North Cornwall Railway - Geography

Geography

From Halwill the line describes a loop turning from north to south west, and rounding a shoulder of the hill behind Halwill village runs downhill at gradients of 1 in 74 and 1 in 82 to join the valley of the River Carey, following this down for nearly 10 miles (16 km) to the River Tamar at Launceston. Both L&SWR and GWR stations at Launceston were set in the bottom of the Tamar valley well below Launceston Castle and ran together side-by-side for over 2 miles (3.2 km) until the stations were reached. While the GWR line terminated here, the L&SWR line climbed, following the Kensey valley in a generally westerly direction through the sparsely populated farming country of the North Cornwall/Devon border to a summit near Otterham.

From Otterham the line descends into the upper reaches of the Camel valley, passing through Camelford Station over 2 miles west of Camelford town and then leaving the valley for a gentle climb to the coastal uplands.

At Delabole the line skirts a slate quarry, once claimed to be the deepest in the country, and then descends to the Allen valley, diving briefly through Trelill Tunnel under the village of Trelill, before returning to the Camel valley and running parallel to the Bodmin and Wadebridge line into Wadebridge station. The geographical junction of the two lines was a mile or so to the east of Wadebridge, but no railway connection was made there, and the two lines ran as single lines, with the appearance of a double track, to Wadebridge East signal box.

Once past Wadebridge the character changes as the line hugs the tidal River Camel until crossing Little Petherick Creek over a three-span iron bridge and rounding Dennis Hill, it reaches Padstow station which was located on a narrow strip of reclaimed land with the Atlantic Ocean visible in the distance. The station site is now given over to a car park.