Liskeard and Caradon Railway

Liskeard and Caradon Railway

The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was a mineral railway built to transport granite, copper and tin ore from around Minions to Looe Harbour. The journey from Moorswater to Looe was initially on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal and later on the Liskeard and Looe Railway which was built alongside the canal.

The railway opened in 1844 and was powered initially by gravity and horses. The full wagons ran downhill under gravity with brakes to control their speed. Each wagon was individually piloted by a brakesman. The empty wagons were then hauled uphill the next day by horses.

Rather than wood, granite from the Cheesewring quarry was used for the railway sleepers. This saved money but the heavy sleepers had a tendency to sink slightly into the ground after heavy rainfall. This buckled the tracks which caused frequent derailments.

The Gonamena Incline was gravity-powered. Wagons were attached to ropes and a heavy full wagon raised a lighter empty wagon. This was a bottleneck in the railway as only one wagon could travel at a time and there had to be both a full and empty wagon available.

From 1860 work began on extending the railway along the south side of Caradon Hill and also to bypass the inclined plane at Gonamena. By 1861, the Crows Nest end of the railway had been extended as far as East Caradon mine but the Gonamena bypass was never finished.

In 1862, a steam locomotive was purchased to carry out some of the work done by horses more quickly. By 1869, there were 3 locomotives.

In 1877, a railway around the Marke Valley side of Caradon Hill was opened, connecting the Cheesewring Quarry with the railway already at East Caradon Mine. The old railway on the other side of the hill involving the Gonamena Incline was closed immediately.

There was plenty of demand for day-trippers to travel by rail to The Hurlers and The Cheesewring but the mineral railway was not licensed to carry paying passengers. From around 1850, when the mines and quarries were not working on Sundays, the railway would offer to carry passengers free of charge. Since it was legal to charge for cargo, a fee would be charged instead for their hats and baggage.

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