The St Ives Branch Line: A History

[RichardLong]

I’m very pleased to announce that my new book “The St Ives Branch Line: A History” will be published by Pen & Sword Books this summer.
Contains a full history of the St Ives branch from the nineteenth century to the G7 Summit.  Includes around 120 stunning photos, mostly in colour, of the line through the ages.  60,000 words plus a foreword by broadcaster Tim Dunn.

Available to pre-order now from some sellers: https://linktr.ee/Stivesbranch

[RichardLong]

By way of a teaser, here’s the full wraparound dust jacket.

[RichardLong]

For info, the Pen & Sword website has a sale on at the moment, with 30% off all their titles - which means you can pre-order the St Ives book for only £17.50, plus postage: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-St-Ives-Branch-Line-A-History-Hardback/p/21452

 

[RichardLong]

Finally it’s arrived!  ‘The St Ives Branch Line: A History’ is available to order NOW from Pen & Sword and will be available very soon from all good booksellers.

 

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-St-Ives-Branch-Line-A-History-Hardback/p/21452
 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by RichardLong

[The Stationmaster]

Alas it was not the last broad gauge line to be built in the UK.  The GWR opened the North Quay extension of the Sutton Harbour branch, as a purely broad gauge section, in November 1879.  Although slightly less than half a mile long it was the last solely broad gauge section of railway built by the GWR.  That was the last broad gauge section to be built in Great Britain and the last section to be built to Brunel's gauge.

 

On a note of technical pedantry the last new broad gauge section of railway to be opened in the UK was in 1995 in Belfast as far as I can trace- still broad gauge but not Mr Brunel's gauge of course.  All too easy to forget that a broader is used in Ireland.

[The Stationmaster]

A further thought and I wonder if the book addresses it (I'll maybe find out when I've got a copy)?   Why was the line built to broad gauge?  The West Cornwall was a 'narrow gauge' - in GWR terms - railway and only the main line from Penwithers Jcn to Penzance was converted to mixed gauge, the various freight branches such as Newham remained narrow gauge.  The only advantage I can see in laying broad gauge on the St Ives branch is that it would have allowed through working of broad gauge vehicles  beyond Truro and then much further east.  So were the GWR after the fish traffic at a time when St Ives was Cornwall's busiest fishing port?

[RichardLong]

8 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

A further thought and I wonder if the book addresses it (I'll maybe find out when I've got a copy)?   Why was the line built to broad gauge?  The West Cornwall was a 'narrow gauge' - in GWR terms - railway and only the main line from Penwithers Jcn to Penzance was converted to mixed gauge, the various freight branches such as Newham remained narrow gauge.  The only advantage I can see in laying broad gauge on the St Ives branch is that it would have allowed through working of broad gauge vehicles  beyond Truro and then much further east.  So were the GWR after the fish traffic at a time when St Ives was Cornwall's busiest fishing port?

That’s a very good point you make but I think the short answer is that, yes, they were interested in the fish traffic.  Fish traffic (and also vegetables at certain times of the year) was a major source of income for the branch in its early decades and, as you say, any standard gauge vehicles would have been unable to work through north of Truro.  As it was, the route as far as Lelant quays was converted to mixed gauge in 1888 so the line didn’t remain exclusively broad gauge for many years.

[The Stationmaster]

My copy arrived today and has been partially devoured plus all the picture captions read - and very impressed by the captions as they are the usual area where standards drop.   

 

Only comment on captions - The photo of Carbis Bay page 38 is most likely early 20th century,  The broad gauge sleepers are still present and the running-in board is clearly one of the blue enamelled ones with white lettering.  These seem to have started to be superseded byt the cast letters painted white on a black painted timber background c.1909 -11 but some survived for many years after that,  Much the same in terms of date can be said of the Lelant picture on page 50 - the member of staff in the picture was presumably the Porter in Charge - he's definitely not a Station Master as he isn't wearing a pillbox style hat.

 

Signalling diagrams would have been nice to have but are readily available online for anyone who is interested.  Equally timetable details and traffic figures would interest some of us but, again, they're not everybody's cup of tea.

 

The story of the dreadful 'Skippers' is complete as far as the branches go but doesn't include the reason why they left the WR - which had little to do with the branches.   The Region refused to continue operating them because of their lack of reliability in operating track circuits which was proved by trials conducted on the Exmouth branch.  Asthere was a ready use for ythem elsewhere off they went - to the general relief of many on the WR.  Incidentally there is a story about how they got their name but it was both because ofa tenuous nautical and an observation on their riding as they tended to 'skip' along.

 

Overall a very impressive book clearly backed by some quality research and it's aone I would recommend to anyone interested in the railways in that part  of the world.

[dibber25]

On 30/07/2022 at 12:18, The Stationmaster said:

A further thought and I wonder if the book addresses it (I'll maybe find out when I've got a copy)?   Why was the line built to broad gauge?  The West Cornwall was a 'narrow gauge' - in GWR terms - railway and only the main line from Penwithers Jcn to Penzance was converted to mixed gauge, the various freight branches such as Newham remained narrow gauge.  The only advantage I can see in laying broad gauge on the St Ives branch is that it would have allowed through working of broad gauge vehicles  beyond Truro and then much further east.  So were the GWR after the fish traffic at a time when St Ives was Cornwall's busiest fishing port?

It was surely all about the fish - particularly mackerel - which initially couldn't be sold more than a few miles from the home harbour as it went off so quickly. The railway enabled mackerel to be sold in London and surely St. Ives, the big mackerel-fishing harbour, would have wanted to be part of that. (CJL)

[RichardLong]

In case anyone’s after a bargain, this book - along with many other railway titles - is currently on offer at 30% off if bought from the Pen & Sword website: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-St-Ives-Branch-Line-A-History-Hardback/p/21452

[The Stationmaster]

13 hours ago, RichardLong said:

In case anyone’s after a bargain, this book - along with many other railway titles - is currently on offer at 30% off if bought from the Pen & Sword website: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-St-Ives-Branch-Line-A-History-Hardback/p/21452

I do hope that's nota reflection on sales to date?   But Pen & Sword do in any case have a habit of offering reductions on even newly published books!

[RichardLong]

9 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

I do hope that's nota reflection on sales to date?   But Pen & Sword do in any case have a habit of offering reductions on even newly published books!

No it’s across the board - all Pen & Sword titles (excluding ebooks) are 30% off this month, even the ones that haven’t been published yet!