The original sections were laid without the need for an act of Parliament, as a private venture, and the name of the lines is not defined; some writers refer to them as Treffry's Railway and other variants of the title.

Joseph Treffry inherited large estates in Cornwall, including non-ferrous mines in high ground on both sides of the Luxulyan Valley.

He hoped to build a tramway to bring mineral products from the Luxulyan Valley to Fowey, but Charles Rashleigh owned intermediate lands that Treffry would need.

The southern tramway is marked "Rail Road for conveying the Ore from the Floors over the Inclined Plane to the Canal from whence it is taken for Sampling and Shipment per Water to the Wharfs at Par.

"[3] The incline was in operation from 1835, and Pontsmill became a centre for the processing of mineral; china clay was carted to the canal basin from the Hensbarrow area to the north-west of the Luxulyan Valley.

In both cases this traffic was from and to South Wales, and the coastal shipping route was round Land's End, a difficult and dangerous passage.

Although the bulk of the traffic was downhill, coal had to be brought up to the mine head, and it was not possible to bring leats to the location, so that Treffry had to install a steam engine (rather than a water wheel) to power the uphaul.

Undaunted by the difficult topography that a route to Newquay would have to traverse, Treffry had an initial section planned: a line from Pontsmill to Colcerrow Quarry, a distance of a little under two miles (about 3 km).

The line was built on land owned by Treffry or by agreement with the owner and the commissioners of the turnpike trust, and no authorising act of Parliament was needed nor sought.

[7] Minerals brought down to Pontsmill were transshipped to barges on Treffry's canal for onward conveyance to Par Harbour and coastal shipping.

[2] The viaduct cost £6,708 to build; the civil engineer for the scheme was James Meadows Rendel, and William Pease acted as project manager.

As part of the construction process for the viaduct, a temporary inclined plane tramway was made, about 100 m in length leading due south up from the watercourse nearby.

Work was also in progress in connecting to St Dennis and Hendra, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Newquay, and destined to be on the line to Molinnis.

[note 5] There were china clay workings on Hendra Downs, high above St Dennis on the east, and for the time being the intended connection there was not made.

[2][1] The main line crossed the Trenance Valley on a viaduct 98 feet (30 m) high and 210 yards (192 m) long, of timber trestles on seventeen stone piers.

[12][14] Treffry intended to connect the two sections of tramway, forming the coast-to-coast system he had conceived, but ill health and the depressed state of the market for the minerals delayed his plans.

It linked the china clay workings on high ground with the St Dennis section at Gullies Wharf near Hendra Crazey.

Under present circumstances, the railway is not fitted for locomotive engines of any description ...[15]The Fowey Consols Mine proved to have a limited life, and by 1865 it was geologically exhausted, and together with the connecting tramways it closed.

In fact copper extraction in the Luxulyan Valley area declined irrevocably around that time, and although some efforts were made to mine tin ore, this never proved to be a commercial success.

[2][4] Joseph Treffry's original decision in 1844 to use horse operation had made his tramways technically obsolescent, and by the 1870s they were significantly inefficient.

This was a considerable project, involving relaying the track and forming a new route up the Luxulyan Valley so as to avoid the rope-worked Carmears Incline.