Helston - Britain’s Southernmost Heritage Railway

Описание: ‘Helston - Britain’s Southernmost Heritage Railway’

Running Time 29 minutes & 50 seconds

Called the most southerly heritage railway in the UK, the Helston Railway is the most westerly in England too!.

Once upon a time, there was a railway station in Helston and there was a regular train service operating along the eight and a half mile branch line from Gwinear Road on the Cornish main line.

The line opened to passengers on 9th May 1887 and featured stations at Nancegollen, Praze-an-Beeble, Truthall Halt, and Helston. In its day, there were hourly services which peaked during the summer holiday season. The line supported local communities by transporting people and goods including transportation to RNAS Culdrose.

Sadly, with the increase in car ownership, patronage along the route declined and the line was closed to passengers on 3rd November 1962, followed by good services on 4th May 1964.

Closure of the line along with all of the intermediate stations had already been confirmed prior to publication of ‘The Reshaping of British Railways Report’ in 1963. The proposed closure of Gwinear Road Station on the Cornish main line was listed in Section 1 of Beechings Report.

A sad end to the story!.

Except this isn’t the end of the story because a group of local railway enthusiasts formed the Helston Railway Preservation Society in 2002 with the aim of reopening a viable section of the original branch line.

Restoration work commenced in 2005 and the first public passenger train ran in 2010/11 along a route of three quarters of a mile from Trevarno. Further extensions progressed steadily with the route reaching one mile in length by 2012.

A major milestone was achieved with the rebuilding and opening of the station as Truthall Hall which was a faithful reconstruction of the original station based on GWR drawings from 1905.

Today, the railway operates from a temporary platform at Prospidnick Halt through to Truthall Halt a distance of around one and a quarter miles.

At the time of making this video a further section of track is in the process of being laid beyond Truthall Halt.

The railway is run entirely by volunteers, people who are passionate about the rejuvenation of the line and I have no doubt it was continue to grow and develop in the years to come.

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