East Wheal Rose | |
Borough: | Cornwall |
Country: | England |
Coordinates: | 50.3623°N -5.041°W |
Elevation: | 43m (141feet) |
Platforms: | Single platform station |
Tracks: | 1 |
Map Name: | Cornwall |
East Wheal Rose railway station is a station on the Lappa Valley Steam Railway in Cornwall, England.[1]
In 1849 Joseph Treffry opened a tramway from the East Wheal Rose mine to Newquay. The loading sidings were the first East Wheal Rose station.
It became a railway in 1874 when the tramway was taken over by the Cornwall Minerals Railway and steam locomotives replaced the horse-drawn wagons. The Great Western Railway took over the line in 1896 and expanded it as a branch line in 1905 from Newquay to Chacewater servicing the resorts of Perranporth and St Agnes and ran it until nationalisation in 1948.
British Railways ran the line until 4 February 1963 when the last train ran before the Beeching axe fell.
Ten years later, in 1973, Eric Booth bought a section of the old railway line and laid a narrow gauge railway along a section of it. He built it up into a popular tourist attraction with a play area for children at the East Wheal Rose site. East Wheal Rose Station came into being in 1974. It has been upgraded on a couple of occasions during its history with a new station building and new paving being laid. In 2014, Lappa Valley was sold to Keith and Sara Southwell.[2]