Welcome to the Helston Railway Trust's official web site. Over a period of five years, we hope to reopen three miles of the closed railway from
Gwinear Road to Helston in South West Cornwall. The line hasn't seen a train for nearly forty years, the last one leaving at 8.45pm on Saturday the 3rd November 1962, the line did stay open for a further two years for freight traffic. The Helston Railway Trust The Start of a new era The Helston Railway Trust’ was set up in a meeting held on the twelfth February 2002,with the basic objectives of bringing back part of the nine mile branch line from Gwinear road to Helston in West Cornwall, it would be near enough impossible to re open the whole branch, however we plan to re open about three miles of this branch, the section between Helston and Nancegollan, The section consists of a six arch Viaduct, at Lowertown, five single arch bridges that carry the Railway over roads and four bridges that the railway passes under. Our first objective is to have talks with the people who own the site of Truthall Halt which is about halfway between Helston and Nancegollan. When the line was open, there stood an earth and sleeper built platform which served the nearby village of Trannack and the residents of Tuthall Manor, the station was very isolated and only two or three trains stopped there per day and even then no one really used it. The platform remained nearly intact until 2000, but the atrocious rain we had that year virtually disintegrated it although there is still some trace there now, below the bridge which still carries cars over the track bed. Our next objective will be to build a platform and place various station furniture there and possibly erect some sort of building, this would then give us a good starting point to lay some track and loan a locomotive and brake van to give rides to the public. we also plan to have a five inch gauge run with our resident five inch loco ‘Polly’ this loco will also be starring in the Hayle MRC Exhibition in June, which will raise more funds for the Society. We plan to run our first Time tabled train in may 2004 Weather or not this will be all the way from Helston to Nancegollan we wont know until the time. Helston Sadly, nothing remains of Helstons original station which once stood looking over the Market town, so our interest has been drawn towards a field on the outskirts of the town where there is room to build a station and ‘run round’ loop. The original station stood near the site of where Helston Community collage now stands, the goods shed still stands to this day, with a slightly different role as a home for the elderly. Why not join us? Membership is £7 per year (£5 for OAP’s and Children) and you will receive our quarterly newsletter and will be able to attend our Quarterly meetings and will receive a 15% discount on our products which will include postcards and greetings cards (we will send all members a price list when we’ve had delivery) Please fill in the form over leaf. Many thanks. If you'd like to join us, then send your details to the adress below, or Email us on the link below. This site will be improved soon and will include photos and a more detailed History. WATCH THIS SPACE!!!! Membership is free if you join before 31st May 2002! so contact us Now!!!!!!
Links to other sites on the Web
The Bodmin & Wenford Steam railway
UK Heritage Railways Assosciation
Local Train services in Cornwall
Local Bus services in mid Cornwall
Long distance services from London to Cornwall
The Tamar Belle Heritage centre
The Helston Railway Trust, 3 Godrevey Court, Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall TR26 2RL
© 2000 railstohelston@yahoo.co.uk
