David Tozer
55 years ago
The 'St Germans deviation' of 1908 was designed to replace the old single line and its many wooden ' Brunel' viaducts. On the old line was a crossing loop and signal box at Wivelscombe. The new line has a tunnel ( familiar to us all) and known as Shillingham - - presumably to avoid confusion with Wiveliscombe (note the spelling difference) on the old Barnstaple line in Somerset.
The new line at Wivelscombe (Shillingham) has always been subject to landslips ( note the steel nets protecting the line from slips at several points today). In November 1942 there was a huge slip which required 7 months of single line working through the tunnel, requiring two temporary signal boxes (Shillingham East and Shillingham West) from December 1942 until May 1943. Many thanks to Roy.
Dave Hayball

This staff dates from 1936, when the Portreath branch was closed beyond North Pool. At that time, traffic had been nil since the 1920s and even North Pool saw virtually no traffic until it, too, closed in April 1938.
When I last saw this staff it was in the posession of the late C.R Clinker, the noted railway historian. He told me that when he worked for the railway he visited Carn Brea Yard box in about 1948, long after the branch had gone, but the staff still hung on its hook in the box!
The Porteath branch was lifted in 1945 (the incline was dismantled in 1940). A stub of the branch remained, used generally for wagon storage, until 1967. Roy