Looe Valley Railway Line

The line travels from Liskeard and drops down into the valley, just below Pencubitt, to Coombe Junction Halt.  The track runs alongside the East Looe River and the old Liskeard Looe Canal, starting through the heavily wooded valley which opens out as the river nears Looe and the open sea. Originally, this line ran from Moorswater to Looe carrying ore from the mines up on Caradon Hill.  The railway line replaced the old Liskeard Looe Canal and follows the same route.

The Looe Branch Line has its own station separate from the mainline station.   Trains start their journey by travelling North away from Looe. They swing round towards the south, descend gradients as steep as 1 in 40 to pass below the Liskeard Viaduct, swing back towards the north, and then to Coombe Junction, where the driver gets out to change the points for the remainder of their journey, in reverse, to Looe.  Next door is the Liskeard mainline station where most trains stop on their way West to Penzance and East to all points in Britain.  London is three and a half hours.

Coombe Junction Halt

Four times a day a small train calls at the least-used station in Britain. And every month or so, someone gets on. Coombe Junction Halt is a magical place, where the loudest sounds are a rushing river and birdsong. Part of the platform has crumbled away, and in one direction rusting rails vanish into the undergrowth. A smart chocolate-and-cream- painted shelter offers protection to passengers, if any choose to come.  A 5 minute walk down the hill from Pencubitt and a 15 minute walk back up!

St Keyne Wishing Well Halt

Alight here for Paul Corins Magnificent Music Machines, For over 40 years the most unusual and entertaining place in Cornwall. Nostalgic sounds from the first half of the twentieth century.  The Polyphon, phonographs, player pianos and the sound of the silent film, the Mighty 1929 Wurlitzer organ is from the Regent Theatre Brighton.  The famous well of St. Keyne is located a few minutes walk uphill from the Looe Valley Line.  Robert Southey (1774-1843) wrote "The Well of St. Keyne" A story of set five hundred years before the Norman Conquest.  St. Keyne was a woman who spent her life performing good deeds in the West Country, and as she was dying, she imparted strange powers into the water of the well. 'Whichever of a married couple should drink of them first, he or she would have the mastery in their wedded life'.  The Victorians adored romantic nonsense, so St. Keynes Well was most popular during this period. Newly wed beauties would leap from the train, and run up the steep hill, in a desperate race with their husbands, to gain supremacy of the household.

Causeland Station is close to Duloe with its splendid 13th Century church and its ancient stone circle. There is the Olde Plough House Inn and Cornish Orchards Cider Farm.  The station is haunted by a Phantom Bride. The unfortunate young bride, fell from the train at St. Keyne while clambering to be the first from the train and broke her neck. The figure of a woman, dressed in a white dress, has been seen walking the train tracks, between St.Keyne and Causeland.

Sandplace takes its name from an ancient agricultural practice. Until 200 years ago sea-sand was spread onto the fields as a type of fertiliser and it is here that the sand was unloaded from the barges as they came upstream.  Here you will find the Polraen Country House Hotel and the point where the old canal meets the river.

The historic twin towns of East and West Looe provide safe beaches, quality accommodation, a wide choice of restaurants, excellent walking routes, fishing trips, diving, etc, etc.  It is more than a century ago now that people first started to discover the charms of East and West Looe, then just small fishing communities hidden away in the picturesque river valley. Those early visitors came to spend time on the beach, to go fishing or to go rambling in the surrounding countryside. Today visitors still return year after year because it continues to offer those same pleasures and that something special for visitors of all ages. 

September 2010 also marks the 175th anniversary of the Great Western Railway and to mark this and the Looe Valley Line’s 150th, First Great Western and Vintage Trains linked up to bring steam back to the Looe Valley Line for the first time in nearly 50 years! Four trains ran from Liskeard to Looe and back on a Sunday, steam one way, diesel the other.