its own Barnstaple station; a coach connection was operated to Ilfracombe.

Through GWR trains from Taunton over the Devon and Somerset line operated; it was stipulated by the LSWR that only through journeys to Ilfracombe were permitted on the line; journeys to other LSWR stations had to be made using the D&SR terminus and road transfer to Barnstaple Junction or Town stations.

[19][17][22] An eastern arm of the D&SR triangle was opened on 1 July 1905 permitting through running from Taunton to Barnstaple Junction without reversal in Victoria Road.

[28][29] In the 1930s and then immediately after 1945 holiday traffic took on an even more important role, and through trains were run to and from London (both Waterloo and Paddington) and numerous other destinations.

For residents of Cardiff and south east Wales this was a competitive means of reaching Ilfracombe as compared with the rail transit via Bristol.

The more modern King Arthur, Schools and Lord Nelson classes were too heavy for use on the line, but the air-smoothed West Country pacifics, introduced from 1945, were allowed and could handle heavier loads.

When some of the West Country class were later modified to a more conventional technical specification later, the added weight resulted in the affected locomotives being too heavy for the line and unable to be used there.

After nationalisation, Ivatt 2-6-2 tank engines of the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway were employed as the old M7 class were phased out.

[37] Although summer weekend holiday traffic was extremely busy, the branch was very little used outside those times and financial losses were built up.

[38] Road-based competition – motor coaches and private cars – accelerated the decline in usage of the line, and the train service was discontinued on 5 October 1970.