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Penlee Quarry railway

Steam locomotive Koppel with V-skip waggons, 1906
Overview
Headquarters	Newlyn
Locale	Cornwall
Dates of operation	about 1900–1973
Successor	Abandoned
Technical
Track gauge	2 ft (610 mm)
Length	1⁄2 mile (0.8 km)

The Penlee Quarry railway was a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge industrial railway serving the Penlee Quarry at Newlyn in Cornwall, England, UK. It was Cornwall's most westerly railway and one of the last operating narrow-gauge industrial railways in the UK.

History

Mineral extraction at Penlee dates back to the early 19th century, when copper, zinc and rare minerals were mined. Stone quarrying was started by James Runnalls of Penzance, at a quarry near the Old Battery in 1879. The operations were transferred to the current site at the turn of the 20th century, becoming known as Gwavas Quarry. Penlee supplied mainly aggregate (crushed stone) but on occasion also supplied large chunks of stone as rock armour ("armourstone"). The full-scale aggregate operations ran throughout most of the century, reaching peak output in the 1960s and 1970s.

With production increasing, a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge railway was opened around 1900. This connected the quarry with the south pier of Newlyn harbour, approximately ½ mile away to the east. A steam locomotive named Koppel was purchased to work this line. Internal combustion locomotives replaced steam from 1930 onwards. Stone was shipped from Newlyn to destinations around the Bristol Channel and the south coast and in later years to as far afield as Germany.

The railway was more or less straight, apart from the curve on to the south pier at Newlyn. It was double track for most of the route, although at some point in the past it had been singled, the double track being reinstated as production increased in the later years. In the 1960s when a ship was being loaded, six locomotives were needed for operations, four higher-powered ones on the main line and two lower-powered ones shunting the empty tipper wagons through the two loading points. The empty trains were reversed back to the loading points from the harbour.

In 1973, the railway ceased operations and was replaced by an electrical conveyor system using the same route. Operations at the quarry then slowed throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, eventually coming to an end in 1989/90.

Present day

Stone was supplied for a few isolated small contracts until 1994, since when the quarry has been dormant. There are now plans to use the quarry site as part of a marina and housing development.

Penlee Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated in 1997, noted for its geological formations and igneous rocks.

Locomotives

See also

• British industrial narrow-gauge railways

References

1. "Newlyn". The Cornishman. No. 36. 20 March 1879. p. 7.
2. Scott, Peter; Walton, Geoffrey (January 2008). "The geology of Penlee Quarry its impact on previous quarrying and future use" (PDF). Ussher Society 46th Annual Conference. Ussher Society. p. 12. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
3. "Penlee Quarry" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
4. "No.19 PENLEE". Yaxham Light Railway. 2009. Archived from the original on 17 October 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2009.

• Farmer, Keith (August 1968). "Amalgamated Roadstone". Industrial Railway Record. 20. Industrial Railway Society: 269–281/288.
• Penlee Marina plans and quarry history, 2009. Retrieved on 2009-06-02

50°05′45″N 5°32′32″W / 50.0959°N 5.5423°W / 50.0959; -5.5423

• 2 ft gauge railways in England
• Industrial railways in England
• Quarries in Cornwall
• Rail transport in Cornwall
• Railway lines closed in 1973
• Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cornwall
• Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1997
• Newlyn