TO MARK the 50 year anniversary of the closure of the North Cornwall Railway, Launceston Steam Railway enthusiast, Jonathan Mann, took an experimental diesel railcar for a trial run to Newmills and back recently.

The last train of the railway ran on Saturday, October 1, 1966, but despite being unable to do the trial run on the same day 50 years on, took it for a spin on Monday, October 3.

Mr Mann said: “At the moment there is no bodywork on the 2016 railcar (the railway are working on this) hence its unusual appearance, but it seemed appropriate to mark the anniversary. For the occasion I fitted an ex BR diesel horn, so once again the same sound was heard in the valley as was heard 50 years ago.

“What would we give for the transport corridor now, when the roads are so much more congested? A huge area of North Cornwall lost easy access to the railway network, and with so much of the land at key points having been sold off and developed, this is really lost forever.”