Disused railway stations on the Cornish Main Line

There are seventeen disused railway stations on the Cornish Main Line between Plymouth in Devon and Penzance in Cornwall, England.

The section from Carn Brea to Angarrack dates back to the Hayle Railway, opened on 23 December 1837.

Two granite gate posts outside the Millbay Road entrance are all that is left of the station, although a goods shed on what used to be Washington Place is still extant nearby This suburban halt (50°22′41″N 4°09′28″W / 50.3781°N 4.1579°W / 50.3781; -4.1579 (Wingfield Villas Halt)) near Devonport Junction in Plymouth was opened by the Great Western Railway on 1 June 1904.

It was served by the Plympton to Saltash railmotor service introduced at that time to compete with the electric tramways in the town.

In January 1860 the railway company was asked to provide a facility here for goods traffic, which they acceded to after local people subscribed £130 towards it and offered the necessary land.

Once it was open, the Cornwall Railway found there was a demand for facilities to transport china clay from the St Stephens district to Par harbour.

The construction costs were largely met by Mr Robartes, who had interests in the extraction of the china clay.

A branch line to Nanpean was opened for goods traffic by the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway on 1 July 1869.

The large dryer and storage sheds alongside the main line are the Blackpool clay works; Burngullow clay works are smaller and situated alongside the branch line a short distance from the junction.

Unfortunately the driver of the runaway train, who had stayed at the controls in an attempt to bring it to a halt, later died from his injuries.

Wooden waiting shelters were provided on each platform,[10] and a newspaper at the time of opening reported merely that "it comprises arrival and departure stations exactly similar to those at Par."

A signal box was erected half way along the up platform of brick with a timber upper floor and slate roof.

A small village known as Grampound Road (Cornish: Fordh Ponsmeur) grew up around the railway station and continues to expand despite the station's closing (along with Doublebois, Chacewater, Scorrier, Gwinear Road and Marazion) on 5 October 1964, but the signal box remained open until June 1972.

On 6 July 1903 a branch line to Perranporth was opened from nearby Blackwater; it was extended to Newquay on 2 January 1905.

The station closed to passengers on 5 October 1964 but continued to be served by goods traffic for many years, latterly for Blue Circle Cement.

Carn Brea was the home of the West Cornwall Railway's workshops, where they maintained the locomotives and rolling stock.

There were also two signalboxes at Gwinear Road: Gwinear Road West Signal Box, located on the up end of the down platform, opened on 30 November 1916 and was closed on 31 October 1965 when the adjacent level crossing was converted from manual gates to Automatic Half Barriers.

[17] Gwinear Road East Signal Box was located in the goods marshalling yard and controlled access to the Helston branch.

The Great Western Railway introduced railmotor services in west Cornwall and provided several small halts at which they called.

An earlier station had been provided at Copperhouse nearer the waterfront by the Hayle Railway from 23 May 1843 until their line closed on 16 February 1852.

The line westwards to Penzance was doubled in 1893 and the goods yard expanded so that it could share in handling the large volume of perishable traffic – fish, fruit and vegetables – from the surrounding farms and harbours.

Three of these were rescued and restored, and now provide sleeping accommodation at Petworth railway station, which has been converted into a guest house.

[19] In 2006 the remains of these coaches were cleared away from the site to make way for nine holiday cottages, the old station has now been fully restored into a two bedroom bungalow currently owned by the developers.

[citation needed] The 1880s station building still stands, but part of the line westwards is currently reduced to a single track.