Kingswood Helston Railway
We are heading further afield today and we are sent by the sat nav along some pretty narrow roads, once we turn off the A30, to find the Helston Railway which (at least on the route we used) has zero brown signs and indeed I drove past the entrance as the placards are not that obvious. As we perambulated through the countryside we passed a horse being ridden and accompanied by a cyclist and another man walking a tiny pony (or possibly just a very large dog – but I am told it was a pony). The car park is approached through a farm and it is not direct access to the railway.
The Helston Railway is the heritage line sited furthest west in the country. They have now preserved a section of line about 1 1/4 mile long between Prospidnick and Truthall Halt. The latter is an exact replica of the original. There have been various calls for further extension but these seem unlikely at present – possibly to a new terminus closer to Helston but this requires a large viaduct to be restored – some clearance of the track bed has been undertaken.
Our transport has a diesel engine at the Prospidnick end of two coaches with a driver position at the front of a former DMU vehicle at the Truthall Halt end of the train. There is a coach for buying tickets and a buffet car sitting on a length of track and then one takes a path alongside the track to the platform which is the other side of a viaduct. The locomotive “Kingswood” is an Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 which is all the two coaches need.
The journey takes about 10 minutes, then 15 minutes to change ends (and we change coach) and then ten minutes or so back. All of the volunteers around are very friendly and there are a few other passengers this morning – although not a large number. Operations are on a limited number of days so we are lucky to have included a bank holiday Monday in our week away to permit travel.
We then head onwards to Marazion – eventually finding a more major road having wended our way around some more narrow back lanes. At Marazion we park in the long stay car park but finding signs to the boats to St Michael’s Mount and the promised guides proves a real challenge. If you say you will have friendly guides to show people the way then please provide them!
St Michael’s Mount 5.5.25
St Michael’s Mount is linked to the main land via a causeway which today is underwater and so a boat journey is needed. Decent sized boats and here again I feel the online advice is far from accurate. Much is made of booking a specific time and being there significantly in advance of the stated time. Which would be good if people knew where to go, how far the long term parking is from the boat ferries and the need to find the information booth first. Then as far as I could tell absolutely no-one was interested in the time we had actually booked, despite all the online warnings (and I assume a bank holiday Monday is one of the busier days!).
Once on the island I head over to the gardens first – which are up and down a lot of steps on the side of the rock which supports the castle at the top of the mount. Like Stourhead there is some decent colour and I take many photos as I slowly climb up and down. At various points I let other people overtake me as they are moving more speedily.
The climb to the castle is also pretty hard – no easy routes for those less able here – and the stones are far from even, although unlike the Giant’s Causeway they are all dry so not a slip hazard here. I make it to the castle and take quite a few photos again before steadily descending.
We have booked an afternoon cream tea in the Harbour Loft and apart from slightly dry scones it was nice to have some decent sustenance after the heights scaled and then returned from so far today. I had decided to wear my heavy coat – who knows what the weather is going to be like so with the sun out it is warm but there is also a breeze today so I preferred having the cost as I might have been cold without it.
We rejoin the A30 just outside Penzance and head back to St Piran. For the first time we have covered the current A30 all of which is dual carriageway until it reaches the developed areas outside Penzance – and certainly the road seems to flow really well most of the time. There are some traffic lights on the initial road out of Penzance which delay our departure but the rest of the way is good – although the satnav is unaware of the recent extension to the dual carriageway and from time to time show that we are “Offroad” even though we are very definitely on the recently opened sections of the A30!