The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway, by W N Prior, from 1971

The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 23rd May 1832, having Sir William Molesworth, of Pencarrow, as the principal promoter and many local supporters who found the necessary capital, about £23,000. Nearly all early railways were built to connect inland towns with their nearest port or navigable river, but the Bodmin and Wadebridge was connected for the purpose of conveying sea sand to the inland agricultural areas and coal for the mines and domestic hearths. Other traffic soon developed, however, coal for Bodmin and Wadebridge gasworks, corn, granite from quarries along the line and De Lank, near St Breward, minerals and timber. A regular passenger coach was run between Wadebridge and Bodmin only. 

The main line of the railway was from the original terminus at Wadebridge, close to where the West signal box now stands by the level crossing, to Wenford Bridge, a distance of 12 miles. Two branches, from Grogley to Ruthern Bridge (1¼ miles) and Dunmere to Bodmin (1½ miles) completed the system of 14¾ miles. Opening took place in 1834, from Wadebridge to Dunmere and the Bodmin branch on 4th July; Dunmere to Wenford Bridge (the main line) and the Ruthern Bridge branch on 30th September when the full opening of the railway was celebrated in style with flags flying and bands playing. 

The Bodmin and Wadebridge was the first public railway south of a line from Liverpool to The Wash to be worked wholly by steam locomotives from its opening; horses and oxen teams were only used by the Company in emergency to cover breakdowns, etc., but private traders might haul their own traffic with animal power by special arrangement, a common practice on smaller railways in early days. It should be pointed out that the Bodmin and Wadebridge was a pioneer undertaking, having been opened three years before the first main line in the country, from Birmingham to Liverpool and Manchester, and four years before the first main line out of London was opened, to Birmingham in 1838. Nevertheless, it was a solidly built, well run and efficient undertaking. 

On Tuesday 14th June 1836, "Camel" and "Elephant" headed two excursion trains from Wadebridge to Wenford Bridge and back, 24 miles. These, the first known cheap public excursion trains in the country, conveyed 800 passengers at one shilling each. Thus, unknowingly, did the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway make history. In this they anticipated Thomas Cook's famous Leicester to Loughborough excursion by four years. Although special trains chartered by private organizations have been run to Wenford Bridge and back on several occasions since 1946, the excursions on 11th June and 14th June 1966 are the first public trains over the line for at least 80 years. The trains on the 14th June are to mark the 130th Anniversary of the first known cheap public excursion trains in the country and afford a unique opportunity to see the beautiful wooded Camel Valley at its best, a piece of superb but little known Cornish inland scenery, of which only a small part can be seen from the roads which cross it. 

Passengers were an inconsiderable item, in 1838 only 3274 were carried, bringing in £88. Despite this, the Company certainly exhibited some business acumen in attempting to attract passenger traffic. Those returning the same day were carried at half the ordinary fare, a very early example of cheap ticket facilities. A rather macabre event was the running of two excursions from Wadebridge to Bodmin on 13th April 1840 to witness the hanging of William and James Lightfoot outside Bodmin gaol. The railway passed close to the prison walls and some passengers were able to watch the event from their seats. This particular occasion was of special interest to Wadebridge people because the murdered man was well known in the town. Public hangings were abolished in 1868 

Although the Bodmin and Wadebridge had been taken over by the London and South Western Railway in 1846, strictly an illegal acquisition, but of some historical interest, the local independent management continued until 1886, when the purchase was regularised by Parliament. One result of this change was the introduction of several small London & South Western locomotives to replace the little company's "Bodmin". These included the famous 2-4-0 tank engines designed by Joseph Beattie and built in 1874-5. Three of this class finished their long lives on the Wenford Bridge line in 1962; since 1964 this section has been worked by diesel power. The Bodmin & Wadebridge was physically isolated from other railways until the Great Western Railway branch from Bodmin Road connected with it at Boscame Junction on 3rd September 1888; the North Cornwall line from Halwill reached Wadebridge on 1st June 1895 and was extended to Padstow on 27th March 1899. Apart from the Ruthern Bridge branch, closed at the end of 1933, the whole of the original Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway is still in use, though some very sharp curves have been cut out by construction of short sections of new line just West of Grogley Halt and on the Bodmin branch.