I can just about recall early visits to Sidmouth, by road. The station, which you pass on the way in, always had one or more 80xxx standing around, which is the tank engine equivalent of a Black 5, able to handle 11 coaches (as they did on Waterloo ecs), running with two, or even single, coach trains. Out of season the coaches might outnumber the passengers. Just a couple of miles up the line at Tipton St Johns and it was either change and wait, or shunting the single carriage onto the back of a service from Exmouth, while a second, and if there was a service passing in the opposite direction a third, 80xxx hung around.
I seem to recall it would have been a right nuisance to get to from Taunton, changing at Exeter, because the connections at Sidmouth Junction were built around trains from Waterloo. So it could have taken half a day to get there. By car it was about an hour.