Hayle Railway

In the early years of the 19th century, mineral extraction and smelting was a dynamic industry in West Cornwall, and the port of Hayle was well established. However the transport of heavy materials over imperfect unmade roads was a severe limitation. When the Redruth and Chasewater Railway was opened in 1826 (as a horse-drawn railway), it was immediately successful operationally and financially. This encouraged owners of mines and works not served by that line to promote a railway from Tresavean to Hayle, serving numerous other mines in between. Accordingly, the Hayle Railway Company was incorporated by act of Parliament, the Hayle Railway Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. lxviii), on 27 June 1834; the company was to have headquarters in London, and a share capital of £64,000, with authority to borrow £16,000 in debenture. A branch to Helston was included, but this was dropped in a second act of Parliament, the Hayle Railway Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. cx), of 4 July 1836.

Construction proceeded well, except for the provision of a drawbridge at the western end of the line. (Presumably this was the bridge at the sluice at the mouth of Copperhouse Pool.) In 1837 the company proposed to open all of its line east of the bridge, which would have connected all the mines to the harbour, but would have left the foundry owned by Henry Harvey, located immediately to the west, disconnected. Harvey was concerned that this temporary arrangement would disadvantage him competitively, and he drew attention to a clause in the authorising Act requiring that "the line should be completed before opening". His objection motivated the directors of the company, and the drawbridge was speedily completed.

The line was therefore opened from Hayle foundry to Pool and Portreath on 23 December 1837. The continuation to Redruth was formally opened on 31 May 1838, and fully opened to the public on 11 June 1838. The Tresavean line opened on 23 June 1838.

The network therefore consisted of:

Hayle to Redruth Junction: 9 mi 30 ch

Redruth Junction to Redruth: 14 ch

Redruth Junction to Tresavean: 2 mi 55 ch

Portreath branch: 3 mi 6 ch

Operations

Little is known of the operation of the line, except the mechanics of the inclines.

There were no fixed signals, and trains were despatched under the time interval system. [In the absence of telegraph communication, collisions were intended to be avoided by holding trains back until a specified time interval had elapsed since the departure of the previous train.]

Passenger business

The railway was built as a mineral line, and the terminals were simply siding groups at the mines, with an extensive siding layout at Hayle serving wharves there, and Harvey's foundry and engineering works, and wharf sidings at Portreath. At other locations siding connections were made to the railway to serve mines and factories.

There was considerable demand for the conveyance of passengers. A steam packet service had been introduced in 1831 between Hayle and Bristol, and from 1841 it was possible to continue to London by the Great Western Railway. The Hayle company's Act authorised the conveyance of passengers, although this was not considered important at first, but in 1843 a passenger service was initiated between Hayle and Redruth, starting on 22 May 1843. There may have been unofficial usage of the mineral trains by passengers before that date.

Accidents

The trains were mixed mineral and passenger, and the practice approaching Hayle was to uncouple the passenger portion while the train was in motion, allowing the passenger coaches to coast to the passenger station. This led to an accident on 1 September 1843, reported in The West Briton newspaper a week later:

"On Friday afternoon last, as the second afternoon down train from Redruth, laden with ore and passengers, reached the branch line which leads to the north quays of Messrs. SANDYS, CARNE, and VIVIAN, Hayle, a tremendous crash took place. The rail at that part of the line being under alteration, the sleepers were bared, and the rail temporarily laid on them. Before the train arrived at the branch line, the passenger carriages were, as usual, cast off for the terminus, and following the train by the given impetus. The engine proceeded on with the rest of the train to the diverging line, and when it reached the place under alteration, the rail slipped off the sleepers, and the foremost carriage was thrown off, turned upside down, and dashed to atoms. The second carriage was piled on the first and destroyed, and the third on the second. The fourth was brought up by the third, and the rest of the train by the large granite sleepers, the whole having been forced off the rail. By that time the passenger carriages ran on and were brought up against the engine. We rejoice to state that only a few persons were slightly bruised and frightened. When the train reached that place, some one of the train generally runs forward on the carriages to the foremost carriage. Fortunately, in this instance, he had only got so far as the last but one; when he was hurled on the cliff uninjured. Had he been in the foremost carriage, he would have been crushed to death. If some one had dragged the passenger carriages, that collision might have been prevented. Each carriage contained three and a half tons of ore, and although no ore was lost (being in sacks), the damage is estimated at L100."

Anthony records that an accident took place on Whit Monday 1844. A train was conveying passengers from Hayle to Redruth for a religious service at Gwennap Pit. "It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when the engine and the first three coaches of the train were successfully hauled to the top of the Angarrack incline. When the second part of the train was about half way up, the wire rope broke, and to the horror of the unfortunate passengers, the trucks began to run back, slowly at first, and then increasing to an alarming speed. A number of passengers jumped out and were injured, but those who stayed on board, ended up, shaken but safe, back at Hayle."

A similar accident took place in 1846, when a coupling broke on a heavily loaded passenger train. A six wagon passenger train was ascending the incline, although normal practice was to limit these "trains" to four. The incline was operated on the counterbalance principle, and when the counterbalance reached the lower end of its travel, not all of the long train was safely above the summit. A secondary stationary steam engine was put in gear to assist the completion of the ascent, and in doing so there was a sudden jerk, causing the couplings behind the second wagon to break. Four carriages with 130 people on board ran away down the incline; several persons jumped off and two were seriously injured, but the runaway vehicles came to a stand at Hayle bridge, about two miles away.