The scout learnt the road between Moorswater and another of Cornwall’s remote rail extremities on three rides between July, 2010, and August, 2012.
The scout remembers causing a puddle in the shop at Minions where he bought his lunch and the teenage girl, probably ferried everywhere in daddy’s car, filing her nails and wondering why her customer was wet through. +
After passing St. Cleer, the railway crossed Tremarcoombe Common and ran to the foot of Gonamena Incline. “Railway Terrace,” today’s Darite, was built alongside the line and this is where the route which eventually skirted Caradon Hill made its junction.
The line which went around Caradon Hill to Tokenbury Corner, serving East Caradon and Caradon Consols mines, was extended to join with the lines above the incline in 1877. The incline was then closed.
The scout climbed the hill to take the view from beside the transmitter, built in 1961 to bring I.T.V. to the West Country. It can be seen from main line trains.
On the occasion that the scout arrived at Minions and bought his lunch in the shop, he took shelter in Houseman’s Engine House which served as Minions Heritage Centre. The sun came out and he soon forgot about the rain as he explored Cheesewring, the branch to which quarry made a junction near the engine house.
The Engineer’s Line Reference is “CCZ.” Kilmar Tor (probably the reversal, rather than the very end of the line) was 19 m. 50 ch. from Buller Quay at Looe, The “junction with quarry line at Smallacombe Down” lay at 20 m. 75 ch. but it is not known where this was.
On his first visit to Bearah Quarry, the scout left his bicycle and followed the track from Henwood. He returned via Callington and caught the train from Gunnislake. On his second visit, “by rail,” he went on to Kilmar and then crossed Twelve Men’s Moor to pick up a lane which took him around to Henwood, whence he rode straight to Liskeard. Here he took refreshment at the now closed Old Stag Inn opposite the station before catching the train to Looe to complete the day.
The scout thinks of Gravel Hill, the line from Treamble, as being the furthest outpost from the network in Cornwall, more so than Wenford Bridge or Upton Towans. The extremities of the L. & C., however, must be contenders for the title.