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The Cornish China Clay Branches are a number of railway branch lines that serve facilities that produce or process China Clay.The area of Cornwall north of St Austell stretching from Bodmin Moor towards Truro is known for the extraction and processing of commercial volumes of China Clay, and with the expansion of the railways in the 19th century a number of lines were constructed to access ...
By the time that English China Clays took over the facilities in 1968 only five jetties remained in use. The main jetty is number 8, while numbers 4 and 6 could load china clay from rail wagons using conveyors. Number 5 only handled bagged china clay from road vehicles and number 3 handled liquid china clay slurry. [1]
Traffic to the dries was coal inward and china clay outward; high quality bagged clay in vans and lower quality in sheeted open wagons called clay hoods. After the closure of Wenfordbridge in 1971 the line ended just beyond the clay dries, 11 miles and 71 chains from Wadebridge. The line closed completely on 3 October 1983.
English China Clays was incorporated in April 1919 through the amalgamation of three of the largest producers: Martin Bros.(established in 1837), West of England China Clay & Stone (1849) and the North Cornwall China Clay Company (1908). [1] The three companies accounted for around half the industry's output at the time. [2]
The sidings and branch continue to handle heavy china clay traffic. The large dryer and storage sheds alongside the main line are the Blackpool clay works; Burngullow clay works are smaller and situated alongside the branch line a short distance from the junction. Two railway accidents have happened here, both involving runaway china clay trains.
The Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway opened in 1869 as a broad gauge railway linking the port of Fowey in Cornwall with the Cornish Main Line at Lostwithiel. Its main traffic was china clay. The company ran into financial difficulties and closed in 1880, but the line was purchased by the Cornwall Minerals Railway and reopened in 1895.
The Retew branch was extended from Melangoose Mill to Meledor Mill in 1912 in connection with china clay workings. The Treamble branch was closed in 1917, later being relaid and reopened in 1926. The Rock Mill Quarry tramway had fallen into disuse at the turn of the century, but in the 1920s the Central Cornwall Dry was built in the valley ...
The Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway was a 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge railway intended to link the Cornwall Railway with the horse-worked Newquay Railway.It opened a short section to Nanpean in 1869, the remainder being built by the Cornwall Minerals Railway who took over the company in 1874.