Hayle Railway - Inclines

Inclines

There was a large fall in elevation from the mines to the ports, and to optimise the haulage capacity available at the time, the line was laid out with generally moderate gradients, but with four inclines (sometimes referred to as inclined planes). The inclines carried the railway down a steep hillside, and the "trains" (or groups of wagons) were controlled by a rope, hauled or let out from an engine house or other control location at the head of the incline. Generally locomotives were used to haul the trains to and from the ends of the inclines, and did not themselves travel with the train. However horse traction was used west of the Angarrack incline at first, but from 1843 locomotives worked over the incline, using the rope for traction and braking, and to from there Hayle.

A more general description of the use of inclined planes in railway situations is at Cable railway.

The four inclined planes were at:

• Redruth on the Tresavean line, just south of the junction with the Redruth terminus line, and often referred to as Tresavean incline;
• Portreath, immediately south of the harbour
• Penponds, west of Camborne; and
• Angarrack

The Redruth incline was 2,640 feet long, with a rise of 170 feet; it was gravity worked, and was in operation from 1837 to 1935.

The Portreath incline was 1,716 feet long with a rise of about 240 feet. It was worked by a stationary steam engine

Penponds incline was about 1,900 feet long, and was worked on the counterbalanced principle.

Angarrack incline was 1,900 feet long with a fall of about 185 feet; it was powered by a stationary steam engine.

The railway received an estimate to provide four stationary steam engines in 1836, in the amount of £7,100, although in the event the Penponds and Tresavean inclines were gravity operated.