Bodmin Road Station is only a short distance from Lostwithiel, following a slow climb from water meadows through increasingly wooded countryside and the short ‘Brownqueen’ tunnel. Built on the side of hill, a lot of spoil was moved to accommodate it, and the run up to the bridge beginning the branch line. By the time I had explored the surrounding area, the goods yard had been removed, but stock was often stored on the sidings opposite. It was not until the 1980s that I ventured north on the Bodmin Steam Railway to Bodmin town, and later still before I walked the former trackbed to Padstow (in two chunks!). I can remember, years earlier, my father taking the family to Wadebridge and there seeing 4-wheeled vans in the sidings, but not much more. It was a great shame when the trackbed there was built across, preventing future reinstatement of the line through the town to the honey-pot of Padstow, but nevertheless, the Camel Way cycle path on the trackbed is a commendable consolation.
Castle Class 5069 “ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL” pauses at Bodmin Road Station on its way west – a train of GWR-style “chocolate and cream” carriages behind and BR “blood and custard” beside it. The long curved nameplate was probably the longest in service, and although not in ‘pristine’ condition, the brasswork all over the locomotive still gleams. 5####CX01-BOD-s5069-PAS_D
Simmering away at the branch platform of Bodmin Road Station is 45XX tank 5557, on the through train to Padstow. Its ’83E’ shed plate, the platform edge white stripe, and white stripes of the signal arms, stand stark against the grey of the winter’s day. 57###AB01-BOD-s5557-PAS_O
Descending the bank from the branch, 5519 rocks on its approach to Bodmin Road Station, the fireman keeping a keen watch for hazards as it slows towards its journey’s end. Unusual for a small station, a second water tower is provided. 5####BA01-BOD-s5519-PAS_I
5557 is watered from the rather unusual extended arm of the water tank at the eastern end of Bodmin Parkway Station. The heating apparatus for trying to prevent the water flow icing up is silhouetted on the platform below it, but rarely used in this mild climate. 600514A01-BOD-s5557-WATER
A family awaits their connecting mainline service on the up platform of Bodmin Road Station as one of the early D8XX Warships runs eastwards light engine. A crossover in the 6′ was still in use at this time, as was the goods yard, and the old shelter hadn’t yet been demolished. A water tower and signal array dominates the background. 6####HM01-BOD–D802-LIG_U
D832 ‘ONSLAUGHT’ slows as it runs past a signal into the West end of Bodmin Road Station with the up “Cornishman” in 1962. A loading gauge marks the entrance to the Goods Yard, that is presently populated with a rake of standard vans. 62###AF01-BOD–D832-PAS_U
A thick dampness clings to Bodmin Road Station in this 1966 view towards Lostwithiel, on the side of a hill in a silvian landscape remote from the town it purports to serve. A maroon ‘Western’ has halted with an up service, and the branch single DMU waits beside it as passengers transfer across – Bodmin town being three miles north west of here. 66####999-BOD-D_LCO-PARKD
D1033 “WESTERN TROOPER” and D1035 “WESTERN YEOMAN” are seen near Bodmin Road with the 4M05 12.50 Penzance-Crewe Parcels on 22nd July 1976. Both locos came off at North Road, and Trooper worked back to Penzance. Rather surprisingl,y telegraph poles with wires still line the trackside, apparently in use after general removal elsewhere. 760722A01-BOD-2X52s-PCL_U
Sulzer Type 2 loco 25052 climbs the incline, light engine, into Bodmin Parkway Station on 18th September 1980. The former Goods Yard behind has now become a car park, and HST carriage markers, to assist optimal platforming, flank the track. 800918A01-BOD-25052-LIG_U
In strong sunshine the driver of D1036 “WESTERN EMPEROR” looks back as the locomotive prepares to move off from Bodmin Parkway Station on 18th August 1974 with the 1A09 1540 Penzance – London Paddington. It has stopped beyond the platform so as many carriages as possible can be “platformed”, and the space to the left shows where lrack has been lifted. 740818A01-BAD-D1036-PAS_U
A trackside workman operating gas equipment mops his brow, and sun glints off the windscreen of an ex-Works Class 46 as it approaches Bodmin Parkway station in April 1977 with a down passenger service of Mk 2B coaches. To the left, beside the point shunting signal, is a set of catch points, intended to derail any runaway stock from blocking the up main line. 7704#AC01-BOD-46###-PAS_D
Groups of departing passengers are on the platform as D6306, in battered original livery but small warning panel and unusual surface-mounted headcode boxes, uses the crossover at Bodmin General station to run around the three-coach train it has brought in, The carriages seem somewhat bleached and more akin to engineer’s vehicles than standard stock. 6####IJ01-BOL-D6306-LIGHT
Dunmere Halt just outside of Bodmin North Station was still rail-connected and in good order on 12th August 1967 – even if the lighting was still from gas lamp structures. I first visited thirty years later, when it was merely the platform that had survived beside the cycleway. 65###AC01-DMR-STATN-VI__W
Workmen unload timber from a rake of open wagons at Boscarne Junction on the ex-GWR line to Bodmin General on 19th May 1964, prior to building Bodmin Exchange platform. This was a carriage-length temporary affair for trials to downgrade the track to the left of this point from through trains to a mere shuttle service to Bodmin North – the ex-LSWR line. 640519A01-BOS-WAGNS-UNLOD
The route from Bodmin Town towards Padstow intersected with a line to Bodmin General at Boscarne Junction, where a ‘Halt’ consisted of a short platform on each deviation, connected by a half-minute walk between them. This is the GWR arm, with the route to Wadebridge to the left and Bodmin Town to the right, behind the running in board. 56###AE01-BCX-STATN-VI__W
The eyes of the driver and guard are fixed on the route ahead as 30587 runs its lightly loaded pick-up goods across the points onto the Wenfordbridge branch at Dunmere Junction, watched by the signalman at the hut beside the bridge over the River Camel. The drop from this bridge to the water below is quite steep at this point. 5####CG01-DME-30587-GDS_O
This really-interesting photo of the Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway circa 1888 shows what could be a junction – where the train has stopped and what, judging from their attire, could be the Directors inspecting the line at close hand. the rolling stock is stoutly built and a few examples are preserved by the National Railway Museum at York. 880629A01-UNK-COACH-PARKD
Exhaust smoke drifts eastward from 31901 – one of Maunsell’s ‘U’ class – with a local train bearing a Padstow headcode, as it struggles along an embankment close to Wadebridge on 12th August 1961. The association of well-kept trackway and indifferently maintained train was typical of this era showing pride in local work, but ambivilence to assets from elsewhere. 610812A01-WBG-31901-PAS_D
Resident 1369 0-6-0 Great Western tank engine and a classmate are sheltered inside Wadebridge shed in 1964. There is a hoist and maintenance pit before it, and goods shed and water tower behind – the arches of the bridge are to the right. Vans can also be seen through the apeture of the shed, and restricted access signs on girders before it. 64###AL01-WBG-E_SHD-VI_NW
The terminus of “The Withered Arm” of the Southern Railway’s system at Padstow houses a brake van and wagons at the station platform and a rake of Bullied coaches in a parallel siding. This scene is overlooked by the prominently sited Metropole Hotel, and adjacent typical north Cornwall gabled station house and pillared awning. 64###AL01-PDS-STATN-VI_NW
An ex-SR T9 Class 4-4-0 No 30709 waits at Padstow Station, Cornwall, in 1960. Superficially, the scene could easily be taken to be years earlier in Southern Railway days, and the running in board is definitely of that vintage. One variance though is the lorry beside the Station Building has ‘BRITISH RAILWAYS’ painted its tarpaulin cover. 60###AM01-PDW-30709-PAS_U
08488 trundles down the winding single track route from Wenford Bridge with a brake van and china clay working for Fowey docks on 6th April 1983. In the background is Dunmere Wood and to the right behind the line the fields drop down to the River Camel below. I heard such a train from Pencarrow at a Scout camp nearby, but never saw one in operation. 830406A01-WFB-08488-GDS_I
A Class 47 makes its way westwards over Largin Viaduct in July 1971 – the piers shown bearing strengthening metalwork bound around them near the top to prevent them splaying apart. I only once went beneath this structure. Original © John Crowley. 7107#AB01-LRN-D15##-PAS_D
The Eric Curnow Collection 