Padstow traffic 2024

[LowerUphamMike]

As others have said, it would be an hourly (at best) two-car sprinter Monday to Friday, plus Weekends in Summer, hourly weekdays in Winter and two-hourly on Sundays. There would be just a single track with a simple waiting shelter, situated on a cut-back single platform, well away and fenced-off from from the remaining former station buildings which will all have been re-purposed.

No realistic chance of through services or sleeper trains, many visitors to Padstow and neighbouring Rock are second home owners and arrive with lots of possessions/clothes etc which they shuttle between their homes in gigantic brand new SUVs.

I suppose the weed killing train would make an annual visit, and once or twice each decade a steam special top and tailed with a heritage diesel loco may perhaps make an appearance.

I know the area very well, so I think my thoughts would be pretty accurate. 
But hey, it’s your layout so I shall look forward to seeing how it all works out and wish you all the best.

[KDG]

3 minutes ago, LowerUphamMike said:

As others have said, it would be an hourly (at best) two-car sprinter Monday to Friday, plus Weekends in Summer, hourly weekdays in Winter and two-hourly on Sundays. There would be just a single track with a simple waiting shelter, situated on a cut-back single platform, well away and fenced-off from from the remaining former station buildings which will all have been re-purposed.

No realistic chance of through services or sleeper trains, many visitors to Padstow and neighbouring Rock are second home owners and arrive with lots of possessions/clothes etc which they shuttle between their homes in gigantic brand new SUVs.

I suppose the weed killing train would make an annual visit, and once or twice each decade a steam special top and tailed with a heritage diesel loco may perhaps make an appearance.

I know the area very well, so I think my thoughts would be pretty accurate. 
But hey, it’s your layout so I shall look forward to seeing how it all works out and wish you all the best.

Thanks Mike. Your description of how the branch would probably have ended up if kept open is undoubtedly correct.

[Wickham Green too]

Hmmm ...... you can almost hear a train coming ....

 

Little Petherick Creek ; 3/7/11

[phil-b259]

15 minutes ago, KDG said:

Thanks Mike. Your description of how the branch would probably have ended up if kept open is undoubtedly correct.

Which is why the Newquay branch offers more prospects. Yes it was heavily rationalised but even after that it could still take full length HSTs - plus if you moved to an inland location there is China clay traffic to be had (even if it involves some fiddling with geography / geology to relocate the China clay loading / unloading facilities.

 

But I do get the appeal of Padstow….

[cctransuk]

4 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

Which is why the Newquay branch offers more prospects. Yes it was heavily rationalised but even after that it could still take full length HSTs - plus if you moved to an inland location there is China clay traffic to be had (even if it involves some fiddling with geography / geology to relocate the China clay loading / unloading facilities.

 

But I do get the appeal of Padstow….

 

....... I thought that you could only go to Newquay on an all-inclusive coach holiday; I can't imagine why else you'd go there!

 

Anyway, Newquay is to become the northern hub of - 'The Cornish Metro', tah-rah!!!

 

No, really - HS2 money! A vital link between Newquay and Falmouth, which will transform Cornish public transport, (and cost silly money)!

 

As an interviewee memorably said on local TV - "Why anyone from Newquay would want to go to Falmouth, and vice versa, is beyond me"!

 

CJI.

 

 

 

 

[LowerUphamMike]

5 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

Which is why the Newquay branch offers more prospects. Yes it was heavily rationalised but even after that it could still take full length HSTs - plus if you moved to an inland location there is China clay traffic to be had (even if it involves some fiddling with geography / geology to relocate the China clay loading / unloading facilities.

 

But I do get the appeal of Padstow….

Yes, the Newquay area would definitely offer opportunities for a much greater variety of traffic. Had the Padstow branch survived into the seventies there is a small chance that Padstow could have become a south-western version of Kyle of Lochalsh, but it’s probably unlikely as there wouldn’t have been the same volume of fish traffic and although like Kyle Padstow is relatively remote from major centres of population, it is still very close to a busy main line. It is the remoteness of Kyle and Mallaig that ensured the relative longevity of the continuation of freight. 

But a layout based on Padstow, but modelled with the traffic seen on the Kyle line up to the 1980s with short loco-hauled passenger and freight trains, with the odd mixed train perhaps would be interesting.

 

Depending on the era, substitute the Scottish class 25, 26, 27 and 37s with WR 25s, 31s and SR 33s and a very interesting layout could be enjoyed, with plenty of shunting running round etc.

[Olive_Green1923]

40 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Hmmm ...... you can almost hear a train coming ....

 

Little Petherick Creek ; 3/7/11

With a lot of compression, I’ve always thought the bridge at Little Petherick Creek would make a great addition to a Padstow layout, or indeed in its own right. I think I’ve seen one layout of the bridge before. 
 

There was actually a Bill in 1894 to extend the Padstow line to Newquay and Truro via a junction just south of Padstow. I’ve always thought the logical place would likely have been here, with the line going near St Issey and then via St Columb. The Bill was killed though thanks to a rival GWR Bill. Food for thought, though, for those who like to ponder the “what if’s” and whether the NCR could have been extended all the way to Truro to rival the GWR.

Edited March 20 by Olive_Green1923

[phil-b259]

8 minutes ago, Olive_Green1923 said:

 

There was actually a Bill in 1894 to extend the Padstow line to Newquay and Truro via a junction just south of Padstow. I’ve always thought the logical place would likely have been here, with the line going near St Issey and then via St Columb. The Bill was killed though thanks to a rival GWR Bill. Food for thought, though, for those who like to ponder the “what if’s” and whether the NCR could have been extended all the way to Truro to rival the GWR.

Interesting* - but not really applicable to the original question of what Padstow would be like in 2024 because given what we k ow about the growth in car usage railways would still have been rationalised and these later add on lines are the most likely candidates for closure.

 

*Would potentially create for a more interesting model of Padstow set in the 1930s though.

 

 

[Wickham Green too]

Unfortunately, if we're going to take into account the growth in car usage we're going to have to accept that Padstow's railways are long gone. ☹️

[Rivercider]

If in this parallel universe passenger services to Padstow had survived the Beeching cuts the line would have been heavily rationalised.

The former LSWR route via Launceston closed and passenger services formed by DMUs from Bodmin Road and Bodmin General.

I don't see freight traffic surviving to Padstow, but Wadebridge did remain open for freight, and this may well have lasted until the early/mid 1980s, handling bagged fertiliser and seasonal beet pulp nuts and seed potatoes. Then perhaps a financial case might have been made to upgrade the Wenfordbridge  branch to handle CDAs when the clayhoods were life expired, so clay traffic might have run until relatively recently.

We can dream

 

cheers

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

....... I thought that you could only go to Newquay on an all-inclusive coach holiday; I can't imagine why else you'd go there!

 

Anyway, Newquay is to become the northern hub of - 'The Cornish Metro', tah-rah!!!

 

No, really - HS2 money! A vital link between Newquay and Falmouth, which will transform Cornish public transport, (and cost silly money)!

 

As an interviewee memorably said on local TV - "Why anyone from Newquay would want to go to Falmouth, and vice versa, is beyond me"!

 

CJI.

 

 

 

 

I like Newquay, and have stayed there several times in recent years. We have used the train to get there for both day trips and a short hotel break.

I think the main benefits of the proposed Cornish Metro are the intended improved journeys between Falmouth/Truro and St Austell, and also the improved service over the Newquay branch. I agree that there are unlikely to be many through journeys made of the whole north/south route. At present the Newquay branch service is two hourly. In the summer timetable when IETS work a couple of return trips those trains run non-stop over the branch, which means the service provided to intermediate stations is virtually useless - I know as we sometimes stay in Bugle, where there is a lot of new build housing. A lot of hotel and bar staff who work in Newquay cannot afford to live there, so a decent train service will be of use,

 

I did see some of the local TV when the proposed service was announced, and found it strange that it seemed as though some folk of a position of influence in Cornwall would rather not receive the investment. 

 

cheers 

[KeithMacdonald]

1 hour ago, Olive_Green1923 said:

There was actually a Bill in 1894 to extend the Padstow line to Newquay and Truro via a junction just south of Padstow. I’ve always thought the logical place would likely have been here, with the line going near St Issey and then via St Columb.

 

Thanks @Olive_Green1923 - that's a great cue for another Imaginary Railways topic. Some might suggest extending the Ruthernbridge Branch. We will need to explore the landscape.  😀

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, Olive_Green1923 said:

There was actually a Bill in 1894 to extend the Padstow line to Newquay and Truro via a junction just south of Padstow. I’ve always thought the logical place would likely have been here, with the line going near St Issey and then via St Columb. The Bill was killed though thanks to a rival GWR Bill. Food for thought, though, for those who like to ponder the “what if’s” and whether the NCR could have been extended all the way to Truro to rival the GWR.

Somewhere in the dim and distant I did produce a scenario for a similar joint line to be built by the West Cornwall Railway and Bodmin & Wadebridge from Padstow through Wadebridge onto the Ruthernbridge Branch, Indian Queens for China Clay traffic and Newquay branch, then on to Truro (Newham) and a new deep water port at Falmouth. 

[fezza]

Around 1988/9 Barnstaple had Speedlink services, loco hauled substitute services (50s and 47s on two coach trains!) and just about any DMU the Western region could get hold of. And Barnstaple wasn't a seaside location... There is no reason why you can't invent a plausible modern image scenario around a major holiday resort. 

 

In 2024 cross country services to Padstow wouldn't be impossible. Minehead has seen through HSTs in the preserved era, so Castles or 67 excursions wouldn't be unreasonable either.

[Olive_Green1923]

8 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Thanks @Olive_Green1923 - that's a great cue for another Imaginary Railways topic. Some might suggest extending the Ruthernbridge Branch. We will need to explore the landscape.  😀

 

Extending the Ruthern Bridge branch was another proposal which was floated twice. One Act of Parliament in 1865 would have taken the line to Truro, but money ran out, and in 1873 another Act was obtained to connect it up to the Cornwall Minerals Railway which was being built at the time, but the idea failed due to commercial prospects. The latter also included a Y junction at Grogley.

[Rivercider]

I don't know the Bodmin area well, but was there ever any railway proposal to create a triangular junction south of Bodmin General to permit through running without reversal in the station? Is the geography of the area suitable that a chord line might have been built before the area was built up? 

 

cheers

[Stubby47]

14 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

I don't know the Bodmin area well, but was there ever any railway proposal to create a triangular junction south of Bodmin General to permit through running without reversal in the station? Is the geography of the area suitable that a chord line might have been built before the area was built up? 

 

cheers

 

That would be exactly my proposal, should the GWR line have remained open and the SR one closed.

Also, with the current track layout at Bodmin Parkway, there is no direct route to Bodmin General from the mainline.

[Oldddudders]

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Somewhere in the dim and distant I did produce a scenario for a similar joint line to be built by the West Cornwall Railway and Bodmin & Wadebridge from Padstow through Wadebridge onto the Ruthernbridge Branch, Indian Queens for China Clay traffic and Newquay branch, then on to Truro (Newham) and a new deep water port at Falmouth. 

I believe St Enedoc (another Rock reference) of this parish has a layout approaching operating fruition which encompasses something of the sort. 

[cessna152towser]

Best prospect would probably be a Sprinter train to Bodmin Parkway, with reversal at Bodmin General.

Unless there is bulk traffic (unlikely for a relatively small harbour such as Padstow) rail freight would be unlikely.

I would have thought a rail connection could be justified, even with reversal at Bodmin.    I covered Padstow to Wadebridge on foot a couple of times while down that way on holiday twenty years ago.  I took my late wife Ann along with her mobility scooter on the second occasion.   She ran out of battery at Wadebridge, and I had to leave her there while I caught a bus from Wadebridge to Padstow to retrieve my van and collect wife and scooter back in Wadebridge, believing that the bus would be quicker than walking, however the bus seemed to travel a very long and round about route and took quite a while to go from Wadebridge to Padstow, which I then had to follow on my drive back to Wadebridge as it seemed that there was an absence of a more direct road connection.

 

[cctransuk]

47 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

I don't know the Bodmin area well, but was there ever any railway proposal to create a triangular junction south of Bodmin General to permit through running without reversal in the station? Is the geography of the area suitable that a chord line might have been built before the area was built up? 

 

cheers

 

Living in Bodmin - though not particularly familiar with the detailed topography of the station area - my impression is that some major engineering would be required to build the chord.

 

Indeed, had it been practicable, I suspect that it would have been built.

 

CJI.

[Olive_Green1923]

39 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I believe St Enedoc (another Rock reference) of this parish has a layout approaching operating fruition which encompasses something of the sort. 

I did recently ponder about doing a layout of a fictional Rock station (or a station enroute from the NCR such as Chapel Amble), but you only have to go back and look at what was in Rock at the the turn of the century to conclude that a railway would never have been warranted, especially as Padstow and its harbour were across the estuary. That said, if one ignores the logic and just steams ahead with a counterfactual theory, then some lovely layouts can be created for that part of the world, such as Harlyn Pier or St Merryn (both O gauge).

Edited March 21 by Olive_Green1923

[Oldddudders]

Chapel,Amble! The Maltsters Arms for Sunday lunch! Those were the days....

[phil-b259]

9 hours ago, fezza said:

Around 1988/9 Barnstaple had Speedlink services, loco hauled substitute services (50s and 47s on two coach trains!) and just about any DMU the Western region could get hold of. And Barnstaple wasn't a seaside location... There is no reason why you can't invent a plausible modern image scenario around a major holiday resort. 

 

In 2024 cross country services to Padstow wouldn't be impossible. Minehead has seen through HSTs in the preserved era, so Castles or 67 excursions wouldn't be unreasonable either.

Minehead does not require the reversal on route in a small station with limited space.

 

Please go re-read my earlier post and take a look at Satellite imagery of Bodmin!

 

If you want to compare Minehead with somewhere the Newquay NOT Padstow is what you want to do in terms of the sort of trains which could be accommodated.

[cctransuk]

3 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Chapel,Amble! The Maltsters Arms for Sunday lunch! Those were the days....

 

After a period of closure, The Maltsters has re-opened.

 

I have it on good authority that the Sunday lunches are still superb.

 

CJI.

[Olive_Green1923]

1 minute ago, cctransuk said:

 

After a period of closure, The Maltsters has re-opened.

 

I have it on good authority that the Sunday lunches are still superb.

 

CJI.

 

St Kew also very nice (or it was when I was last there) - haven't heard any bad reviews since.