Closure: 30th January 1967 (all traffic)

The furthest reach for passengers from Waterloo, this line originated as part of the truncated LSWR attempt to reach deep into the county. The humble terminus indicated these failed objectives; the initial bypassing of Bodmin by the main thrust of the GWR and the gradual shift in administrative emphasis to the new county town of Truro made Bodmin a less attractive prize than it initially seemed. Running powers toward Wadebridge were sought and gained by the GWR; nationalization left the SR terminus as a troublesome stub. Certainly by the end the service provision was itself etiolated, with just two of the much maligned railbuses serving the terminus per day with the advent of the 1964 timetable.

Closure: September 1983 (Goods Only)

The furthest reach of the Withered Arm from Waterloo was this sylvan goods branch following the Camel valley up onto the edges of Bodmin Moor to tap the clay & quarry traffic at Wenford. An anachronistic survivor, it took the Serpell Report to finally kill off this quiet branch in 1983, finally ending the site of an 08 shunter wending along on a short rake of clay hoods at 10 mph or so. Today the trackbed up the Camel through the reaches of Dunmere Forest to the village of St. Breward can be walked in its entirety.

Closure: 4th February 1963 (all traffic)

This idiosyncratic GWR line, full of tortuous curves and lonely halts (some seven of the ten intermediate calling points) was a late tactical bid to head off LSWR designs on Truro, their forces amassed by now in the county town of Bodmin. Over eighteen miles long, this line has probably suffered more erosion than any other in the county, with long, narrow cuttings being filled in and the demand for building plots on the holiday coast the line usually never quite reaches. There is at least one fantastic survivor however...

Closure: 7th November 1966 (all traffic)

This short branch, formerly the East Cornwall Mineral Railway, made rather a late entrance into the national network - for although following for the most part the route of the 3' 6" gauge ECMR, it was not until 1908 that the standard gauge passenger line was connected to the outside world over the Calstock Viaduct to the main network at Bere Alston. The steep and tortuous curves of the Tamar Valley ensured that the stub to Calstock & Gunnislake remain open to this day, thwarting Dr. Beeching's cold hand. The final 5 miles through Chilsworthy, Latchley and Luckett would not however prove so fortunate.

Closure: 3rd October 1962 (passengers)
4th October 1964 (goods)

The GWR branch line from Gwinear Road - Helston was the most southerly line on these isles. I grew up fascinated by this line, exploring as a teenager the Gwinear Road end of the branch. It was in many ways a test case for the Beeching Years closures to follow in the county: the last passenger train was the 8.45 pm arrival in Helston on Saturday, the 3rd of October, 1962. The skeleton goods service itself succumbed on 4th October, 1964, with the now redundant junction station at Gwinear Road following on the 5th.
Plans are now well underway to begin reopening the Southern end of the line, thanks to The Helston Railway Preservation Society http://www.helstonrailway.co.uk/index.html

Closure:1852.

The advent of The West Cornwall Railway in 1852 finally linked the towns of Truro & Penzance for the first time. The new line inherited the pre-existing Hayle Railway route from Redruth to that town, itself commencing operations on the 23rd of December, 1837. A decade and a half was a long time in terms of railway engineering however; thus The West Cornwall came into possession of stretch of main line with two outmoded inclined planes at Penponds & Angarrack. Diversionary routes were built, in each case keeping the formation higher and involving a viaduct. This collection examines the scant but evocative remains of these early abandonments: Camborne - Penponds & Trenowin - Hayle.

Closed: 31st January 1981 (goods only)

The most southerly of the former Hayle Railway branches was a short, but complex tracery of sidings and subsidiary branches serving the port and industries of the town. Boosted by the power station and still moderate docks traffic, the line just made it into the 1980's, with class 08, 25 & 37 diesels running the branch goods on almost a daily basis until the end.

Closure:1963 (Beyond North Parade Level Crossing)
6th September 1987 (Remaining stub)

A short, relatively unloved and incredibly under-photographed goods tributary of the original West Cornwall Railway, this branch ran for a mile across the intensive mining and industrial zone north east of Camborne. It mainly served works of the Holman's engineering firm, especially in latter years, but also a scrapyard, a timber yard and a mine.

Closure: 1st January 1936 (goods only)

Another under-photographed tributary of the West Cornwall Railway and GWR. The Tresavean line tapped the ephemerally rich copper mines south of Redruth, bringing coal in via its sister branch from Portreath with ore traffic being the staple trade in the outward direction. Goods only, the fortunes of the line collapsed with that of its main customer: official closure came on New Years Day, 1936, although traffic had failed years before.

Closure: 16th September 1863 (passengers)
7th November 1971 (goods)

Another GWR obscurity of the area - Truro's 'other' line, the West Cornwall Railway terminus spur which was superseded by the opening of the present Cornwall Railway through station 150 years ago...yet continued life as an obscure goods backwater until the early 1970's. A boon here is that the trackbed is almost entirely a low key, untrumpeted path - the line shunning the spotlight to this day.

Closure: 1926 (goods only)

Another of the cluster of short, early Cornish mineral branches that involved steep cable worked inclines, this line ran for a mile through central Newquay in pre- resort days, and has mostly been adopted as roads or rights of way through the centre.

Closure: 1st January 1948 (goods only)

One of the shortest, most obscure and undocumented former Hayle Railway branches ran for just 47 chains along the eastern flank of the Brea Valley just west of Carn Brea station. It served the tin mines of North & South Crofty but perhaps unusually shut some decades earlier than the mines it served, surviving by mere hours into British Railways ownership.

Closure: 1st January 1936 (goods only)

The sister branch to the Tresavean line, this 3 mile tributary succumbed to closure on the same day. Linking the narrow harbour owned by the Bassets of Tehidy to the Great Flat Lode mining districts just inland, the flow of coal in and smelting ore out began to fade with the fortunes of the mines. By the turn of the 20th Century trains were run on an 'as required' basis - with the occasional noted passenger excursion partway along the line to the grounds of Tehidy House.
The lines course darting between the rapidly conurbating mining towns of Camborne & Redruth has led to a far greater depradation of the trackbed than its moorland twin, with only a scant handful of walkable sections today.