Items added on the 17th November 2016 Those added most recently come first

An evening at Penzance with the Night Riviera
Emma Shard

57604 awaiting departure with the Night Riviera to London. 16th November 2016 Copyright Emma Shard

43027 in the Queens 90th livery at Penzance 16th November 2016 Copyright Emma Shard

66238 arrives at Penzance with the RHTT from Par 16th November 2016 Copyright Emma Shard

429 66160 waits for the Plymouth Cross Country service to clear before heading back to Par with the RHTT 16th November 2016 Copyright Emma Shard

Many thanks Emma

Hymeks in Cornwall
An appeal by Roger Geach

Roger Geach, the gentleman who provides us with so many pictures of various railway aspects in Cornwall and wider afield is putting together a book on Cornwalls Railways.  However, he is sadly lacking pictures of Hymeks in operation in the county.  Can anybody help please???

37175 beck in Kernow
Neil Phillips

37175 at Penzance on the 9th November 2016 Copyright Paul Rundle

​What a surprise to see the recent pictures of former china clay locomotive now Colas Rail Freight 37175 back in Cornwall, 29 years after it departed - lest we forget, that was a much longer gap than that between the last Western diesel-hydraulics in early 1977 and D1015’s triumphant return in 2002! Delivered new to South Wales as D6875 in 1963, this machine eventually ended up in Scotland where it received Large Logo Blue livery with Scottie Dog emblems and a pair of experimental ‘self-steering’ bogies before being sent to the opposite end of the country in the mid 1980s to work on the clays. After being displaced by St Blazey’s newly-refurbished Class 37/5s in 1987 and a spell in departmental service, it went back to Scotland for preservation before acquisition by Colas, which has now returned it to Cornwall all these years later. (Did it appear in Cornwall during its departmental years?)
 
I believe that by a pure stroke of luck I saw 37175 being towed away from the West Country in 1987 from the A38 flyover near Tavistock Yard. I just caught sight of a named blue Class 47 – plate position and length would suggest ‘City of Truro’ or ‘North Star’ – heading east towing two Class 37s, one of which was in Large logo Blue so must have been 37175. The date was Saturday 5th September 1987, around mid-afternoon – 29 years later can anyone confirm this movement and the identities of the three locomotives in the consist?
 
Best regards,  Neil Phillips                                                                                           Many thanks Neil for the reminder - can anyone answer the above question.

Parkandillack 
Roger Winnen

In the light of Fred Eltons pictures published two days ago Roger Winnen has found the slide of an earlier event at Parkandillack.  We have a date for this happening as below.  This could well be the wagon seen on page 148 of John Vaughans book 'The Newquay branch and its branches'.

Wagon off rails at Parkandillack 18th April 1974 Copyright Roger Winnen. Rogers caption is perhaps putting things mildly? The wagon has mounted the buffer stop and looks ready to head for the moon! Beyond, it will be noted that in 1974 the trackbed towards St Dennis was still quite clear.

St Erth
​Andrew Thompson

57601 runs into St Erth on a summers day. An undated picture from Andrew Thompson Copyright. N.B 57601 was leased to First Great Western between 2001 and 2003, it then went back to Porterbrook and is now on West Coast Railways - it comes to Cornwall occasionally on railtours.

Near Ivybridge
Roger Geach

50046 heads the Bristol east depot to Tavystock Jnct nr ivybridge on the 1st September 1989 This was taken between Blatchford viaduct and the old Ivybridge station. Copyright Roger Geach

Athelney
On a special day
John Cornelius

GOOD MORNING KEITH, as a follow up to Roger Winnens pic of the first 'hst' hauled 'Golden Hind' at Clink Road on 6-8-1979,being on early turn that day, I photographed it passing Athelney on the way up to London. Following a fairly quick turn around at Paddington, it then worked the first down 'hst' hauled 'Cornish Riviera' to Penzance. Likewise, the 'hst' set that later worked the up 'Cornish Rivera' to London , returned on the down 'Golden Hind'.
 These trains ran to the loco hauled timings for sometime and it was not unusual for the down 'Cornish Riviera' to be running 15 min early passing Castle Cary. When it was running early I would always give Taunton East signalman the tip.
  cheers JOHN C.  First hand knowledge from a professional railwayman - many thanks indeed John. Here are the pictures.

Lyng Church in the background. Copyright John Cornelius

Copyright John Cornelius