cctransuk Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 As an aside - my local pub here in Bodmin, 'The Hole in the Wall', has just been awarded Cornwall CAMRA 'Winter Pub of the Year', and 'Cornwall Pub of the Year'. Despite what it says outside, DON'T go expecting food - just superb beers, ciders and wine and bagged snacks. The building is a former debtor's prison - think Dickens' "Little Dorritt" - and features a windowless bar with a perpetual fire - plus a stuffed lion in an alcove off the courtyard! Atmosphere - we've got it in wagon-loads here in Cornwall! CJI. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cctransuk Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 14 minutes ago, Olive_Green1923 said: St Kew also very nice (or it was when I was last there) - haven't heard any bad reviews since. Pricey, IMHO. CJI. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 10 hours ago, Rivercider said: 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. Perhaps these people see Cornwall as having changed too much already since they grew up or moved there. They fear a once-tranquil county, such as my parents knew and loved when dad was on leave in WW2, becoming even more populous and busy. Too many emmets! It's about the haves, often incomers, and have-nots, usually locals, even if children of incomers. The latter need commerce and thriving businesses to provide jobs, and better transport links encourage this. The former want the idyll of the poster-Cornwall. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olive_Green1923 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 11 hours ago, Rivercider said: 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. Unfortunately there are some who would rather just plough all inward transport investment into tarmacing over yet more of the Cornish countryside with new road or bypasses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green too Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 49 minutes ago, cctransuk said: ... my impression is that some major engineering would be required to build the chord. ... Both lines approach on tight, steep curves so any chord would have to be a fair way down the hill - outside the town ( which is down the other side of the hill ) ... you'd have to replace Bodmin General with a station on the chord called Bodmin Parkway ......... oh no, someone's used that name already ! ( photos 2/7/11 ) 3 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said: ... you'd have to replace Bodmin General with a station on the chord called Bodmin Parkway ......... oh no, someone's used that name already ! So Bodmin South Parkway it would have to be. Oddly I had been through the same thought process myself! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cctransuk Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 2 minutes ago, bécasse said: So Bodmin South Parkway it would have to be. Oddly I had been through the same thought process myself! In view of the fact that Bodmin formerly had a BODMIN NORTH station as the terminus of a short branch from Boscarne Junction; (now closed with the station site occupied by Sainsburys); I would suggest that any hypothetical station on the chord would have been named BODMIN SOUTH. So, Bodmin might have aspired to three stations - NORTH, SOUTH and ROAD! CJI. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green too Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 1 hour ago, bécasse said: So Bodmin South Parkway it would have to be. Oddly I had been through the same thought process myself! Erm ........ so Bodmin South Parkway would be north of Bodmin Parkway ...... could be a little confusing for some people - starting with me ! ( Bodmin Halgavor ? ) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 5 hours ago, Wickham Green too said: Erm ........ so Bodmin South Parkway would be north of Bodmin Parkway ...... could be a little confusing for some people - starting with me ! ( Bodmin Halgavor ? ) Looking from abroad, I thought that sowing confusion was one of the raisons d'être of the British Rail network of today. I am just glad, despite possessing a silver pass, that I don't actually have to use it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 Ah! Eureka moment! All problems solved! Line reopened as an electric interurban tramway with street running through Bodmin linking approach to Bodmin General station to the Camel Trail at the erstwhile Bodmin Jail site, and again through Wadebridge and even perhaps at Padstow. The current preservation group could continue to operate Bodmin General to Boscarne and the Camel Trail could co-exist with the tramway. It doesn't really help the OP although a nice Padstow tram terminal model might be a possibility with HO being perhaps more practical than OO given that most suitable tram models are in that scale. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithMacdonald Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 How would we get past the Camel Trail / Sustrans people having a hissy fit if we asked for the railway path back? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBRJ Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 30 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said: How would we get past the Camel Trail / Sustrans people having a hissy fit if we asked for the railway path back? The former NCDC were on record as saying that they regarded the Camel Trail as being an asset with a greater overall benefit than a reinstated railway line to Padstow would be. That is obviously quite a long time ago now, but fifteen /twenty years ago there was the most idle of gossip on the matter, and the very vaguest of remote rumours of a possible "swap" between the Bodmin & Wenford and Network Rail involving the Looe branch being the base of the preserved line and Wessex Trains running a regular Bodmin Parkway > Bodmin service (I kid you not!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 22 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 22 11 hours ago, bécasse said: Looking from abroad, I thought that sowing confusion was one of the raisons d'être of the British Rail network of today. I am just glad, despite possessing a silver pass, that I don't actually have to use it. I am happy to say my silver pass works just fine whenever I need it, and Sherry finds hers equally useful. Regular trips on GWR and XC during my several visits to the UK each year do just what it says on the tin. Avoiding strike days and blockades only requires minimal planning. 20 years of retirement after 38 years service still seems a bargain in life. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted March 22 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22 9 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said: How would we get past the Camel Trail / Sustrans people having a hissy fit if we asked for the railway path back? The Bodmin Railway did look at this in the past and proposed that there was enough space for a shared route all the way to Wadebridge with the exception of a couple of bridges where a minor diversion would be required for the cycle path. Sustrans flat refused to even consider the option. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cctransuk Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 11 hours ago, bécasse said: Ah! Eureka moment! All problems solved! Line reopened as an electric interurban tramway with street running through Bodmin linking approach to Bodmin General station to the Camel Trail at the erstwhile Bodmin Jail site, and again through Wadebridge and even perhaps at Padstow. The current preservation group could continue to operate Bodmin General to Boscarne and the Camel Trail could co-exist with the tramway. It doesn't really help the OP although a nice Padstow tram terminal model might be a possibility with HO being perhaps more practical than OO given that most suitable tram models are in that scale. Have you seen the gradient of the road linking Bodmin General to the site of Bodmin North (start of the Camel Trail)? Something along the lines (!) of the Great Orme Tramway would be required! There is a reason why the old rail connection between the two was several miles long, with a reversal. CJI. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green too Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 54 minutes ago, cctransuk said: Have you seen the gradient of the road linking Bodmin General to the site of Bodmin North ... Always wondered why the GWR put their station on the top of the hill rather than in the valley to the east - where a connection to 'North' might have been a lot simpler. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted March 22 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22 7 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said: Always wondered why the GWR put their station on the top of the hill rather than in the valley to the east - where a connection to 'North' might have been a lot simpler. Because the north station was owned by a rival company! You rather forget the GWR and the LSWR / SR were competing against each other for business and there was no incentive to make through workings easy. Had the Bodmin & Wedford Railway entered into the ownership of the GWR rather than being bought by the LSWR then things may well have been different….. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green too Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 11 minutes ago, phil-b259 said: Because the north station was owned by a rival company! ... You rather forget the GWR and the LSWR / SR were competing against each other ... Oddly, I hadn't forgotten that - and I seem to remember that a link WAS created : a GWR station in the valley ( where the A30 is now ) would have been just as convenient to the townsfolk and easier for God and his Wonderful Railway to work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olive_Green1923 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 27 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said: Always wondered why the GWR put their station on the top of the hill rather than in the valley to the east - where a connection to 'North' might have been a lot simpler. Indeed. Wouldn’t have exactly been without precedent - just look at Launceston. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cctransuk Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said: Always wondered why the GWR put their station on the top of the hill rather than in the valley to the east - where a connection to 'North' might have been a lot simpler. Bodmin has zero level, or even less steep, approaches - it is built in a valley, which itself has a fairly steep longitudinal gradient. The Bodmin North branch of the B&WR grabbed the only viable way in, and the GWR mainline is the wrong side of the watershed to get into the town from that direction. The GWR, being determined to get a link to Padstow, could only do so via a very steeply graded climb into Bodmin, with a reversal at General station high above the town. It then had to skirt the contours all the way back down again to link up with the B&WR at Boscarne Junction. A glance at an old OS map of the Bodmin area makes all this clear. CJI. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cctransuk Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said: a GWR station in the valley ( where the A30 is now ) would have been just as convenient to the townsfolk Rot - look on the OS map at the relative levels of the A30 (180m. AMSL) and General station (100m.). Which uphill slog would you prefer before the days of motorised transport? CJI. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green too Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 If they had turned right at Turfdown rather than left they could have had a low level station at Moorgate on the old A38 ...... though they'd have had to tunnel down to 'North' station if a Padstow connection was, indeed in Plan A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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