The Great Transformation – Cornwall’s Revolution On The Rails (Cornwall Chronicles #22b)

The Great Western Railway, need I say more? It is hard to go wrong with a name like that. One look at the name and I could sense the pretensions to greatness. For rail enthusiasts, the name resonates with a bygone era of travel where an everyday drama unfolded with each ride along the rails. Imagine the thrill of those who had previously gone no faster than the speed at which they walked. Now they could sit in comfort while traveling at an astonishing rate of speed to destinations both near and far, many of which they could never have imagined visiting before the advent of railway travel.

Come Together - Revolution By Railway

The history of the Great Western Railway and its predecessors in Cornwall that created the current line is a story of connections. These connections go much further than the usual ones for points of arrival and departure. That is because the railway connected urban and rural environments, cities and seaside, tourists to natural and cultural wonders, economic hinterlands to population centers, provincials and urbanites, the simplistic and sophisticated. These connections were transformative in the extreme. The far-flung frontiers of Britain were now accessible in a day or less. A revolution rode in on steel wheels. For those who lived in Cornwall, the railway transformed travel patterns and the way of life. The county had always been one of the remotest in Britain, difficult to access or find on a map. Tucked away in the far southwest corn of Britain, relatively few outsiders crossed over the River Tamar, the natural boundary that had separated Cornwall from England for centuries.

In the mid-19th century, everything began to change when the railway bridged the Tamar and penetrated deep into Cornwall. This was one of the great turning points in the history of Cornwall. To the masses, Cornwall was terra incognito before the railway reached it. The reverse was also true. Very few of Cornwall’s inhabitants had been to London or any neighboring counties prior to the railway. That would change dramatically. The making of modern Cornwall was a byproduct of railways. The first of these was an internal one. The Hayle Railway opened in 1837 for the transport of copper and tin ore from the mines in West Cornwall to ports on the coast. The impetus for construction of a railway line that would lead to and from Cornwall began due to fears that Falmouth would lose the lucrative packet traffic. This was due to the rise of Southampton which became the main port for packet traffic when the London and Southampton Railway was constructed. That traffic would never come back to Falmouth, but the initial fear that it could be lost did spur construction of the Cornwall Railway from Plymouth to Truro.

Going Further - Down The Line

Due to issues with funding and the difficult terrain the line had to traverse, the Cornwall Railway was not completed until 1859. A year later it linked up with the West Cornwall Railway which already ran between Truro and Penzance. Both railways were later bought by The Great Western Railway. This was the same railway I used for travel to and from Truro. During my travels around Cornwall, I would manage to cover every inch of what was once known as the Cornish Main Line. Then, as now, it travels through all the most important economic centers in Cornwall. That is not surprising, since much of Cornwall’s economy became centered around the railway. Mining products and agricultural produce were shipped out and tourists began to pour in. The revolutionary effect of the railways on Cornwall was similar to how the Interstate Highway System reconfigured the economy and society of post-World War II America. Innovations in transport created the Cornwall that exists today.

Overland rail journeys across Cornwall moved at light speed compared to earlier ones by wagon on rough roads. The railway was also a better option for those who previously traveled around Britain’s coastal fringes by ship. Railways were less dangerous and more predictable than sailing along the treacherous coastline of Cornwall. Train travel was rarely at the whim of weather, a great advantage in a region where storms can be ferocious. Railways conquered space and time in the most straightforward and expedient fashion. Cornwall was no longer a remote land, isolated from the rest of Britain. It became a fashionable destination open to the wider world. That is still true today. While more travelers now come by car to Cornwall than by train, the rails were where the county’s popularity exploded. It has never really ebbed since that time. Visitation to Cornwall is like the population, it just keeps growing.

Passionate Excesses – The Romantically Inclined

Mass tourism is a modern phenomenon. This tends to obscure the fact that it is also a historical one. The Great Western Railway is part of the past, present and future of Cornwall. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, the county is wedded to the line. Losing it would be akin to losing a limb. The Great Western Railway for Cornwall and its inhabitants is the first love they can never let go. The same is true for rail enthusiasts who realize the transformative effect it had on travel and travelers to the county. Comfort, adventure, elegance, discovery, all these things were available to great masses of travelers on long distance journeys for the first time when they started riding the rails into Cornwall. It was a novelty that would soon come to be seen as a necessity.

Holidays became a rite of passage. That idea still exists today, a legacy bequeathed to the British by the Great Western Railway and hundreds of other lines just like it. Is it any wonder that Britain is still filled with railway enthusiasts despite the current desultory state of the system? Trains and railways are to Britain, what cars and highways are to the United States. They are modes and methods of transport that a large section of the populace believes they cannot do without. This is not only to get to and from work, but to relive the romance of the rails. That romance still exists, even if in degraded form. I felt it on my journey from London Paddington to Truro.