HST's on the Newquay branch
Clive Smith
(1) Refreshments are loaded into a proper buffet car at Plymouth station as the 08.57 to Newquay is displayed on the indicator.
(2) The service has the road from the Newquay platform at Par. The signal box and semaphores are nicely reflected on the side of the HST.
(3) The token has been collected from St Blazey box.
(4) The HST passes under Treffry Viaduct on the climb through Luxulyan valley.
(5) Crossing the 09.35 Newquay to Newcastle Cross Country voyager at Goonbarrow Junction as the signalman transfers the token between trains. Will XC still be running HSTs to the resort next summer ?
(6) 43191 on the blocks at Newquay amidst the palm trees.
(7) View of the 11.30 to Paddington from the concourse at Newquay.
(8) The much changed Newquay station with now solitary platform. Gauging tests have been completed by Network Rail and the station awaits its first IET in the near future.
(9) 43027 with its 90 Glorious Years transfers leads the 11.30 to Paddington.
(10) Passing the 09.46 Exeter St Davids to Newquay at Goonbarrow Junction. This train is a double sprinter set running in the path of a former Paddington to Newquay service. Could GWR Castle 2+4 sets appear at the resort in the future ?
Regards Clive Smith Many thanks Clive
Roy Hart
On the up side, three quarters of a mile or so beyond the site of Grampound Road station, is the ancient Barton of Trenowth, still the site of a busy farm today.
In 1859, the landowner, fascinated and taken by the prospect of the trains which now regularly passed his property with the opening of the Cornwall Railway, decided to build for himself a permanent structure in which to sit and watch the trains.
A Victorian folly with pointed roof, decorative corbels and finials stands to this day among the trees of Barn Wood, part of the extensive Trenowth woods, only about 40 yards from the up main. Today it is roofless and invisible from passing trains –obscured by the vegetation which has blanked off so much of the lineside view in recent decades.
Imagine, if you will, an old Victorian gentleman retiring to his woodland hideaway, - just to watch the trains!
John Thorn
Clive Smith
John Cornelius