Looe Valley Line

Looe-Liskeard
View of the Looe terminus
Route length:	13.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend according to Caradon Moorswater Liskeard Plymouth-Penzance Coombe Junction stop Abzw Coombe Junction St Keyne Wishing Well stop Causeland Sandplace Loooe Buller Quay

The Looe Valley Line is a 13.5 km long, 1860 opened railway line in Cornwall ( United Kingdom ), which connects the twin cities of East Looe and West Looe on the English Channel coast with Liskeard on the main line (London-) Plymouth - Penzance . It is used for passenger transport by trains operated by the First Great Western railway company , which is supported by local organizations as part of a Community Rail project.

Route

Between Looe and Coombe Junction and on the following traffic only in the freight section to Moor Water follows the Looe Valley Line the eponymous River East Looe River and the former Liskeard and Looe-Union Canal . To the south of the Sandwell station, the river forms an estuary with the railway line running along its eastern end.

The connection of the branch line to the main line in Liskeard is unusual: Since the latter is significantly higher than the valley floor of the East Looe River , the connection between the Coombe and Liskeard stations, which are only a few hundred meters apart, could not be established directly. Instead, a wide sweeping loop was created, in the course of which the Looe Valley Line, coming from the south, crosses the main line Plymouth – Penzance and finally ends on the north side of Liskeard station at a 90-degree angle to the tracks of the main line. There is a track connection with a narrow radius for freight trains and vehicle transfers.

The four intermediate stops of the Looe Valley Line , Coombe Junction Halt, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt, Causeland and Sandplace, each open up only small hamlets and only contribute to a small extent to the number of passengers on the route.

Looe train station

The end of the line has a track, the exit is on the left in the direction of travel. Originally there was a connection to the port ( Buller Quay ) south of the station and there were other tracks for turning the trains, which however became superfluous with the use of railcars . The siding outside the station was taken out of service in November 1963 and the line was shortened by approx. 100 m on April 28, 1968 ; the police station is now where the train station once was. However, as a result of this shortening, the route kilometers were not adjusted, so that there are no longer any tracks at the official end of the route.

In the 2006/07 timetable year, 81,022 passengers used the station, around 10,000 more than in the previous year. In 2010 the number of passengers was over 95,000.

history

Since 1828, the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal connected Moorswater near Liskeard with Looe on the coast, on which copper ore was transported in addition to agricultural goods, especially in Caradon Hill north of Moorswater . With the intensification of mining in the 1840s, the Liskeard and Caradon Railway (LCR) was created, which from November 1844 connected the South Caradon mine with the canal port in Moorswater and was initially operated as a horse-drawn railway. As a result of a further increase in traffic, it was decided on May 11, 1858 to build a railway line parallel to the existing canal. The Looe Valley Line of the Liskeard and Looe Railway (LLR) opened on December 27, 1860. Both routes initially served exclusively for freight traffic.

LCR and LLR were two separate private railways , but they worked closely together. From 1862 the Liskeard and Looe Railway was operated by the Liskeard and Caradon Railway. The LLR took up passenger traffic on September 11, 1879 and made profits from the emerging tourism. From 1901 the LCR was leased from the Liskeard and Looe Railway.

From 1877 there were considerations to connect the lines of the LCR and LLR, which were isolated from the rest of the railway network, with the main line Plymouth – Penzance of the Great Western Railway (GWR). In addition to the height difference to be overcome, however, there was the difficulty that the lines of the LCR and LLR were designed in standard gauge from the start , but the GWR was a broad-gauge railway . Planning of the link was only intensified after the GWR routes had been re-gauged in 1892 . In 1898 construction began on the Coombe – Liskeard connection, which opened on May 15, 1901.

From May 25, 1909, the GWR took over the management of both the LCR and the LLR. With a further decline in freight volume, however, the LCR was in deficit, so that on January 1, 1917 operations north of Moorswater were discontinued. As part of the so-called grouping , the LLR and with it the Looe Valley Line finally came to GWR in 1923 and was transferred with this to the newly founded British Rail in 1948 .

In the 1960s, the Looe Valley Line was one of the routes planned for closure as part of Richard Beeching's “The Reshaping of British Railways” report, but operations were continued at the initiative of then Transport Minister Barbara Castle .

First Great Western train near Looe

Today's operation

In passenger traffic, the route is now used by the First Great Western railway company . Monday to Saturday from May to September twelve, otherwise nine train pairs are offered. On Sundays, trains only operate from May to September with eight pairs of trains. Class 150 and 153 railcars are used, with only one vehicle on the route.

Since 1992 the operation of the Looe Valley Line has been supported by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership as part of a Community Rail project . Activities to improve the marketing of the railway are carried out on a voluntary basis, for example by operating a ticket and information desk in Looe station in the summer or setting up theme-related hiking trails at the railway stations.

Freight traffic only takes place on the northern section of Liskeard – Moorswater, where Freightliner sporadically transports block trains with cement.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Office of rail regulation: Station usage. Retrieved July 23, 2008 . The user numbers are based on the sales of a fiscal year for tickets that indicate Looe as the starting or ending station. 
   
2. ↑ Station information from National Rail
3. ↑ David Harrison, 'Staycations' boost rural trains amid rail fares gloom , The Telegraph, August 21, 2011 , accessed July 19, 2017
4. ↑ Timetable of the Looe Valley Line

literature

• Gerry Beale: The Liskeard and Looe Branch . Wild Swan Publications Ltd, Didcot 2000, ISBN 1-874103-47-X .
• Alan Bennett: The Great Western Railway in East Cornwall . Runpast Publishing, Cheltenham 1990, ISBN 1-870754-11-5 .
• CR Clinker: The Railways of Cornwall 1809-1963 . David and Charles, Dawlish 1963.
• RA Cooke: Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 11: East Cornwall . RA Cooke, Harwell 1977.
• ET MacDermot: History of the Great Western Railway, volume II 1863-1921 . Great Western Railway, London 1931.
• Michael Messenger: Caradon & Looe: the canal, railways and mines . Twelveheads Press, Truro 2001, ISBN 0-906294-46-0 .
• JM Tolson, G. Roose, CFD Whetmath: Railways of Looe and Caradon . Forge Books., Bracknell 1974.