Additional slip coaches were added to be dropped from the train on the move at various stations to serve holiday destinations such as Weymouth, Minehead, Ilfracombe, and Newquay, and the train began to run non-stop to Newton Abbot where a pilot engine was added for the climb over the Dainton and Rattery banks, the southern outliers of Dartmoor.
It is a useful staging point for freight trains travelling over the steep inclines of Dartmoor on the way to Plymouth as these trains either have to be shorter or use additional locomotives compared with the flat route from Exeter.
From Newton Abbot, the line climbs Dainton Bank, and from Totnes it climbs Rattery Bank, reaches a peak at Wrangaton summit, and then descends Hemerdon Bank to reach Plymouth.
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in surveying the South Devon Railway, opted to push a line along a coastal strip between the Exe and Teign valleys, and then to climb the southern outliers of Dartmoor making for the head of the Plym estuary.
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In broad gauge times trains changed engines at Newton Abbot with 4-4-0 saddle tanks of the South Devon Railway and later 2-4-0 saddle tanks of the GWR hauling trains over the steep gradients to Plymouth.
The railway approaches from Newton Abbot in the north-east, runs south-westerly through the station, and then swings to the west on a right-hand curve which is the start of the steep climb up to Rattery.
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