The Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway was a
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
railway intended to link the
Cornwall Railway
The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction, and was eventu ...
with the horse-worked
Newquay Railway. It opened a short section to
Nanpean
Nanpean (from kw, Nanspian, meaning "little valley") is a village in the civil parish of St Stephen-in-Brannel in Cornwall, United Kingdom.[Cornwall Minerals Railway
The Cornwall Minerals Railway owned and operated a network of of standard gauge railway lines in central Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It started by taking over an obsolescent horse-operated tramway in 1862, and it improved and extended i ...]
who took over the company in 1874. Its main traffic has always been
china clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
.
Chronology
* 1864 Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway Act
* 1869 Line opened
* 1874 Taken over by the
Cornwall Minerals Railway
The Cornwall Minerals Railway owned and operated a network of of standard gauge railway lines in central Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It started by taking over an obsolescent horse-operated tramway in 1862, and it improved and extended i ...
* 1892
Converted to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
* 1896 Amalgamated with
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
History
Joseph Treffry
Joseph Austen Treffry (1782 – 29 January 1850) was an engineer, mining adventurer, and industrialist who became a significant landowner in Cornwall, England.
Biography
Born in Plymouth, Devon as Joseph Thomas Austen, to Joseph Austen (d 1786 ...
had opened a tramway to connect mines and pits in the
Hendra and
St Dennis area of Cornwall in 1849. His tramway was horse-operated and led to
Pontsmill
Ponts Mill is a hamlet in Cornwall, England, UK. It is a mile north of St Blazey
St Blazey ( kw, Lanndreth) is a small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
St Blaise is the civil parish in which St Blazey is situated; the name St Blai ...
, where transshipment was necessary to the
Par Canal
Par ( kw, An Porth, meaning ''creek'' or ''harbour''Henry Jenner, ''A Handbook of the Cornish Language: Chiefly in Its Latest Stages, with Some Account of its History and Literature'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1904 reprinted 2012 ...
, also built by Treffry, for onward conveyance to
Par Harbour
Par Docks is an Imerys-owned harbour in the village of Par, Cornwall, United Kingdom, which was used for the export of china clay from the numerous Imerys sites in the clay-rich region of Mid-Cornwall.
History
Joseph Treffry (born Joseph A ...
. The practical limitations of his line were insignificant at first, but as time passed were seen to inhibit trade.
The
Cornwall Railway
The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction, and was eventu ...
opened in 1859, providing a broadly west-to-east line giving easier access to markets for the extracted minerals, but although the lines crossed at Par, there was at first no connection; moreover the Cornwall Railway was built on the
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
and Treffry's line on the
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
, then usually referred to as "narrow gauge". The Cornwall Railway opened a station at Burngullow in 1863 and this was used as a railhead for some china clay production, which was carted to the station.
On 4 July 1864 the ''Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway'' was authorised by Act of Parliament to build a 5¼ mile line from Burngullow to connect with the St Dennis branch of Treffry's Newquay line.
[E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959][John Vaughan, ''The Newquay Branch and its Branches'', Oxford Publishing Company, Sparkford, 1991, ] Burngullow is located about 2 miles (3 km) west of
St Austell
St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon.
St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958.
History
St Austell wa ...
station, on the Cornwall Railway main line. The authorised capital was £36,000.
[Date of Act according to Carter; Vaughan says 14 July 1964. Vaughan quotes the capital as £27,000; probably borrowing powers of £9,000, the usual one-third proportion, was authorised, making the £36,000 total.]
The company was authorised to make agreements with the Treffry Estate Trustees to convert the Newquay tramway line to broad gauge and take it over, connecting Newquay to the Cornwall Railway. The company would reach Hendra, "affording direct communication with Newquay, Par, Fowey and Falmouth".
[From a prospectus partly quoted in Vaughan, page 127; there is ambiguity whether this prospectus was issued prior to the first Act, or after it.] Access over the Treffry lines would involve a break of gauge.
In fact difficulties in raising the required funds prevailed for some time; in addition the route was required to be alter; an authorising Act was obtained in 1868 for an 82 chain (1.65 km) deviation, as well as permitting more capital.
[
At last the short main line ( in length) was opened from Burngullow to Drinnick Mill Clay Works, near Nanpean on 1 July 1869. The company had exhausted its funds and abandoned plans to extend further.][ The offices for the company were at Par and shared with the Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway.][E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway'', vol II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931: page 289]
In 1872 it was agreed to lease the line to the newly formed Cornwall Minerals Railway
The Cornwall Minerals Railway owned and operated a network of of standard gauge railway lines in central Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It started by taking over an obsolescent horse-operated tramway in 1862, and it improved and extended i ...
which would complete the connection to the Newquay Railway. It would also convert both this and the Par Tramway for steam engines, and connect these together and with quays at Fowey
Fowey ( ; kw, Fowydh, meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local ch ...
. The lease took effect from 1 June 1874 but the company never received everything that it had been promised and took legal action against the Cornwall Minerals Railway. The Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway directors stopped meeting in 1885.
The Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
took over the operation of the Cornwall Minerals Railway from 1 October 1877 and was amalgamated with this company on 1 July 1896. In the meantime, the line had been converted to standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
along with all the other lines west of Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
over the weekend of 21 May 1892, finally enabling through trains from Burngullow to St Dennis Junction.
The railway has only ever carried goods traffic. The line no longer extends to St Dennis, but the original line still carries china clay from Parkandillack to Fowey.
Locomotives
The contractor who built the line, William West of St Blazey, also contracted to operate the railway. The Cornwall Minerals Railway operated the same or similar locomotives, but these were withdrawn when the Great Western Railway took over operation. An engine shed was provided at Burngullow. It is unclear how many locomotives were operated but two have been positively identified.
* ''Newquay'', an 0-4-2ST which had previously worked the South Wales Mineral Railway
The South Wales Mineral Railway was a railway built to serve collieries in the upper Afan Valley, and bring their output to a dock at Briton Ferry, in South Wales. It opened in stages, in 1861 and 1863. It was built on the broad gauge and had s ...
.
* ''Phoenix'', a tank engine which may have come from Roland Brotherhood
Rowland Brotherhood (or sometimes Roland Brotherhood) was a British engineer. He was born in Middlesex in 1812 and died in Bristol in 1883. He married Priscilla Penton in 1835 and they had 14 children, one also called Rowland who played cricke ...
, an engineer at Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...
.
Present day trains are usually powered by EWS Class 66 locomotives.
Notes
References
Further reading
{{Portal, Cornwall
* Papers relating to the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway can be consulted a
The National Archives
at Kew. The minute books are believed to have been destroyed but an index to them is held.
Rail transport in Cornwall
7 ft gauge railways
Great Western Railway constituents
Pre-grouping British railway companies
Railway lines opened in 1869
Railway companies disestablished in 1874
Newquay
Standard gauge railways in England
1869 establishments in England