Pilgrimage to Cornwall

[KingEdwardII]

I can suggest the boat trip from Falmouth up the Fal River to either Malpas or (when the tides are large) all the way to Truro. The harbour & the river are pretty spectacular from the water.

 

Yours, Mike.

[MarcD]

St Mawes is a nice trip from Falmouth.

[F-UnitMad]

The harbour end of Newquay is nicer than the railway station end. I traced the harbour tramway branch a couple of years ago - it takes a lot of imagination at the harbour end as it's all lost under Sainsbury's car park, although the lower end of the tunnel that led down to the harbour itself is still in use, as a boat store....

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, MarcD said:

St Mawes is a nice trip from Falmouth.

But be careful which operator you use as the fares from the two different piers differed considerably when I looked there about 18 months back!

 

16 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

The harbour end of Newquay is nicer than the railway station end. I traced the harbour tramway branch a couple of years ago - it takes a lot of imagination at the harbour end as it's all lost under Sainsbury's car park, although the lower end of the tunnel that led down to the harbour itself is still in use, as a boat store....

 

 

The Newquay Harbour branch became a railway (instead of a tramway) in 1874 - apart from one level crossing over a public road it ran wholly on railway company property.  The Cornwall Minerals Railway incorporated in 1873 to take over the tramway etc simultaneously obtained powers to operate the line using locomotives and convert it from a tramway to a railway,  that company amalgamated with the GWR in 1896.

 

The GWR finally closed the harbour branch in the mid 1920s although traffic had been very sparse since the Great War.  Following closure and removal of the track the GWR gave the entire route, and the harbour,  to Newquay Town Council.

[MarcD]

There is a good book on the subject. I have a copy somewhere. Think it's call the Newquay branch and it's branches. Think it was published by OPC. I got my copy in the second hand books section at Bodmin station many years ago.

[Gilbert]

On 23/05/2024 at 21:28, VIA185 said:

Falmouth branch is heavily modernised - virtually nothing original left  and it dumps you in the back of beyond at Falmouth but if you're also interested in ships and harbours it's worth a look.

The walk to Pendennis Castle (has an entrance fee unless you're an English Heritage member IIRC) and the Head are a bit of non-railway interest.

[GWR57xx]

We are now back home after our week roaming the rails of Cornwall.

 

My wife graciously agreed to come along for the ride on the understanding that we upgraded to first class for the Paddington to St Erth out and return legs and stayed in a good hotel with dinner, bed & breakfast each day.

 

The trip got off to a shaky start when, having been dropped off by a friend at our local station, we were waiting along with a few other prospective passengers for our train to arrive to take us into London. At the appropriate time we saw our train approach the station then stop several hundred yards short, where it sat for 10 minutes. There were no station announcements to tell us what was happening, then our train reversed back to where it has come from, leaving us all a bit concerned about what was happening. Eventually we were told that a tree had fallen across the line and our train was cancelled, along with at least the following two trains. A rail replacement bus service would be provided... but would not get us where we needed to be in time.

 

Very fortuitously we had decided to catch an earlier train than we really needed to, so had a bit of time in hand. If not for that we would not have made it to Paddington in time for our booked departure. We called on the services of our friend again to collect us and take us to the next town which is on a different railway line, so we managed to get to Paddington with a few minutes to spare. Phew.

 

It was a good job we'd booked first class and had reserved seats because our train was very full due to several trains on the route being cancelled due to "staff shortages" (aka throwing a sicky to watch the footy - despicable).

 

After all this excitement the five hour journey down was uneventful, the stewards keeping us well supplied with tea and snacks all the way. The scenery passing by the windows is truly beautiful, this really is a very green and pleasant land as far as the countryside goes. It never looks as good from a car window as it does from a train.

 

Prior to this trip the furthest I've been into Cornwall was to the Bodmin & Wenford Steam Railway, a situation that I thought needed to be corrected.

 

The railway map of Cornwall is now sadly much reduced but still includes several branch lines which were the objectives for the week ahead:

 

 

Our hotel was the Tregenna Castle Hotel, once owned by the Great Western Railway, in St Ives. This of course meant that our days on the railway began and ended with a trip along this lovely line every day to connect with the main line at St Erth, itself a lovely little station.

 

Cornwall seems to be one of the last bastions of lower quadrant semaphore signals and mechanical signal boxes, of which we passed many during the week.

 

My main impression of Cornwall is of the very many heavily wooded valleys and rivers that the railway crosses. Looking down from a height of 100' or more I'm aware that I'm crossing a very impressive piece of architecture, but sadly the magnificence isn't visible from the train except possibly the briefest of glimpses if the line is on a curve. To remedy this I've just ordered a copy of "Brunel's Cornish Viaducts" by John Binding.

 

Another memory is the overgrown nature of the railway lineside in much of Cornwall, with bushes and trees brushing along the side of the train in many places.

 

Unfortunately the weather wasn't great in Cornwall last week but we achieved our goal of covering all of the above map despite a quite large number of cancelled services in the region for various reasons.

 

As it turned out we didn't get much time to do much away from the railway but we did manage to wander round St Ives, Penzance, Looe and Newquay on different days and consume a fair number of Cornish pasties and cream scones (jam first!) in the process. Friday was the worst day weather-wise with torrential rain all day so we didn't get off the train in Falmouth that day. Tuesday was Gunnislake but because of the journey time and the desire to get back to St Ives in time for dinner and also because there doesn't appear to be much around the station there we didn't linger.

 

Overall we had a very enjoyable week. Favourite things: the hotel; St Ives & its branch line; Looe & its branch line; cream scones; pasties. Least favourite things: hard and uncomfortable "ironing board" seats in standard class on the 80x IET trains; train cancellations.

 

I didn't manage to get many decent photos - most were taken through grubby train windows with reflections and rain drops - but here's a few random snaps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rivercider]

I am glad you enjoyed the trip.

I agree that St Ives is lovely, and the branch line from St Erth is a great ride.

You have some good photos there, I recognise the view of Porth Kidney Sands from the St Ives train,

and also the view off the Calstock Viaduct. If you do get the chance to go back there are great walks along there,

 

cheers   

 

[Ray M]

Great minds think alike.

from our trip in May

[GWR57xx]

53 minutes ago, Ray M said:

Great minds think alike.

from our trip in May

Looks like you had better weather. 🙂

[Halvarras]

A shame about the weather, but it's always pot luck in Blighty and it looks like you made the best of it.

 

Lostwithiel, Par and Truro lost their semaphore signals just 4-5 months ago - Par's being taken out of use on 4th/5th March. Those which remain will be there for a few years yet. Infrequent use of ineffective weedkiller results in a rundown-looking permanent way compared to.......well, not that long ago really. At least the 40 long-stored CDA wagons made St Blazey Yard look busy, but they all went for scrap last year, quickly followed by the final operational 38 (of which 10 were preserved and one of these remains on site), to be replaced by 5 JGA wagons which proved unsuitable for china clay traffic and now sit there in the weeds, future uncertain - and that may well apply to all of those empty sidings now too. It presents a bleak picture compared to 50-odd years ago when I used to visit the busy depot stuffed full of locos on weekends. I now live within easy walking distance but don't bother with it much these days, and once the HSTs are gone (replaced by 175s?!) I probably won't bother with the main line either.

 

However all is not lost - St Blazey's newly-restored turntable has already turned a few main line steam locos, and last Saturday week we had a pair of Class 50s and a pair of Class 47s in quick succession - I took a long walk out to Carlyon Bay Golf Course to photograph the returning specials, only to find that the amount of lineside vegetation makes decent photography virtually impossible from ground level, a common problem everywhere it seems. Perhaps the 'global greening' phenomenon is real 😁!

[GWR57xx]

Yes, St Blazey was looking very sad:

 

 

 

 

[GWR57xx]

Also spotted a very clean RSS logo'd 08752 in Rock Works (?) just behind Goonbarrow Junction Signal Box:

 

 

 

[Ray M]

More same old, Same old.

but with a tad better weather.

[Kylestrome]

On 08/07/2024 at 23:05, GWR57xx said:

hard and uncomfortable "ironing board" seats in standard class on the 80x IET trains

 

After reading so many complaints about these seats, I was expecting them to be really bad. However, on a recent trip from Penzance to Paddington, I managed to get to Reading before experiencing some slight discomfort. Maybe being used to sitting on racing saddles is good preparation?

 

 

[GWR57xx]

2 hours ago, Kylestrome said:

 

After reading so many complaints about these seats, I was expecting them to be really bad. However, on a recent trip from Penzance to Paddington, I managed to get to Reading before experiencing some slight discomfort. Maybe being used to sitting on racing saddles is good preparation?

 

 

We found that the 80x standard seats have virtually no cushioning and the backs are shapeless, offering no lumbar support whatsoever.

 

By contrast, the standard seating in the old (refurbished) HST 125 sets and also those in the local DMUs were vastly superior on both counts. 
 

Maybe they’re deliberately uncomfortable to encourage take-up of first class? 🙂

[Mike_Walker]

4 hours ago, GWR57xx said:

We found that the 80x standard seats have virtually no cushioning and the backs are shapeless, offering no lumbar support whatsoever.

 

By contrast, the standard seating in the old (refurbished) HST 125 sets and also those in the local DMUs were vastly superior on both counts. 
 

Maybe they’re deliberately uncomfortable to encourage take-up of first class? 🙂

First class is scarcely any better apart from being 2+1.  It came as a real shock to those of us who regularly travelled on the leather seats in first on the HSTs.