North Cornwall Railway - History

History

In the 19th century, Padstow was an important fishing port, but it was hampered by lack of land communication with markets. The L&SWR had reached into West Devon by the 1880s, and was prevented by agreements with the Great Western Railway from approaching southern Cornwall. The L&SWR had purchased the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway illegally in 1846 and connection of this with the remainder of the LSWR was desirable. By encouraging a nominally independent company, the North Cornwall Railway, the L&SWR planned to develop the northern part of the Cornish peninsula and to this end the new North Cornwall Railway's line was to form a junction with the L&SWR's unfinished Bude line at Halwill and push towards Wadebridge. The prospectus of the North Cornwall indicated that a further extension of 24 miles (39 km) would be required to bring the railway from Wadebridge to Truro.

The North Cornwall Railway obtained an Act of Parliament for construction of its line on 18 August 1882, but money was very tight and construction was slow, so it was not until 21 July 1886 that the first section of 14 miles 57 chains (23.68 km), from Halwill to Launceston was opened. At Launceston the North Cornwall Railway station was built exactly adjacent to, but completely separate from, the GWR station; this originally having been built by the Launceston and South Devon Railway and opened in 1865. This situation changed in 1943 when wartime circumstances caused a connection to be laid allowing trains from the GWR line to run into the North Cornwall station in the down direction. It was intended to be temporary for wartime goods movement, but when the GWR station was closed on 30 June 1952 GWR trains were diverted over it and used the North Cornwall station as a terminus until closure of the GWR route ten years later.

The remainder of the North Cornwall Railway was opened gradually in stages; Launceston to Tresmeer (7 miles 75 chains (12.77 km)) on 28 July 1892, Tresmeer to Camelford (9 miles 26 chains (15.01 km)) on 14 August 1893, Camelford to Delabole (2 miles 29 chains (3.8 km)) on 18 October 1893, Delabole to Wadebridge (10 miles 68 chains (17.46 km)) on 1 June 1895, and finally Wadebridge to Padstow (5 miles 52 chains (9.09 km)) on 27 March 1899. At Wadebridge, the line joined with the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway, which had opened in 1834, just outside the town and ran into the rebuilt station there, finally being extended over the main road to Padstow four years later. This railway connection quickly enabled Padstow to gain further importance in the fishing trade and also to become a seaside resort of some significance.

While Padstow proved to be the furthest extent of the L&SWR line the original ambition to extend further into Cornwall continued to arouse interest and in 1894, with rapid progress being made in building the line, a parliamentary notice was issued for a line from the North Cornwall to Newquay and Truro, and thence with running powers over the GWR to Falmouth and Penzance. While this came to nothing, the GWR were still concerned and in 1905 were granted powers to provide a line to Newquay diverging in the vicinity of Bodmin Road. Proposals for light railways in the country between Padstow and Newquay continued until 1911, but none came to anything.

However apart from Launceston and Wadebridge the very long single-track line served only small rural communities, and never achieved the importance that its promoters had hoped for. Fish traffic and ice for the ships were always important commodities on the line, as was the seasonal holidaymaker traffic for Padstow and several resorts served indirectly by the railway. Closure as part of the Beeching Axe took place on 3 October 1966 for the section from Halwill Junction to Wadebridge. After this date the section from Wadebridge to Padstow remained open to trains originating in Bodmin and approaching Wadebridge via the Bodmin and Wadebridge route until this finally closed 3 months later on 30 January 1967.

A section of trackbed from Launceston is now in use as the Launceston Steam Railway, and the section from Wadebridge to Padstow is now part of the Camel Trail.