This article does not intend to furnish a company or line history: there is already adequate reading material which describes the 53 miles 39 chains of railway between Plymouth and Truro, and the 11 miles 27 chains Falmouth branch. Such reading matter is in the form of E. T. MacDermot’s History of the Great Western Railway, Volume 2, and R. J. Woodfin’s book The Cornwall Railway.
The main purpose is to describe six serious accidents that befell the Cornwall Railway Company and the Great Western Railway, which absorbed the Cornish company after 1889. This is accomplished by reference to contemporary press reports. The following paragraphs serve as background to the set of circumstances to each incident.
Initial proposals for the Cornwall Railway were made in 1835, but nothing materialised until a proposal suggested by I. K. Brunel achieved Royal Assent on 3rd August 1846.
Construction of a broad gauge, single line commenced between Truro and St. Austell, specifically at two tunnels, only to grind to a halt in 1847 when the economic state of Britain was in a slump. Work recommenced in 1852 thanks to the indefatigable effort of Brunel. By the end of that year the construction of 22 miles of line had been achieved between St. Austell and Liskeard.
In a directors’ report of March 1859 the following remarks were made in relation to the almost completed railway: “The line from Plymouth to Saltash, and from St. Germans to Truro, comprising a distance of 50 miles, is now sufficiently prepared for an engine to run over it”. This being so, we later learn that “A locomotive engine having been brought upon the Railway at Par, has been engaged for some months past in carrying ballast trains along this line between Liskeard and Truro, where many of the principal viaducts occur.”An undoubted milestone in the formation of the Cornwall Railway was the completion of the bridge at Saltash, spanning the Tamar. In the presence of Prince Albert, the bridge was declared open and named the Royal Albert Bridge on 2nd May 1859. Two days later, the line between Plymouth Millbay and Truro was opened for passenger traffic, following Board of Trade inspection. The inspector is thought to have been General Pasley though, strangely, he is not named in reports. The extension to Falmouth opened on 24th August 1863, a feat which completed the Cornwall Railway.
Management of the Cornwall Railway (including the Falmouth branch) lay in the hands of a Joint Committee of directors drawn from three associated companies (the Great Western Railway, the South Devon Railway and the Bristol & Exeter Railway, plus four directors of the Cornwall Railway). The Cornwall Railway prevailed as an independent company until amalgamation with the GWR on 1st July 1889.
Although the construction of the Royal Albert Bridge was a remarkable engineering achievement, so too were the numerous timber bridges designed by Brunel. Between Plymouth and Truro these totalled 34; a further eight were needed on the Falmouth branch. Timber in a damp climate has a limited lifespan. By the 1870s manyviaducts needed strengthening or complete replacement, a necessary commitment that cost time and money and caused friction between the Cornwall Railway and the GWR in 1884, the former reluctant to pay to widen the viaducts.
