The West Cornwall Railway was a railway company in Cornwall, Great Britain, formed in 1846 to construct a railway between Penzance and Truro. It purchased the existing Hayle Railway, and improved its main line, and built new sections between Penzance and Hayle, and between Redruth and Truro, and opened throughout in 1852.
When the Cornwall Railway reached Truro in 1859, rail travel between Penzance and London was possible, by changing trains.
Later, however, the West Cornwall company was called on to carry out certain mandatory improvements; it lacked the funds to undertake the work, and it was forced to sell its line to the "Associated Companies"—in effect the Great Western Railway, from 1 January 1866.
The main line of the West Cornwall Railway is still in operation at the present day, forming the western end of the Cornish Main Line railway.
Hayle Railway The Hayle Railway had been opened as a mineral railway in 1837 between copper and tin mining districts near Redruth, and sea ports at Hayle and Portreath. The line was very lightly engineered, with light T-section rails on stone blocks. There were four rope-worked inclined planes on the system, which was standard gauge. Passenger traffic began to be carried on the main line between Redruth and Hayle, but the physical limitations of the system were significant.
A scheme to connect Penzance and Truro Local interests promoted a scheme to extend the Hayle Railway at each end of its main line so as to link Penzance and Truro. They formed the West Cornwall Railway Company, and their proposal was to lease the extensions to the Hayle Railway and to arrange for that company to work the whole line. The atmospheric system was proposed for the Truro to Redruth section. (In this system, stationary engines create a partial vacuum in a pipe between the rails, and vehicle at the head of the train carries a piston, entered into the pipe, to achieve traction.) The scheme was estimated at £160,000.
However a parliamentary bill in 1845 was defeated, chiefly because of concern about the delays and inconvenience due to two rope worked inclines on the main line, at Angarrack and Penponds.G H Anthony, The Hayle, West Cornwall and Helston Railways, Oakwood Press, Lingfield, 1968The unsuccessful bill is dated 1845 in MacDermot
A second bill was promoted, with the (9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxxxvi) receiving royal assent on 3 August 1846, giving powers to purchase the Hayle Railway and construct deviations to eliminate the inclined planes, and to complete the route between Penzance and Truro. The company's capital was to be £500,000 with borrowing powers of £165,000, and a head office in London.
The line was to be broad gauge, "subject to the liability to lay additional rails of the gauge of any railway which might thereafter be constructed through Cornwall to Truro". The main line was to be from Carvedras in Truro (close to the present-day station), with branches to the Truro River and to Falmouth, and to Penryn and to St Ives. (In fact none of the branches was built, except to Newham on the Truro River, and the line never reached Carvedras.)
Possession of the Hayle Railway was taken on 3 November 1846, the purchase price being paid in 4,000 West Cornwall shares, and by taking over the Hayle company's debts, amounting to £47,960. Money was extremely scarce at this time due to the collapse in investor confidence after the railway mania, and for some time, the new company was unable to undertake the new construction, only continuing to operate the original Hayle Railway network.
When finance became available, it was decided to build the new route sections in standard gauge, so as to avoid the expense of converting and relaying the existing Hayle Railway sections, which were already in that gauge; the (13 & 14 Vict. c. xcviii) giving powers to do so was obtained. However the powers granted were conditional upon the West Cornwall laying broad gauge rails on six months' notice from any connecting broad gauge line.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, vol II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the company's engineer, and he proposed the use of Barlow rails, a rail section with a very wide base, that was laid directly in the ballast without sleepers or other support, with a very considerable saving in first cost. This is said to be Brunel's first experiment with this rail section. As stated, the Hayle Railway's own T-section rail and stone block track was retained where appropriate but in the event "Much reconstruction [had] been necessary, and much of the old line between Hayle and Redruth [had] been relaid."Minutes of half yearly shareholders' meeting on 4 March 1852, reported in Anthony Several new viaducts were required, including Angarrack and Penponds, in each case on account of the deviation to by-pass the inclines.
By February 1852 the route was practically ready between Redruth and Penzance, and on 16 February 1852 the former Hayle Railway section was closed to enable the final connections to be made.Mike Oakley, Cornwall Railway Stations, The Dovecote Press, Wimborne Minster, 2009, On 25 February a locomotive was seen in Penzance for the first time, and on 27 February the chairman and directors made a trial inspection run from Redruth (Hayle Railway station) to Penzance. Formalities were completed and the line was ready for opening.
The new line opens
On 11 March 1852, the West Cornwall main line was opened between Penzance and the new Redruth station, without ceremony. The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser newspaper, which had reported the directors' inspection run in detail, did not record the opening, although an accident at Hayle on 17 March was reported. The opening was announced in the Royal Cornwall Gazette on 12 March 1852 but only by publication of the timetable, rather than a description of the opening ceremony. Three passenger trains a day ran, with two on Sundays; the third class single fare from Redruth to Penzance was 1s 4d (equivalent to £ in ). The first class return from Redruth to Penzance was 4s 6d (equivalent to £ in ).
Good progress was also being made with the construction of the eastern end of the route, and on 25 August 1852 there was a grand ceremonial opening of that part of the line, as far as Higher Town, on the western margin of Truro.
Infrastructure The main line was in new construction from Penzance to a point near Trenowin Farm, east of Angarrack, then using the Hayle Railway route to near the Redruth station, but with a short new section to by-pass the Penponds inclined plane. From Redruth there was new construction (with a new, more central station at that town) to a terminal station about a mile west of Truro. This was at Higher Town, but its official name was Truro Road,S C Jenkins and R C Langley, The West Cornwall Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk, 2002, R A Cooke, Atlas of the Great Western Railway 1947, Wild Swan Publications Ltd, Didcot, 1997Col M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain, A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, Shepperton, 2003 although MacDermot uses the name Higher Town.
The Hayle Railway branches were retained, but the line crossed the centre of Hayle on a viaduct, and the Hayle Railway terminus in Foundry Square was abandoned; a new connection descending on a gradient of 1 in 30 was provided to maintain access from the new line to the Hayle wharves; a short length of the original main line from Hayle to near Phillack north of Copperhouse Pool was also retained to serve works there.
Gradients on the new route were severe, with long climbs at 1 in 60 in the up direction and 1 in 80 in the down direction.Gradients of the British Main-Line Railways, The Railway Publishing Co., London 1947 Several new viaducts were required, and these were mostly timber trestles to Brunel's design, although mostly more lightly built than his other designs.Brian Lewis, Brunel's Timber Bridges and Viaducts, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, 2007
The Hayle Railway branches were retained, and continued with T section rails on stone blocks.
Better access to Truro The high ground on which Truro is located had prevented the new line from approaching directly, but the Higher Town terminus was inconvenient; powers were obtained to extend the line to Newham, within the city of Truro and on the western bank of the Truro River, an arm of the River Fal. The new line made a broad southerly sweep and approached from the south. Its extent was about , and it was opened on 16 April 1855. It diverged from the line towards Truro Road a little south of that station, and the Truro Road station was disused from that date.
The Cornwall Railway arrives The Cornwall Railway was constructed to connect Plymouth and Falmouth, through Truro, as a broad gauge line. It opened from Plymouth as far as a new, more conveniently located station in Truro on the northern margin of the city in May 1859.
Pursuing the object of reaching Falmouth, it constructed a line westward, involving a short tunnel, as far as the dormant West Cornwall station at Truro Road. It laid a single line of standard gauge rails from its own station to make an end-on connection with the West Cornwall line, enabling West Cornwall trains to reach the Cornwall Railway station. This was opened in August 1860, enabling for the first time rail travel throughout from Penzance to London, but with a break of gauge at Truro. (This required passengers to change trains, and goods had to be physically transshipped into different wagons.)
From that time most West Cornwall passenger trains used the Cornwall Railway station, but the first westbound and last eastbound train of the day continued to use Newham until November 1863. From that time all passenger trains used the Cornwall Railway station, and Newham became a goods station.
The Cornwall Railway continued its construction towards Falmouth, and opened that line on 24 August 1863. This included an independent track from its Truro station paralleling its standard gauge track to the West Cornwall, and diverging at Higher Town. Its broad gauge line crossed the West Cornwall's standard gauge Newham branch on the level; the junction was known as Penwithers Junction.
A contemporary engineer's report stated that "an extensive system of signal mechanism has been erected" at the crossing, indicating that a signal interlocking was installed there; this was the first west of Exeter if not Bristol, according to MacDermot.
The topography at Penwithers Junction clearly shows that earthworks for an east curve were formed. This would have allowed through running from Newham towards the Cornwall Railway station at Truro. MacDermot states that this was formed at this time by the West Cornwall company, but that it was never completed.
A call to lay broad gauge rails
The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge line, and there was an inconvenient break of gauge at Truro. In 1864 it gave notice to the West Cornwall company requiring it to lay broad gauge rails throughout; this was in accordance with the 1850 West Cornwall powers. The West Cornwall was quite unable to finance the required work, and had no alternative but to look for a buyer. In fact the only realistic buyer was the "Associated Companies", a group composed of the Great Western Railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the South Devon Railway. The sale went through, and the Associated Companies took over the working of the line from 1 July 1865, and completed the purchase on 1 January 1866.
Under the control of the Great Western Railway The Associated Companies were in effect the Great Western Railway. A West Cornwall Committee was formed, consisting of two former West Cornwall directors and two Great Western directors to manage the line under Associated Companies ownership.