Bodmin and Wenford Railway
| Bodmin & Wenford Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Tank locomotive in Bodmin General station
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| Route length: | 10.5 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Bodmin & Wenford Railway is a heritage railway headquartered in the small town of Bodmin in Cornwall , UK . It has a connection to the national rail network ( Network Rail ) at Bodmin Parkway station , the southeast end of the line.
Routing
The four stations of the Bodmin & Wenford Railway are all in or near Bodmin. From railhead Bodmin General two stretch arms lead to the southeast and northwest direction each in the city of Bodmin. The 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) long runs southeastern stretch over the breakpoint Colesloggett stop to the station Bodmin Parkway , known as interchange station to the main railway line, operated by the company First Great Western , serves. The northwest section ends 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) at Boscarne Junction station on the Camel River .
The route to Bodmin Parkway first runs from Bodmin General southeast along the city limits of Bodmin, and then turns northeast towards Turfdown. After passing under the A30 expressway ( Okehampton - Penzance ), the railway line rises slightly and swings in an easterly direction at Turfdown to Colesloggett Halt near Fletchersbridge on the southwest edge of Bodmin Moor . From there it follows a downhill stretch of a stream on its west bank to the south, where it crosses under the A38 road to Plymouth , and bridges the River Fowey on a five-arched viaduct immediately before reaching Bodmin Parkway .
In the opposite direction to Boscarne Junction , shortly after Bodwin General, a downhill section begins that goes down to the valley of the Camel River. The route describes an arc running in a westerly direction around the southern building boundary of the city of Bodmin, before the route swings to a north-westerly orientation after crossing under the A389 road (Bodmin - Penzance). The station Boscarne Junction is behind a river bridge on the north bank of the Camel on the Camel Trail , a hiking and cycling trail on the route of the former Bodmin & Wade Ford Railway , whose tracks were dismantled. A reconstruction of the railway line, which once reached to Padstow , along the Camel to Wadebridge- Guinea port is planned for use by the museum railway .
history
As one of the first railway lines in Great Britain and the world, the Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway was opened in 1834 , which was bought by the London & South Western Railway in 1846 . In addition to the main route from Wadebridge to Wenfordbridge, the route had a branch to Bodmin, the then capital of Cornwall, with the Bodmin North train station ("Bodmin North").
By the Cornwall Railway , an associated company of the Great Western Railway and taken over by this in 1889, the railway line between Plymouth and Truro was inaugurated in 1859 with the Bodmin Road station (now Bodmin Parkway ). As a competitor to the London & South Western Railway , efforts were made to establish its own city connection near the city center of Bodmin, which was completed on May 27, 1887 with the Bodmin Road - Bodmin General section by a subsidiary of the Great Western Railway , the Bodmin Railway , founded in 1882 has been.
The following year, a link from Bodmin General to Boscarne Junction to the railroad to Wadebridge was established by September 3, 1888 . In contrast to the broad gauge line (2140 mm) of the Cornwall Railway, the lines of the Bodmin Railway received standard gauge and were thus adapted to the line to Wadebridge. The main line of the Cornwall Railway was not converted to standard gauge until 1892. After the decline of the Wenford freight traffic, the routes around Bodmin were closed on October 3, 1983.
After the decision by British Rail to close the line, the Bodmin Railway Preservation Society was founded on June 28, 1984 with the intention of maintaining the railway at Bodmin. To achieve this goal, the company created on February 19, 1985 the Bodmin & Wenford Railway plc , a public limited company for the raising of capital and business operations of the envisaged Bodmin museum railway.
Despite the support of the North Cornwall District Council by purchasing the corresponding land, the company could not acquire the entire planned route from Bodmin Parkway via Bodmin General and Boscarne Junction to Wenford Bridge due to a lack of funds , so that on August 9, 1985, the only purchase part of the route from Bodmin Parkway to Boscarne Junction . From January 1986 the Bodmin Railway Preservation Society got access to the line, the purchase was completed by March 31, 1986. Now the railway could be made accessible to the public.
On June 1, 1986 the first " Open House " took place, during which steam locomotives of the Cornish Steam Locomotive Preservation Society were presented in operation on the station premises by Bodmin General . This company for the preservation of Cornish steam locomotives, founded in 1973 and based in Bugle near St. Austell , relocated to Bodmin in 1987. For the station buildings of Bodmin General , the North Cornwall District Council had to terminate an existing lease with a furniture company before the Bodmin Railway Preservation Society could enter into the corresponding lease on June 7, 1989 as a tenant of all railway facilities.
Finally, the Bodmin & Wenford Railway received its operating license on August 31, 1989 with the Light Railway Order . Gradually the route was made roadworthy through appropriate construction measures. So on June 17, 1990 the scheduled operation on the route from Bodmin General via the 1990 Colesloggett Halt to Bodmin Parkway began. The line to Boscarne Junction was not fully reopened until 1996. Since then, the museum trains have been running regularly from Bodmin General alternately to the two endpoints of the route.
Vehicle fleet
Steam locomotives
- GWR 2-8-0T No. 4247
- GWR 4575 Class 2-6-2T No. 5552
- GWR Pannier Class 0-6-0T No. 4612
- GWR Pannier Class 0-6-0T No. 6435
- Beattie 2-4-0WT No. 30587
- Bagnall 0-4-0ST No. 2962, "No 19"
- Bagnall 0-4-0ST No. 3058, "Alfred"
- Bagnall 0-4-0ST No. 2572, "Judy"
- Bagnall 0-6-0ST J94 No. 2766
- Bagnall 0-4-0 Fireless # 3121
- LSWR T9 No. 120
Diesel locomotives
- BR Class 50 Co-Co Diesel No. 50042 / D442, "Triumph"
- BR Class 47 Co-Co Diesel No. 47306
- BR Class 37 Co-Co Diesel No. 37142
- BR Class 33 Diesel No. 33110 / D6527
- BR Class 08 Diesel No. 08444 / D3559
- BR Class 10 Diesel No. D3452
- Ruston Hornsby 4W DM Diesel No. 443642, "Lec"
- Fowler 0-4-0DM Diesel No. 22928, "Peter"
Diesel railcars
- DMU 108DMBS No. M51947
- DMU 108DMBS No. M50980
- DMU 108DMCL No. M52054
See also
Web links
- Bodmin & Wenford Railway Home Page
- Bodmin & Wenford Railway - Website Index ( Memento of March 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bodmin & Wenford Railway - A Guide to our Railway ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bodmin & Wenford Railway - Guide-map ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bodmin Town Council - C / 2007/176 ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 44 kB)
- ^ Bodmin & Wenford Railway - The History of the Railway in Bodmin
- ^ John Copsey: Traffic operations on the Bodmin branch , in Great Western Railway Journal No. 9
- ↑ Bodmin Railway Preservation Society ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bodmin & Wenford Railway - Rolling Stock ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
