The Liskeard and Caradon Railway (L&CR) () was a mineral railway in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, which opened in 1844. It was built to carry the ores of copper and tin, and also granite, from their sources on Caradon Hill down to Moorswater for onward transport to market by way of Looe Harbour and coastal shipping. At first this was on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal and later on the parallel Liskeard and Looe Railway.
The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was exceedingly successful while mineral extraction boomed, but it was entirely dependent on that traffic and when the mines and quarries declined, the railway declined too, and eventually failed financially. In 1909 it was purchased by the Great Western Railway, but its days were already numbered, and it closed in 1917, its track materials being removed in aid of the war effort.
Origins Traces of copper ore had been discovered in streams for some time, but the turning point was the discovery of copper ore at South Caradon in 1836 by James Clymo and Thomas Kittow. The discovery encouraged the search for the lodes nearby, and in due course these other locations were successfully producing ore. In 1839 granite also was being quarried at the Cheesewring nearby. The heavy minerals needed to be transported to remote markets, and this implied getting them to the coast, for onward transport by coastal shipping. While some material went to St Germans and to the River Fowey, the most convenient route was to Moorswater, where the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal had its basin, giving easy connection from there to Looe Harbour. The transport of the ore cost 4s 6d per ton to get to Moorswater; the granite from Cheesewring cost 8s.Michael Messenger, Caradon & Looe - The Canal, Railways and Mines, Twelveheads Press, Truro, 2001 (second edition),
By this time, many railways were being successfully operated elsewhere in the country, and in 1842 a committee of interested businessmen proposed a railway to bring the minerals down from Caradon. Robert Coad was the engineer of the neighbouring canal, and he was asked to prepare an appraisal of the possibilities. His report was presented on 25 June 1842, recommending a mineral railway between the canal at Liskeard and the Caradon Mines, Cheesewring and Tokenbury. The railway was to be capable of gravity operation for the loaded direction, so that the proposed route followed a broadly constant downward gradient at the expense of directness; locomotive or horse power would convey the empty wagons upwards. The line would operate as a toll road, open to independent carriers, with the railway not acting as carrier itself.
Captain William Moorsom was engineer to the Cornwall Railway (then being planned) was asked to review Coad's proposals; he approved, with the sole adjustment that horse power would be preferable. The proposed railway swiftly obtained approval in Parliament, with royal assent being given to the (6 & 7 Vict. c. xliii) on 26 June 1843. The capital of the Liskeard and Caradon Railway Company was to be £12,000 in £25 shares, with authority to borrow £4,000. Horse power was specified in the act, with a £50 penalty for crossing any turnpike road with a locomotive.
The act had a remarkable 344 clauses and incorporation of the company took place the following day, 27 June 1843.E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990,
Construction
Construction started at once; it seems that it was mostly carried out by direct labour under Coad's control. Some modifications to the route were required as Coad's original alignment was found to be impracticable in certain details. Work started at the Cheesewring, and the permanent way used stone block sleepers, the stone blocks being procured at Cheesewring itself. Lower down, serious problems were encountered in gaining possession of land from the Duchy of Cornwall, who were demanding very high prices for the land. The railway construction was costing more than had been estimated, and at the same time some subscribers were not responding to calls on shares they had taken up. The company found itself unable to pay the Duchy's price.
Loans were taken out – apparently beyond what was authorised in the act – and to obtain some income the company decided to open the railway as far as they could, down to Tremabe, on 28 November 1844. It is not clear how attractive the short railway transit was, involving an additional trans-shipment to road transport there.
The line was finally extended to Moorswater, opening about 8 March 1846 – the date is not certain. The proposed Tokenbury branch was not built, no doubt due to lack of funds. The tunnels originally contemplated were also avoided, but there was a rope worked incline at Gonamena to climb towards Cheesewring.
The construction had cost £27,000; about £11,000 of that was beyond the sum authorised by Parliament; by the (10 & 11 Vict. c. lxii) of 25 June 1847 further capital of £10,500 and loans of £3,500 were authorised.
Early years
The new railway was operated by gravity and horse traction; Murray's handbook said in 1856:
Towards evening the produce of the mines and quarries is brought down to Moorswater in detached trucks, which follow one another in succession, under the control of breaksmen, and are drawn back the next day by horses.Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Devon and Cornwall, published by John Murray, London, 1856
Because of this tidal flow arrangement, frequent passing loops were not necessary. Contrary to what was originally contemplated the company was its own carrier, with the possible exception of the granite traffic from Cheesewring.
The track was T-section rail in chairs fixed to stone blocks. It was laid to standard gauge. Speed was limited to , half that over level crossings. It was graded at about 1 in 60 (1.7%) for most of its length.
The company was immediately successful, with considerable and increasing tonnages conveyed: 10,000 tons were carried in 1849, and net profit was £364. About 70% of the carrying was metal ore downwards, with nearly 30% being coal uphill to fuel the mine engines; the remainder was granite – although this did not realise the volumes originally contemplated – timber, sand, lime, iron and sundries.
The route of the railway was from close to the dressing floors of the South Caradon Mine, south and then westwards on the slope of the valley below Darite, crossing under the road at Polwrath Bridge, and then south-west, turning back eastwards across the northern margin of St Cleer where there was a goods depot. Passing south of Venland Cross, the course then turned west again to Tremabe. It was here that the line terminated in 1844; it is likely that there was no depot here, but simply that the individual wagons were stopped alongside the road and the ores trans-shipped there.
At the same time, a branch from near the Cheesewring Quarry – the owner, John Trethewey had internal sidings – ran broadly south, crossing through what became Minions village, and then descending by the incline at Gonamena, passing South Caradon further up the hillside, and running parallel to the main line, descending and joining it at Polwrath Bridge.
When the line was extended in 1846 from Tremabe to Moorswater, it ran west at first, soon turning back on a curve of 3 chains radius (66 yards, 60 m) at Old Treworgy, then turning south and then west, finally descending with the East Looe River all the way to Moorswater, where there were sidings adjacent to the canal basin.
Passengers
The was conceived as a mineral railway, and the carriage of passengers was not contemplated or authorised. However the rock formation at the Cheesewring was a considerable local attraction, and organised excursions to it were undertaken; the West Briton reported a temperance excursion to the spot in June 1850.The West Briton, 28 June 1850, quoted in Messenger The excursions appear to have been hauled uphill by horse traction and returned by gravity.
Individual businessmen appear to have been granted passes on a casual basis; the company did not have passenger coaches, so any passengers had to travel in wagons, such conveyance being at their own risk. The had no powers to carry passengers but did carry them, in open wagons, by using a legal loophole. The passengers travelled free, but a charge was made for the carriage of their hats, coats and parcels, "a system not abandoned until 31 December 1916". This form of casual passenger carriage had also been taking place on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal's railway.
More traffic and more mines
The success of the South Caradon mine encouraged a frenzy of speculative prospecting in the area; and the availability of transport to market further encouraged this. While much of the exploration turned out to be fruitless, there were many good finds as well. West Caradon Mine was soon productive, on the hill opposite South Caradon. The mine owners constructed a tramway on an inclined plane to reach down to the Cheesewring branch opposite Crow's Nest, probably by 1849. It was standard gauge on a gradient of 1 in 6, and it was 480 feet (146 m) long.Martin Bodman, Inclined Planes in the South West, Twelveheads Press, Chacewater, 2011,
From 1852 ore was discovered at the Phoenix Mine and it became productive by 1854; the mine was a little to the east of Cheesewring Quarry. plans in 1854 to build a branch of the did not mature, and the mine owners built a narrow gauge tramway westward from their mine to the Cheesewring branch just north of Minions. Messenger says (on page 118) that this was "about 1850".
In 1858 traffic carried reached 28,650 tons (copper ore: 16,000 tons; coal: 5,600 tons; granite: 6,572 tons) all of which was carried on the canal also. Net profit was £2,317.
Quarrying on Kilmar Tor received a boost from 1856 when a lease was taken from the Duchy of Cornwall for the purpose. The Cheesewring Granite Company Limited started to exploit the abundant "loose, tumbled granite, easily quarried moorstone". Road access was impossible, and the granite company arranged to build a railway to it, and agreed with the that the railway company would operate it; this may have included maintenance. The line was opened on 26 August 1858. It diverged from the Cheesewring line in Minions village, running broadly north a little lower down the hill, and at first about level; it passed east of Cheesewring Quarry. Messenger says that "It must be presumed that it crossed the Phoenix Mine tramway on the level". 10,000 tons of granite were brought down it in 1859.
In the closing years of the 1850s, the production of South Caradon continued to increase, but West Caradon declined somewhat, and it became clear that the emphasis was moving eastwards, with East Caradon, Glasgow Caradon Consols, and mines in the area of Tokenbury Corner and the Marke Valley starting to become productive. Minerals from these mines were being brought to the surface some distance from the railway. At the same time, the process of transshipping to the canal at Moorswater, and the carrying capacity of the canal itself, were proving serious limitations.
In 1859 there were two platelayers and 27 brakesmen.
Extensions and locomotives
The Liskeard and Looe Union Canal Company responded to the volumes of traffic by building a railway closely paralleling the canal itself, and extending to the quays at Looe; their railway opened to mineral traffic on 27 December 1860, forming a direct connection with the at Moorswater. For the time being the railway, usually referred to as the Liskeard and Looe Railway, was wholly owned by the canal company. They hired a locomotive, Liskeard but they used wagons. At last the transshipment at Moorswater was eliminated.