Everything about Bodmin And Wadebridge Railway totally explained
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The
Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway was a railway line built in 1834, making it one of the oldest railways in
England.
The first steam-powered railway in
Cornwall, opened on
30 September 1834, running from the port of Wadebridge on the Camel estuary to Bodmin, with a branch the settlement of Wenford Bridge on the edge of Bodmin Moor, where a china clay works later developed which sustained the route. The movement of sea sand for agricultural use is normally given as the primary reason for construction.
The Bodmin and Wadebridge was purchased illegally in 1846 by the
London and South Western Railway, but remained unconnected to the rest of the LSWR system until
1895 when the
North Cornwall Railway, promoted and operated by the LSWR, reached
Wadebridge, and until then had an unstandardised array of rolling stock and locomotives. The line was connected to the
Great Western Railway in 1888 when they opened a line from their Bodmin General station to Boscarne Junction.
It was noted for never having a passenger service on much of its length, only on the southern stretch between the two towns of its name. It was also noted for having "staithes", rather than stations, a term taken from canal terminology referring to the freight stations along its length. True "stations" were built for passenger services, of course.
When the rolling stock came to be standardised with the rest of the network, the age of the route gave some difficulties. There was a trial of
SECR P Class 0-6-0 on the line, which was a failure because of the lightly-laid track and sharp curves, which made running difficult for locomotives not designed to accommodate it. As a result, three of the
LSWR 0298 Class, Victorian locomotives designed for urban passenger duties, were retained on the line significantly past their life-expiry, and became a minor attraction in later years. They were eventually replaced by
GWR 1367 Class dock tanks in
1962 after the line had been transferred to the
Western Region of British Railways. This situation has parallels in the case of the
Lyme Regis branch line.
The first closure took place on the
30th January 1967 when all passenger services were withdrawn and Bodmin North station closed. The line from Boscarne Junction to Wadebridge remained open for goods traffic until the
2nd September 1978, and the final section to Wenford closed on the
3rd October 1983 after cessation of china clay traffic.
Today the railway forms part of
The Camel Trail from
Wenfordbridge to
Padstow, and it's the aim of the
Bodmin and Wenford Railway to extend from Boscarne Junction to Wadebridge alongside the trail.
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