European Railroad Discussion > British London to Cornwall lines questions

London Paddington to cornwall train service....??
So after getting hooked on "Doc Martin", an british TC series that takes place in Port Isaac in Cornwall,
I got interested in the train service in the area.
So what I was able to figure out was there is the "Cornish Main Line", and "the branches"   Amazing to me, is that all the connecting branches have frequent connect passenger service with "150 sprinter" DMU equipment, which looks kinda of like subway cars to me.

I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of equipment is used on the cornish main line.  Most of the pix i could find had trainsets that sorm of reminded me of the Brightline passenger train sets.    There was also some mention that some trains run with more conventional equipment..i.e., diesel engines hauling coaches.   Any pix of the trains running on any of the Cornish lines would be appreciated...especially passenger trains with locomotive hauled cars, or any freight biz.   Hard tio find out anything about freight service...

TIA

There are sleeper services called the night riviera which are loco hauled by EMD powered class 57s. 

Most other services are various DMUs or hybrid class 802 MUs.

Freights are pretty infrequent these days... occasional china clay trains hauled by EMD class 66s.

---

---

Until May next year local services between Plymouth and Penzance are in the hands of a mixture of class 800 IETs (nasty), class 158s (not bad) and Castle class HSTs like this (nice). Ex-Transport for Wales class 175 DMUs (Alstom 2000) are due to take over most of the mainline local services between Exeter, Plymouth & Penzance (supported by class 158s) starting in May 2025, with the HSTs the first to go. The 175s are decent enough units, but it'll be sad to see the HSTs go, they've been a fixture on the lines out of London Paddington to Wales and the West Country for almost 50 years.

The only freight west of Exeter is associated with the china clay industry in Cornwall, reserves of which are almost exhausted, having been mined for some 250 years. There are trains three times a week (MTWO - as required) from Goonbarrow on the Par to Newquay branch, to Carne Point, Fowey on the freight only branch from Lostwithiel (where trains from the direction of Par have to reverse). There's also a weekly service from Parkandillack (west of St Austell) to Cliffe Vale (Stoke on Trent) in the English Midlands. It runs as two sections, one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday, as far as Exeter where the two are combined. The grades up Hemerdon and Dainton banks between Plymouth & Newton Abbot limit the load, and DBC usually only has a single 66 based in Cornwall so double heading is not possible. There's also the occasional movement of clay between St Blazey Yard and Par Docks, which is quite fun to watch. It's a far cry from 30 years ago when china clay traffic was bouyant and scrap, cement, oil and consumer goods were consigned by train to and from Cornwall.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/24 10:26 by 86235.

---