Bodmin Parkway railway station

Infobox UK station
code = BOD
name = Bodmin Parkway


caption = Bodmin Parkway, looking east
manager = First Great Western
locale = Bodmin
borough = Caradon, Cornwall
latitude = 50.4458
longitude = -4.6630
original = Cornwall Railway
pregroup = Great Western Railway
postgroup = Great Western Railway
years = 1859
events = opened
platforms = 3
lowusage0203 = 144,146
lowusage0405 = 158,172
lowusage0506 = 166,743
lowusage0607 = 185,498

Bodmin Parkway railway station is a station on the Cornish Main Line and serves the nearby town of Bodmin, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The station is convert|26.75|mi|km|0 west of Plymouth.

The station is situated south of the town with the Bodmin and Wenford steam railway operating the branch to the town. First Great Western operate the station along with every other station in Cornwall. Both local and long-distance trains, including the Night Riviera sleeper service, call at the station.

The entrance is on the platform served by trains to Penzance. A second platform is reached by footbridge which is served by trains to Plymouth and Paddington. The opposite side of this platform is for the trains of the Bodmin and Wenford steam railway.

The bus link to Bodmin, Wadebridge and Padstow starts from outside the main entrance. Visitors to Lanhydrock House should turn right outside the station and follow the path that leads under the railway line.

History

Bodmin was the most important town in Cornwall when the Cornwall Railway opened on 4 May 1859. Original proposals to build a branch to the town failed as the company could not raise enough capital, so instead they decided to open a station called "Bodmin Road" at a convenient point. As the agreement with Lord Vivian who owned the estate forbade the construction of a station in the estate and protracted negotiations were necessary before a new agreement could be reached. When the railway opened on 4 May 1859 all that could be reported was that: "No station has yet been erected for Bodmin, owing to the site not having been immediately determined upon. It will be either near to Glynn Bridge or "Respryn" Bridge, and until it is completed, the Bodmin traffic will be accommodated at a temporary wooden shed erected near the latter place." Respryn was near the entrance to Lanhydrock House, the home of Mr Robartes, a railway supporter.

The new station was finally ready to open on 27 June 1859 and was named "Bodmin Road". Because of its remote location the station master was paid five pounds by the Post Office to carry out the duties of post master. He also received a special lodging allowance until a house could be provided for him two years later.

A goods shed was built in 1860 at the east end of the station, behind the platform for trains to Plymouth and cattle pens were added the following year.

A footbridge across the line was built by Mr Robartes in 1860 to enable visitors to reach Lanhydrock more easily. This was later replaced by a passage beneath the tracks. This path is still used by visitors to this National Trust property who arrive by train.

In 1863 a Bodmin, Wadebridge and Cornwall Junction Railway was proposed to connect the Cornwall Railway at Bodmin Road with the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway at Bodmin, an isolated standard gauge line owned by the London and South Western Railway. In 1864 an agreement was reached with the Cornwall Railway to work the line once it was completed, and an Act of Parliament was obtained. Capital proved difficult to raise and so the scheme failed.

The line was eventually built by the Great Western Railway, opening on 27 May 1887; this meant that the goods shed had to be moved to the opposite end of the station to make room for the branch platform. This was a standard gauge line and so traffic from Bodmin to the Cornwall Railway had to be transferred at Bodmin Road until the broad gauge was converted over the weekend of 21 May 1892.

On 18 April 1895 a train derailed shortly after leaving Bodmin Road on the way to Lostwithiel. Both the 3521 class 0-4-4-T locomotives left the rails on a curve and dragged nearly the whole of the train with them. No one was killed. It is thought that the track had been damaged by the preceding train, but the 3521 class locomotives were subsequently banned from working in pairs and were taken off fast trains until rebuilt as 4-4-0 tender locomotives.

The Cornwall Railway had been amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 July 1889. The Great Western Railway was nationalised into British Railways from 1 January 1948 which was then privatised in the 1990s.

The station was renamed "Bodmin Parkway" by British Rail to bring it in line with many other stations which are marketed to attract road users such as Tiverton Parkway and Bristol Parkway.

ignal box

Status: Closed
Located on Platform 1 at Bodmin Parkway. This has now been converted into a cafe operated by the Bodmin & Wenford Railway. The sidings belonging to the Bodmin & Wenford Railway are now controlled locally from ground frames, as is the exchange siding with the mainline. These require a token release from Lostwithiel Signal Box.

ervices

Bodmin Parkway is served by most First Great Western trains on the trains on the Cornish Main Line between Penzance and Plymouth. Some trains run through to or from London Paddington station, including the Night Riviera overnight sleeping car service and the Golden Hind which offers an early morning service to London and an evening return. Other fast trains are the mid-morning Cornish Riviera and the afternoon Royal Duchy.

There are a limited number of CrossCountry trains providing a service to Scotland in the morning and returning in the evening, and on summer weekends to Newquay, most of which run non-stop from Bodmin Parkway to Newquay. One of the local services to Penzance each weekend runs from and to London Waterloo station and is operated by South West Trains.

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Connecting bus services run from the station to Bodmin, Wadebridge, and Padstow.

References

* The records of the railway companies can be consulted at The National Archives at Kew.
* "West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser", Railway Special Edition, 1859.
* "The Great Western Railway in East Cornwall", Alan Bennett, Runpast Publishing, Cheltenham 1990, ISBN 1-870754-11-5

External links

* [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~owend/interests/rail/stnpages/bodminparkway.html British Railway Stations photographs - Bodmin Parkway]