The Launceston Steam Railway is narrow gauge railway operating from the town of Launceston in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. The railway is built on the trackbed of the North Cornwall Railway

North Cornwall Railway

The North Cornwall Railway was a railway line running from Halwill in Devon to Padstow in Cornwall via Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge, a distance of 49 miles 67 chains. Opened in the last decade of the nineteenth century, it was part of a drive by the London and South Western Railway to...

 to the gauge of and runs for 2½ miles to Newmills, where there is a farm park.

Standard gauge railway

The first railway to reach Launceston was the Launceston and South Devon Railway, opened in 1865 from Launceston to Plymouth, and later absorbed into the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

. In 1886 the London and South Western Railway

London and South Western Railway

The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...

 opened its railway from Halwill Junction, extended to Padstow in stages in the 1890s, and later part of the Southern Railway. The two Launceston stations were side by side: the Great Western closed in 1962 and the Southern in 1966.

Narrow gauge revival

In 1965, trainee teacher Nigel Bowman rescued the steam locomotive "Lilian" from the Penrhyn Slate Quarry in North Wales, and restored her to working order at his home in Surrey. He then set about looking for a site to build a railway for Lilian to run on, and settled on Launceston in 1971, after considering a stretch of trackbed from Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

 to Horsham

Horsham

Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

 and the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. Purchase of the trackbed took several years, and the first ½ mile of track opened on Boxing Day 1983. The railway was extended progressively, the latest opening to Newmills in 1995 bringing the line to its current 2½ mile length.

Route

The LSR starts at a new station just west of the original LSWR station, which is now an industrial estate. Launceston station is the main station on the railway, and the sheds and engineering facilities are located here. The line runs from the station through a cutting, passing under a road bridge and aqueduct carrying a mill leat, before crossing the River Kensey on a two-arch viaduct. The line is now on an embankment and crosses a bridge over a farm track before arriving at Hunt's Crossing, where it is planned to lay a passing loop. After Hunt's Crossing the line crosses two farm crossings and then reaches Canna Park which was the temporary terminus before the extension to Newmills. From Canna Park there is a fairly short run to Newmills, the terminus. Adjacent to the Newmills station is the Newmills Farm Park.

Locomotives

All public train services are operated by the steam locomotives, whilst the internal combustion locomotives are used for maintenance work.

Steam locomotives

Number	Name	Builder	Type	Works Number	Built	Origin	Notes
	Lilian	Hunslet Hunslet Hunslet is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is south east of the city centre and has an industrial past.Hunslet had many engineering companies based in the district, such as John Fowler & Co...	0-4-0 ST	317	1883	Penrhyn Quarry Penrhyn Quarry The Penrhyn Slate Quarry is a slate quarry located near Bethesda in north Wales. At the end of the nineteenth century it was the world's largest slate quarry; the main pit is nearly long and deep, and it was worked by nearly 3,000 quarrymen. It has since been superseded in size by slate quarries...	New boiler fitted in 1993 and tender added in 2008
	Covertcoat	Hunslet Hunslet Hunslet is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is south east of the city centre and has an industrial past.Hunslet had many engineering companies based in the district, such as John Fowler & Co...	0-4-0 ST	679	1898	Dinorwic Quarry Dinorwic Quarry The Dinorwic Slate Quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry....	Cab and tender added at Launceston
	Velinheli	Hunslet Hunslet Hunslet is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is south east of the city centre and has an industrial past.Hunslet had many engineering companies based in the district, such as John Fowler & Co...	0-4-0 ST	409	1886	Dinorwic Quarry Dinorwic Quarry The Dinorwic Slate Quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry....	Privately owned by James Evans, ex. Inny Valley Railway Inny Valley Railway The Inny Valley Railway was a private narrow gauge railway located at Trebullett, near Launceston in Cornwall, England. The railway was established by James Evans and ran around a field adjoining a workshop for the railway and a mill. Steam locomotives based at the railway were Velinheli built by... .
	Dorothea	Hunslet Hunslet Hunslet is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is south east of the city centre and has an industrial past.Hunslet had many engineering companies based in the district, such as John Fowler & Co...	0-4-0 ST	763	1901	Dorothea slate quarry	Currently being rebuilt by Kay Bowman, ran in Winter 2001 using Covertcoat's boiler.
	Sybil	W.G. Bagnall W.G. Bagnall W. G. Bagnall was a locomotive manufacturer from Stafford, England. It was founded in 1875 by William Gordon Bagnall and ceased trading in 1962 when it was taken over by English Electric Co Ltd. The company was located at the Castle Engine Works, in Castle Town, Stafford...	0-4-0 ST	1760	1906	Dinorwic Quarry Dinorwic Quarry The Dinorwic Slate Quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry....	Privately owned by James Evans, was stored at Launceston for several years but now dismantled at a private site
89	Perseverance	C. Parmenter	4wVBT		2004		Constructed on a Hudson chassis

Internal Combustion and Battery Electric

Number	Name	Builder	Type	Works Number	Built	Origin	Notes
38		English Electric English Electric English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...	2w-2-2-2wRE	761	1930	Post Office Railway	On display in the museum
42		English Electric English Electric English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...	2w-2-2-2wRE		1930	Post Office Railway	To be rebuilt as railcar power bogie
		Motor Rail Motor Rail Motor Rail was a British locomotive-building company, based in Bedford. Formed in 1911 as The Motor Rail & Tramcar Co Ltd, they built petrol and diesel engined locomotives, mainly narrow gauge. During World War I over 900 locos were supplied for use on temporary military supply railways...	4wDM	5646	1933	Grove Heath, Ripley, Surrey
		N. Bowman	4wBER		1986		Inspection trolley
		Launceston SR	4wDER		2004		Inspection trolley

Visiting locomotives

Number	Name	Builder	Year Visited	Location	Notes
	Lilla	Hunslet	1998	Ffestiniog Railway Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park....
	Pearl 2	A. Civil	2001	Golden Valley Light Railway
	Dame Ann	Exmoor Steam Railway Exmoor Steam Railway The Exmoor Steam Railway is a narrow gauge steam railway and locomotive manufacturer, located at Bratton Fleming in North Devon.-12¼ in gauge:The railway was built by the Stirland family and first opened as a tourist attraction in August 1990...	2004	Wales West, Alabama
19 DHR 778 (Locomotive) DHR Locomotive number 778 was built for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Nicknamed the "Toy Train", the railway is a 2 ft gauge narrow-gauge railway from Siliguri to Darjeeling in West Bengal, run by the Indian Railways....		Sharp Stewart	2009	Beeches Light Railway
	Gertrude	Andrew Barclay	2009	Exmoor Transport
	Lyd	Boston Lodge	2010	Ffestiniog Railway
		Roanoke Engineering	2010 & 2011	Private	Vertical boilered tram locomotive

Rolling stock

The railway has four passenger carriages, all built on site and based on those built for the Manx Electric Railway

Manx Electric Railway

The Manx Electric Railway is an electric inter-urban tramway connecting Douglas, Laxey and Ramsey in the Isle of Man. It connects with the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway at its southern terminus at Derby Castle at the northern end of the promenade in Douglas, and with the Snaefell Mountain Railway at...

, Torrington and Marland Railway

Torrington and Marland Railway

The Torrington and Marland Railway was a narrow gauge railway built to carry clay from the quarries at Clay Moor to Torrington in north Devon.- History :...

 and the Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway

Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway

The Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway was a gauge narrow gauge railway in Cardiganshire in Mid Wales. It ran from Llanfihangel station on the Cambrian Railways via the village of Talybont and the valley of the Afon Leri into the foothills of Plynlimon Fawr...

. There are also several ex. RNAD

Royal Naval Armaments Depot

A Royal Naval Armament Depot was a group of armament depots dedicated to supplying the needs of the Royal Navy as well as the Royal Air Force, British Army and foreign/commonwealth governments; they were sister depots of Royal Naval Cordite Factories, Royal Naval Torpedo and Royal Naval Mine Depots...

 box vans, slate wagons and tipping wagons.

Plans

It is a long term plan to extend the railway a further two miles to the village of Egloskerry, incorporating a new cycle trail, and it is also planned to construct a replica of the Gyro monorail

Gyro Monorail

The gyro monorail, gyroscopic monorail, gyro-stabilized monorail, or gyrocar are terms for a single rail land vehicle that uses the gyroscopic action of a spinning wheel, to overcome the inherent instability of balancing on top of a single rail....

 developed by Louis Brennan

Louis Brennan

Louis Brennan was an Irish-Australian mechanical engineer and inventor.Brennan was born in Castlebar, Ireland, and moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1861 with parents...

.

External links

• The Railway website