Stepherds Station showing Treamble line off to right
Perranwell to Goonhavern Halt to Shepherds Station
cornish community spirit in action
Stepherds Station showing Treamble line off to right
What year did the mineral line to Treamble line open ?
As you drive along Scotland Road Ithink you can see where it ran.
Colin
Hi Colin, the line that you would see from the Scotland Road would be the main Chacewater to Newquay Branch Line opened at Perran in 1903 and from Goonhavern 1905. Treamble Mineral Line was open from Shepherds Station on this line, but Treamble Mineral Line open earlier to join up at Shepherds. Here is the details in full for you.
Treamble Branch line was an extension to the Treffrys Tramway had opened a line from Treloggan (later renamed Tolcame) Junction to East Wheal Rose on 26th February 1849. This line served iron mines in the Perran lode which was southwest of Newquay and northeast of Perranporth. The Cornwall Mineral Railway opened a route from East Wheal Rose to Treamble on 1st June 1874. A further line that ran from Treamble to Gravel Hill mine opened on the same date. This section was built by arrangement with the landowner but without Parliamentary Authority and duly closed during 1888, the track being removed in November 1889. From Deer Park siding, a narrow gauge tramway, which closed in 1886, left to die like named mine.
The Minerals Branch line from Shepherds to Treamble had a chequered history. The mine closed in 1892 but the track was left in place. After a period of closure it was reopened to goods, as quarries had opened and a gunpowder factory had been started in the area. Shepherds to Treamble closed on 1st January 1917 and the track was lifted and shipped to France as part of the war effort. After the War there was an upturn in the minerals market and the rails were re-instated during December 1925, the line being in use again on 16th February 1926.
Further prospecting took place at Treamble in the 1930’s & 1940’s but the revival of mining was short-lived. Also it is understood that during WW2 a passenger train travelled the branch – this was a troop train for Penhale Camp. The line from Treamble to Shepherds closed 1st January 1952 and the track taken up on 31st March 1956. A witness remembers seeing a steam hauled demolition train on the branch during 1956. Although it is always quoted as closing in 1956 ‘last revenue-earning traffic 1949’. The reason for this unusual terminology is that the line was used for the storage of wagons after 1949. Some are visible on one of the following pictures.
The Treamble line closed for the second and final time on 1st January 1952 having not seen any traffic since the summer of 1949 and the rails were finally lifted during 1956.