29th January 2022

Summer Saturdays in the 70s on the Newquay Branch
Roger Winnen

780625b 50016 Barham on a early morning train calling at Par on route to Newquay.25th June 1978 Copyright. Copyright Roger Winnen

780617a Its the 17th June 1978 50027 Lion passing Bugle on route to Newquay. Copyright Roger Winnen

780715d Two 25s 25155 & 25307 working 12.12 Newquay to Nottingham at Bugle. Keith Jenkins oldest son Kevin can be seen taking notes of the train as it passes through the station. Copyright Roger Winnen

780617e A Class 50 50027 Lion heads through Bugle on a train to Newquay. Its 17th June 1978. Copyright Roger Winnen

780625l A Peak arrival at Newquay, the engine has uncoupled from its train to use the crossover to the now abandoned Platform 1. . 25th June 1978 Copyright Roger Winnen

A classic shot taken yesterday.
Parsons Tunnel
Paul Barlow

06.11 1V50 Leeds - Plymouth with 43366 and 43207 passes 800309 on 0815 Penzance to Paddington at Parsons Tunnel on the 28th January 2022

You were there at exactly the right time Paul - congratulations and many thanks.
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Snow plough
Laira 
Stephen Widdowson
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Snowplough at Laira 965238 Taken in the height of summer 2oth June 1987. Copyright Stephen Widdowso.

This is the last of the current selection of 'black and whites' kindly supplied by Stephen Widdowson.  We hope that the rest of this winter will not produce a need for such an item of rolling stock. Many thanks Stephen.
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Letter from Canada
Ponsanooth Viaduct
David Lamder

​Greetings from British Columbia, Canada
Your society's name was given to me by Kresen Kernow as the possible source of information on the above viaduct which I am modelling in 1/76 scale circa 1920 before the current one was built.
I have John Binding's book "Brunel's Cornish Viaducts" and an original drawing from Railtrack which shows a mistake in John's book re the number of masonry columns. John says 9 but the drawing shows 10 and if you add up all the dimensions in his book then only 10 fits the overall length.
I am well on with the model and am looking for little details like that of the man refuges alongside the track over the viaduct.
Can your society help me please with any details of these parts?
Best Regards
Dave Lamder 

Thank you for your letter David, I wonder if any of our experts can provide answers to your questions reference the viaduct. Perhaps once complete you can let us have photographs of the finished project - maybe from several angles - it can then be placed on our website for future reference.

Shepherds
Camping Coach

The above picture was first placed on the website with an appeal from Bernard Mills to identify the locction

The above picture was first placed on the website with an appeal from Bernard Mills (who had purchased the image from e-bay) to identify the location. Several of you identified the site as being at Shepherds on the Chacewater to Newquay branch. An isolated location in th middle of nowhere, but of course using the branch line service one had access to the beaches at Newquay and Perranporth, and in those good old days the chance to explore Cornwall.

OS Map image from the National Museum of Scotland.

This image supplied by Mrs. Glanville clearly show the parking spot of the coach - the facilities would have been provided in the station buildings close by. Maybe the odd train on the Treamble branch off to the right would have provided some 'passing entertainment'.

John Roberts wrote :-  Yes, definitely Shepherds, I recognise the track layout and overbridge. Note the sleeper in front of the coach to stop it running away! Somewhere I saw a list of camping coaches, maybe it was on this site, and one of the entries was Shepherds - cattle dock - one coach. There was one at Nancegollan but the track layout doesn’t match the photo.Further ponts from John Roberts - I was interested in the plan of Shepherds. It looks as if there were a level crossing over the original Treamble line, but the original road was cut off by the new station, so presumably the road was diverted over the new bridge in 1905.
The website says that the Treamble traffic ceased in August 1949, but is still shown in the 1949-50 Working Timetable. I had assumed that the Treamble branch would have been shunted by the morning Truro to Newquay goods, but that train is allowed only 15 minutes at Shepherds. A separate train runs to Treamble and back, but there's no indication how it gets to Shepherds. I surmise that the Truro goods is double-headed to Shepherds and the second loco then runs to Treamble and back, and returns to Truro double-headed with the afternoon Newquay to Truro goods. This seems very inefficient!
The Truro - Newquay goods is actually timetabled to continue to and from St Columb Road. Do we know what traffic necessitated this and why it wasn't conveyed by the Par - Newquay goods?
​There maybe further post on this item.

And for Neil Phillips, I still have my Triang crane and match wagon, although they haven’t seen light of day for a good few years!
Keep it coming! John.

Re the crane see item 2006 in Features Jan to June 2022.   A pair of St Blazey Survivors  By  Neil Phllips

Many thanks to all who wrote in.
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