Truro and Newquay Railway
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The Truro and Newquay Railway was a Great Western Railway line in Cornwall, United Kingdom designed to keep the rival London and South Western Railway (LSWR) out of the west of the county. The line was completed in 1905 and closed in 1963.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) had secured dominance in south and west Cornwall from its purchase of the Cornwall Railway in 1889; it already had control of the West Cornwall Railway and therefore had a main line from London through Plymouth to Penzance, with a number of branches. It had been working the nominally independent Cornwall Minerals Railway lines, in particular the passenger route from Par to Newquay, for some years and in 1896 it acquired that network by purchase.
In the 1890s the rival London and South Western Railway (LSWR) was extending its network in north Cornwall, through the North Cornwall Railway, which was building from Launceston to Padstow: it reached Wadebridge in 1895.
The GWR wished to secure the north-west of the county as its own territory, and responding to local demands—in particular from business interests in Perranporth, who saw their town losing out due to its remoteness from railway links—it projected the Truro and Newquay Railway. It obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 3 June 1897. The new line was to run from a triangular junction (Blackwater Junction) near Chacewater, 6 miles (10 km) west of Truro, and run via St Agnes and Perranporth to Shepherds; here the new route joined the existing Treamble goods and mineral branch, originally built by the Cornwall Minerals Railway. The branch from there to Newquay was rebuilt for passenger operation, including a short alteration to eliminate a sharp curve, the Trevemper Deviation. Near Newquay the branch joined the Par line at Tolcarn Junction, which was also triangular.
The new construction was 12 miles (19 km) in extent, and the upgraded portion from Shepherds was 5 miles (8.0 km). Trains left Truro on the Cornish Main Line as far as Chacewater railway station and Blackwater Junction, where the new line turned northwards to reach the coast near St Agnes. It then turned north-eastwards to Perranporth and then turned inland to reach, to Shepherds on the former Cornwall Minerals Railway Newquay to Treamble branch.
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Wikipedia