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.

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.

His report was presented on 25 June 1842, recommending a mineral railway between the canal at Liskeard and the Caradon Mines, Cheesewring and Tokenbury.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

The mine owners constructed a tramway on an inclined plane to reach down to the L&CR Cheesewring branch opposite Crow's Nest, probably by 1849.

[6] The Liskeard and Looe Union Canal company (LLUC) 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 L&CR at Moorswater.

The reality now was that the overwhelmingly dominant traffic was throughout between mines and quarries on Caradon and the harbour at Looe, and in March 1862 a Joint Committee was formed between the L&CR (three members) and the LLUC (two members); it was agreed that the L&CR would work all the rail-borne traffic, purchasing the LLUC's locomotive Liskeard for £600,[note 4] and setting tolls for carriage throughout between the mines and quarries and Looe Harbour.

In this period the world prices of the minerals were reducing, and this affected the profitability of the mines considerably; this impacted also the level of tolls the company could demand, and therefore its own financial status.

Moreover, the focus of mineral extraction was moving east and north, away from the railway, compelling it to build extensions to retain the business.

The branch to Marke Valley, and a further extension around Caradon Hill, called the Kilmar Junction Railway, opened in August and November 1877.

The Kilmar Junction line, although a circuitous route, connected the locations from Minions northwards without the use of the Gonamena Incline, which was closed immediately.

In 1877 the company was taking stock of its situation, and it decided to regularise its relationship with the LLUC's railway; it had been working that line without a formal contractual arrangement.

[1] In June 1880 the company approached the Cornwall Railway for help in subsidising a road coach between their Liskeard station and Moorswater to facilitate passenger transfer, but this was refused by the CR.

[15] The Liskeard and Caradon Railway Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 June 1882 and received the Prince of Wales (as Duke of Cornwall) consent for seven more branches, totalling 12 miles.

[16][2] Two of these had already been built: the Phoenix Mine line and the Kilmar Junction Railway; as they crossed moorland, it is likely that the formality had not previously been thought necessary.

Prior to this, and since the closure of the Gonamena incline, trains from Cheesewring Quarry to Moorswater had to reverse in Minions village and again on the Phoenix line.

Alarmingly the Board of Trade examined his report and drew the L&CR's attention to the prohibition on crossing public roads with steam locomotives under the original 1843 Act, "and that penalties were being incurred daily".

[1] With the L&CR in receivership and defaulting on payments due to the LLUC, the latter looked gloomily at the declining fortunes of mineral extraction on Caradon, and the idea of an extension to the Cornwall Railway's main line at Liskeard was raised again.

This authorised a connecting line from Coombe to Liskeard, on a very steep gradient and forming almost a complete circle to gain height.

The LLUC Company name was finally changed to the Liskeard and Looe Railway (L&LR); new capital was authorised, but was very hard to find, until a Captain John Spicer, not a local man, offered to subscribe a large sum in purchasing both preference and ordinary shares.

The weak and worn out track was also expensive to keep in repair: maintenance costs per train mile were three times the English average.

Hopelessly unable to pay off its huge debts, the company looked for a purchaser in the Great Western Railway (GWR).

The GWR soon had a thorough technical assessment of the L&CR line done, and for a short time passenger trains, or even revival of the extension to Launceston, were under consideration.

However the very poor state of the track soon put paid to these ideas, and the GWR turned to consideration of road motor service to the area.

There were sporadic signs of a resurgence of mineral extraction in the L&CR area, but the commercial possibilities were limited, and the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 finished off the projects.

[1] Cooke gives milepost mileages for the line on adoption by the GWR (when the Gonamena incline had closed); from a zero at Looe the Moorswater point of junction was 7m 29c; South Caradon was 13m 66c.