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SX4268 : The railway stops here
SX4268 : The railway stops here
This would have been the original route of the East Cornwall Mineral Railway. This was a narrow gauge line built to carry minerals from Kelly Bray and the mining area around Gunnislake and Kit Hill to the Tamar at Calstock. The steep descent to the Tamar was by a rope-worked incline, hence the steep gradient. This mineral railway was isolated from the main railway network and by the end of the 1800s there was pressure to make a connection to provide more efficient transport of the minerals. This was finally achieved with the construction of the SX4368 : Calstock viaduct and the road to Ferry Farm, the conversion of much of the ECMR to standard gauge and the opening of the connection to Bere Alston in 1908. At this point this short stub would have been redundant. For (much!) more detail see http://www.hfstephens-museum.org.uk/pages/topics/callington/callington .htm and http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/minor/ecmr.html