1-158-638 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

'Dawlish', Devon, c1860. This viewshows the track of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's (1806-1859) South Devon Railway. The South Devon was an example of an atmospheric railway, which did not use locomotives, the carriages being moved along the tracks by air pressure, a system devised by Samuel Clegg Jnr (1814-1856) and Joseph Samuda (1813-1885). The engine house visible in the right middle distance provided power to exhaust the tube. A daily service of four trains began between Exeter and Teignmouth in September 1847, and was extended to Newton Abbot in January 1848. By June 1848 the difficulties with the tube made conversion to conventional steam trains inevitable. The railway later became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR) Illustration after George Townsend for Views of Devon and Cornwall by Henry Besley. (Exeter, c1860).