Cornwall Railway - Income Creeps Up But Expenditure Accelerates

Income Creeps Up But Expenditure Accelerates

Some small improvement in the financial situation of the company took place over the ensuing years, but the timber viaducts had always been a liability due to their very high maintenance cost, costing about £10,000 annually. Replacement of some of them on the grounds of urgent technical need had started in 1871 and was continuing progressively; they were being built of a width suitable for a double narrow gauge line, although for the time being the line was a single broad gauge line.

The work was being ordered by the Joint Committee of Management, but in November 1883, the minority Cornwall Railway directors asserted themselves and pointed out that authorising such major works was a matter for the Board of Directors instead; and the original Cornwall Railway directors were a majority there. The impasse went to arbitration and the arbitrator ruled that under the terms of the lease, the railway was to be maintained as a broad gauge line. As the ultimate cessation of broad gauge operation was by now plain, this frustrated any practical progress on the reconstructions, and in fact no new viaduct reconstructions were started as long as the Cornwall company remained in existence.

In fact the separate existence of the company was nearing its end, and in 1888 ordinary shareholders accepted a cash purchase of their shares, and the Cornwall Railway Company was dissolved on 1st July 1889, the line passing fully into Great Western Railway ownership.