Burngullow railway station
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The Cornwall Railway found there was a demand for a siding to load china clay in the St Stephens district west of St Austell in Cornwall. They opened Burngullow station on 1 February 1863. The construction costs were largely met by Mr Robartes, who had interests in the extraction of the china clay.
A branch line to Nanpean was opened for goods traffic by the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway on 1 July 1869. A small engine shed was built by them on the north side of the station, this closed in 1922.
The Cornwall Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on 1 July 1889.
The station was closed and rebuilt a little further west on 1 August 1901, but closed to passengers on 14 September 1931. The sidings and branch continue to handle heavy china clay traffic.
The large drier and storage sheds alongside the main line are the Blackpool clay works, Burngullow clay works are smaller and situated alongside the branch line a short distance from the junction.
[edit] Accidents
Two railway accidents happened here, both involving runaway china clay trains. On the first occasion a train that had left Burngullow with wagons for Par harbour on 29 October 1872. It was unable to stop for signals at St Austell but the driver passenger train coming in the other direction saw the train sliding towards it and reversed his train back to Par.
On 9 June 1952 a similar problem occurred with a train on the branch line approaching Burngullow. This time the train ran into a siding where it collided with a stationary engine. Unfortunately the driver of the runaway train, who had stayed at the controls in an attempt to bring it to a halt, later died from his injuries.
[edit] References
- The records of the Cornwall Railway can be consulted at The National Archives at Kew.
- The Great Western Railway in Mid Cornwall, Alan Bennett, Kingfisher Railway Publications, Southampton 1988. ISBN 0-946184-53-4
