General description Cornwall Railway

1 general description

1.1 controversy on route
1.2 brunel designs practical route
1.3 twentieth century

general description

map of cornwall railway

the cornwall railway conceived because of fears falmouth lose out, port, southampton. falmouth had many years had of packet trade: dispatches colonies , overseas territories arrived ship , conveyed london road coach. primitive roads of days made slow business , southampton developing in importance. completion of london , southampton railway in 1840 meant dispatches taken on london swiftly train.

controversy on route

at first promoters wanted direct route london, if meant building line way there, by-passing important towns in cornwall , devon. before interested parties raise money , parliamentary authority line, government removed bulk of packet trade southampton, of income new line removed. interests continued press best line london, hoping packet trade return; if necessary link new railway, huge cost of proved impossible raise. more practical scheme running plymouth gradually took priority, , @ first trains cross hamoaze, body of water @ mouth of river tamar on steam ferry. shown unrealistic, , isambard kingdom brunel called in resolve difficulty. designed bridge on river tamar @ saltash, royal albert bridge: when built prodigious engineering feat in world. improved details of route elsewhere. reaching plymouth, company connect south devon railway , on london on bristol , exeter railway , great western railway. line built on broad gauge.

deprived of lucrative packet trade, promoters discovered impossible raise money needed build line, , there considerable delay until economy of country improved. object of linking falmouth london quietly dropped, , line built truro plymouth. @ truro railway, west cornwall railway, fed in, linking penzance network. falmouth later connected too, branch line.

brunel designs practical route

the terrain crossed railway exceptionally difficult because of number of north-south valleys intersecting route. because of extreme shortage of money when railway being built, brunel designed timber trestle viaducts; these cheaper incurred heavy maintenance costs , reconstructed in masonry or brick, or in few cases made embankments. spindly appearance of these high viaducts made passengers nervous, provided marked impression associated line (although brunel did use form of construction elsewhere). shortage of money @ construction forced company install single track only.

once in operation, line still short of money, made progress in converting viaducts more durable materials, , in doubling sections of route, need convert standard gauge in addition , company obliged sell out great western railway.

if original plan had been carry packet trade, railway built developed considerable agricultural business when emerged horticultural produce got london markets quickly. in addition, holiday trade developed cornwall became desirable holiday destination, , numerous resorts served directly railway found favour. area became branded cornish riviera , rivalling french riviera , middle classes. many branch lines built coastal resorts, independent companies or later great western railway.

the twentieth century

carnon viaduct near perranwell on falmouth line, on route of redruth , chaswewater railway

in twentieth century great western railway encouraged these 2 traffics running fast goods trains area london , other population centres, , heavily marketing holiday opportunities of cornwall , providing imaginative train services purpose. mineral traffic developed too.

having been built cheaply, route difficult operate speeds , traffic density increased, many sharp curves , steep gradients militated against efficient operation. on summer saturdays in later years serious delay due congestion. although great western railway made improvements in capital schemes in cornwall, constructed topography of main line made large scale improvement prohibitively expensive.

from mid-1960s when holidaymakers began abroad holidays in sun, cornish riviera inevitably declined, although significant residual traffic remains. mineral traffic continues. through passenger trains form london continue operate , original cornwall railway route remains backbone of rail business in county.