The Callington
Branch A Description of the Line |
This page describes the route of the former Callington Branch railway line. Please click here for an Index of all Callington Branch pages in RailWest.
The line followed a fairly tortuous route in many places, especially over the part that formed the 1908 BA&CLR extension. From Bere Alston the line leaves in a south-west direction, but swings round north-west on a 10 chains curve and heads north-east towards Calstock, turning almost due north on a 9 chain curve to run over Calstock Viaduct into Calstock station. The station itself is on a 7 chain curve and down trains leave going east on a gradient that steepens from 1 in 264 to 1 in 37, while swinging back through 180 degrees to run due west. There follows a series of curves of average 10 chains radius as the line rise over 400 feet in the next 2½ miles to joined the original ECMR about half a mile south of the next station at Gunnislake.
From Gunnislake the line ran roughly westwards towards Callington station over a section that was slightly easier, although still with many sections at gradients steeper than 1 in 100. Because of the numerous sharp curves and steep gradients the line speed was not very high: there was an overall maximum limit of 25mph, with numerous more severe restrictions. There were several un-gated level-crossings and the Light Railway Order required that speed be reduced to 10mph 300 yards from each crossing, although in some places the railway company itself imposed a more severe restriction because of the local situation. The total length of the branch was 9 miles 60 chains.
To be continued...
© Chris Osment 2002