Newton Abbot has struck me as being a pretty thin layout these days.  Is this going to cause congestion there?

 

I can barely see that on the satellite picture, even knowing exactly where it is now - so you're doing well if you spotted it there. It's clearer if you zoom in on the Street View from the bridge (further than Google can). The catch point is also marked on Traksy.

Looking at the pictures on Railforums, the outer rail has come apart at the joint just after the catch point. So it looks more like that failure was the cause, though none of the track there is in impressive condition. Note this is well before the trailing point of the crossover; roughly opposite the point on the Down side.

 

Looking at Google earth there is a catch point there and probably what failed. The view also show the shocking state of the network rail side compared with the Dartmouth Steam Railway

 

This is Thursday's Cross Country north crossover reverser at Paignton 5 car 221120. It's a timetabled move.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C73042/2026-01-15/detailed#allox_id=1

 

You can shunt a 5-car IET over via the North crossover, and it is permitted to do so.  You could even shunt a 9-car but it is apparently very tight.   

 

Churston very unlikely to have a park and ride and it is all single line except for the passing loop at Churston station. I don't think Network rail would want the upkeep of the  two viaducts at Broadsands. The steam railway have modern signalling and is well kept because it employs a lot of staff and uses very few volunteers.

Having said all that Goodrington has a huge car park, closed during the winter and a disused platform face (fenced). A park and ride could greatly increase traffic in the area and the roads not up to it.
The steam railway also own all the tracks south of the south crossover including Happy Valley sidings alongside Goodrington station.

The number 12 bus route to Brixham is well used as a feeder to Paignton Station as does the 22 and 23 to/from South Devon College. The 120 from Kingswear only takes 25 minutes to Paignton.

 

Cross Country mainly use 221 super voyagers (5 car) at Paignton including the last train to Bristol that reverse via the north crossover.

 

Well .... it's complicated. While the the train derailed on top of the crossover that links the two railways (but not because of the points), the whole crossover is Network Rail's. They also own/are responsible for a short stretch of the DSR's route (the Down Torbay) including the crossover and the level crossing (so they have the whole of both). Consequently DSR have running powers over that six chains or so!

 

It was posted elsewhere last night by somebody inside GWR that Max 4 car trains can visit Paignton due to signalling constraints following the derailment.
Cross country only use 4 car to Paignton, that is why GWR Iet are the only ones that don’t use the north crossover. They’re the only booked trains longer than 4 car.

 
Thanks to this thread I discover I'm hazy about where the national rail system ends in that part of the world and where the heritage rail begins.

Also, not entirely convinced that the national rail system should reconcile to having Paignton as the terminus of that line - there should at the least be an appropriate scale park and ride at Churston. Oh, & shared use for the Brixham branch trackbed as far as the edge of Brixham deserves priority funds at a national level.

Mark

PS Ah, something stirs: https://brixhamrailwaytrail.org.uk/

 
On Underground signalling we had a thing called route locking (same as approach locking) which may have happened here preventing platform 2 being used. It prevented a signal operator changing points under a train that had been given the green signal. Track locking also came into play when the train was passing over the points stopping the signal operator moving the points.

So I expect your right in that the platform was somehow kept in play for short trains.

 

It is South of the Level Crossing but, at a guess, the train may have been initially (or still) under protection arrangements which falls within the platform area limiting train lengths.

Again, that restriction might have only been in place until Network Rail disconnected the track circuits.

 
If it's south of Sands Road level crossing then it should not affect the length of train to four cars. Except for GWR IET's most trains including Cross Country use  a shunt move via the north crossover to get from platform 1 to 2.

If is a problem for 9 car trains they would probably be diverted to Plymouth to reverse or kept at Newton Abbot for a an hour and half. Been done before.

 

The re-railing team should have been on site at 20:00, won't take long to get it back on the rails.

The train won't be out of service for very long either, a wheel set change at most. 

The infrastructure, that's hard to say, A repair could take a day or two but getting resources and materials might mean a few weeks.  Upto 4-cars can still run into Paignton so not significant disruption.

 
So long will it take to sort that out?

 
Have seen some pics on social media and it doesn’t look like there’s much damage to the train. The track underneath (wooden sleepers) doesn’t look too clever though when it comes time to re-rail the train.

The other problem created is that it’s a 9 carriage IET that’s going to be out of service for a while at a time when GWR can’t really afford another set out of service; particularly a 9 car set.

 
5A87 has derailed on approach to Paignton South level crossing as it left Goodrington yard