Newquay railway station

Newquay
Location
Place	Newquay
Local authority	Cornwall
Coordinates	50°24′52″N 5°04′31″W / 50.41450°N 5.07529°W / 50.41450; -5.07529Coordinates: 50°24′52″N 5°04′31″W / 50.41450°N 5.07529°W / 50.41450; -5.07529
Operations
Station code	NQY
Managed by	First Great Western
Number of platforms	1
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2002/03 *	76,103
2004/05 *	83,712
2005/06 *	71,301
2006/07 *	77,188
2007/08 *	87,550
2008/09 *	96,088
2009/10 *	102,232
History
Original company	Cornwall Minerals Ry
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
1876	Opened
1905	Station rebuilt Truro line opened
1963	Truro line closed
1987	Reduced to one platform
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Newquay from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Newquay railway station is the terminus of the Atlantic Coast Line that runs from Par railway station. It is operated by First Great Western and is situated close to the town centre and beaches in Newquay, Cornwall, England, UK.

History

The first railway at Newquay was a horse-worked line from the harbour to Hendra Crazey. It was built by Joseph Treffry in stages between 1846 and 1849. The line was extended on 1 June 1874 by the Cornwall Minerals Railway, goods trains now reaching Fowey. A branch line from Tolcarn Junction, just outside Newquay, ran to Gravel Hill Mine near Treamble where there was an iron mine.^[1]

Passenger trains were introduced on 20 June 1876.^[2] The Great Western Railway operated all the trains from 1 October 1877 and bought out the Cornwall Minerals Railway on 1 July 1896.

The original station had just a single platform and a turntable at the end of the platform was used to release locomotives from incoming trains. The station was rebuilt in 1905 with two platforms serving three tracks. A new line was opened from Shepherds, on the Treamble branch, to Perranporth on 2 January 1905, which allowed a new service to run from Newquay to Truro. The following year through carriages started to be run from London using the direct line from Par.

The main departure platform was lengthened in 1928 and again in 1935; the second platform was lengthened in 1938. These enlargements were to accommodate the longer trains that were now bringing holidaymakers from London and elsewhere. Extensive carriage sidings were laid on the south side of the station to store these trains between services.

The station started to be run down following the closure of the line to Truro on 4 February 1963. The goods yard was closed in 1965; the roof on platforms 2 and 3 was removed in 1964. Platform 3 was shortened in 1966 and its locomotive release line taken out of use on 4 October 1972, by which time four of the carriage sidings had been removed.^[3]

On 5 October 1987 the signal box was closed, all the remaining signals were dismantled and the rails serving platform 1 were lifted. This platform had already become ruinous towards its outer end. At the same time the last of the carriage sidings were closed and lifted. The former Chacewater platform, number 3, kept its rails a little longer, linked to the main line by a ground frame, although this was also removed by the mid 1990s and the land was sold right up the face of platform 3. The now-derelict station buildings on platform 1 were demolished in 1992 to make way for a new car park, and the signal box was destroyed in March 1997 as the result of an arson attack.^{[citation needed]}

Newquay Harbour

The rail network at the harbour

The original terminus of the Newquay Railway was at the harbour. Horses hauled wagons along a line that wound between houses to reach the top of a 1 in 4½ incline that carried the line down to the harbour. Wagons were lowered on a cable down the incline, which was in a tunnel dug out of the cliff. At the foot the track ran onto the eastern breakwater but a shunt-back and wooden trestle bridge gave access to the a jetty in the middle of the harbour.^[1]

After steam locomotives were introduced by the Cornwall Minerals Railway in 1874, wagons continued to be moved between Newquay railway station and the harbour incline by horses. Traffic handled at the harbour gradually declined and the line was taken out of use in 1926. Part of the route is now a footpath from opposite the station to the cliff tops above the beach.

Trenance Viaduct

Trenance Viaduct

Between Newquay station and Tolcarn Junction the line crosses the Trenance valley on a 154 yard (141m) viaduct. The first structure, opened on 29 January 1849, was a timber structure on stone piers. It was much lighter than the similarly-constructed Cornwall Railway viaducts that were built a few years later, and very different from the imposing granite Treffry Viaduct built by Treffry for his Par tramway.

The piers were raised and new wrought iron girders installed ready for the opening of the line for locomotives in 1874. This was replaced by the present masonry structure on 27 March 1939. It carried two tracks from 20 March 1946; the line to Tolcarn Junction was singled on 23 November 1964 but the second line was retained for shunting purposes until the rationalisation in the 1980s.

Services

Passengers arriving on a summer Saturday train from Manchester Piccadilly

Newquay is the terminus of the branch line from Par. It handles a number of intercity trains in the summer as well as local services, which is very unusual for a modern branch.

On summer Saturdays local services are entirely replaced by First Great Western trains from London Paddington and CrossCountry trains from the Midlands and the North of England, which do not stop at intermediate stations between Par and Newquay. On Sundays there are some local trains and also a small number of intercity services. As well as the weekend through trains, in peak summer months there is also a Monday-Friday through First Great Western intercity service to and from London, but local trains continue on these days too. Traditionally, there was no Sunday service in the winter, even in the 'golden age' between both of the 20th century's world wars, but the line has a service of three trains each way on Sundays from 11 December 2011.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Quintrell Downs		First Great Western Atlantic Coast Line		Terminus
Par		CrossCountry The North to Newquay (summer only)		Terminus
	Disused railways
Trewerry and Trerice Halt		Great Western Railway Truro and Newquay Railway		Terminus

Community rail

The local trains between Par and Newquay are designated as a community rail service, supported by marketing from the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. The route is promoted as the "Atlantic Coast Line". The other Cornish branch lines are full Community Railways, but only the local service to Newquay is designated in this way, because the presence of intercity and clay trains make it impossible to designate the line itself.

Three pubs in Newquay take part in the Atlantic Coast Line rail ale trail.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Vaughan, John (1991). The Newquay Branch and its Branches. Sparkford: Haynes/Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN 0-86093-470-5. 
2. ^ Bennett, Alan (1988). The Great Western Railway in Mid Cornwall. Southampton: Kingfisher Railway Publications. ISBN 0-94618-453-4. 
3. ^ Cooke, RA (1977). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 11: East Cornwall. Harwell: RA Cooke. 

External links

This station offers access to the South West Coast Path
Distance to path	50 yards (46 m)
Next station anticlockwise	Hayle 35 miles (56 km)
Next station clockwise	Barnstaple 123 miles (198 km)