Cornwall Minerals Railway - Locomotives

Locomotives

The Cornwall Minerals Railway built St Blazey workshops to house and maintain its 18 locomotives. A roundhouse with nine roads was provided around a turntable, each of which could take a pair of locomotives which were designed to be operated as back-to-back pairs.

Numbered 1 to 18, the 0-6-0T locomotives were built by Sharp Stewart and Company. Four carried names:

• 1 Treffrey
• 2 Lord Robartes
• 5 Fowey
• 6 Newquay

The name Treffrey was incorrectly spelt, it should have been Treffry after the owner of the Newquay railway and Par Tramway.

In 1876 the locomotives were transferred to the Great Western Railway who took over the operation of the lines. They kept nine locomotives but sold the remaining locomotives to the Lynn and Fakenham Railway (Norfolk), and Colne Valley and Halstead Railway (Essex) as surplus to requirements. The retained locomotives were numbered 1392 to 1400 and rebuilt as 0-6-0STs, receiving many standardised fittings at the same time. The last one was withdrawn in 1936, but in 1910 five virtually identical locomotives, the GWR 1361 Class, had been built to work alongside them.

The Newquay and Cornwall Junction line was worked by broad gauge locomotives acquired from that railway's contractor. The Great Western Railway in 1876 decided not to use these and provided locomotives from their main fleet. A small shed at Burngullow housed the broad gauge locomotives.

An additional 0-6-0ST named Goonbarrow was obtained by the Cornwall Minerals Railway to operate its new branch in 1893. It was built by Peckett and Sons with 3 ft 7 in (1,090 mm) wheels and 14 in × 20 in (360 mm × 510 mm) cylinders. It became GWR 1388 in 1896 and was eventually sold to the Cwm Circ Colliery at Llanharan, Wales, 1911.