The level crossing gates remain open to road traffic as the evening shadows lengthen at Lostwithiel station on Friday, 23 September 1960. The crew of Collett ‘4575’ class 2-6-2T No 5572 await the arrival of a connecting down main line service, before themselves setting off down the branch to Fowey. Note the china clay wagons stabled in the sidings adjacent to the bay platform, and beyond them is the water tank for the station supply.
R C Riley
Having already considered the history of the two branch lines to Fowey - see Steam Days, October 2020 - and how between the Victorian era and summer 1968 they co-existed and formed a through route, this article is intended as a ‘circular’ trip from Lostwithiel via Fowey to St Blazey, with reversal there to return via the 1879 doubletrack spur to Par station and then former Cornwall Railway metals via the summit at Treverrin tunnel and then down to Lostwithiel. Such a journey was only available to the general public from 16 September 1895, when the Great Western Railway revived the former broad gauge Lostwithiel & Fowey Railway (L&FR) as a standard gauge route, and until the section of ex-Cornwall Minerals Railway (CMR) branch between Fowey and St Blazey lost its regular passenger service from Monday, 8 July 1929. The infrastructure described is that of the British Railways steam days, but with an eye on earlier times and, at times, the post-steam era.
Lostwithiel station