Jules's Bits in Cornwall page 2
Now we left off at Mevagissey on the south coast of Cornwall so we start the second page at Padstow on the banks of the River Camel estuary in North Cornwall.
We scoffed a rather nice meal 'alfresco' style at Padstow and the pictures below show both that and a rather nice shot of Padstow Harbour at night
As can be seen from the photo below:-
My beer lifting practise was coming along nicely. We had a lovely view from our 'alfresco' table......
The two pictures below were a bit of an experiment really. It seems to have paid off, two night shots of Padstow harbour
From Padstow we returned to our B&B ready to tackle phase 2 of the holiday which was a cottage in the centre of St Ives. thanks to Aidan's Mum!!
Part 2.....St Ives
Hurrah for Tom Tidlers!!
Tom Tidlers is the name of the cottage I am writing this web page from, right in the heart of St Ives
This is a shot of St Ives taken from the window of a train :-
A shot unlike any of the postcards you will see of it!! and this is Carbis Bay, again taken from the same train!
OK so we haven't had a transport picture lately so here are some Cornish train pics....
During the summer months there are sufficient passenger numbers to warrant the use of two class 150's on the St Erth-St Ives branch and I took a journey one day to sample the magnificent views across St Ives Bay towards Gwithian & Godrevy Island
The two units used on the line are 150 243 & 150 233. the first picture shows the latter unit arriving at Penzance from St Ives and the next picture shows 150 243 having arrived from Penzance as the 14.40 (which departed at 15.00!! no wonder no one likes to rely on trains as a reliable form of transport!!).
Most St Ives Trains run between St Erth and St Ives with a few services going on into Penzance (as did the one I caught!)
St Erth is a delightful little typical GWR through station with a separate Branch line bay set slightly lower than the main line platforms. Still signalled by GWR Lower quadrant semaphore signals one could easily imagine that the next train to roll in would be a Castle or a Hall with a rake of Chocolate & Cream coaches behind it. Mmmm ......dream on , the diet of the day was a rather tatty duo of class 158's one on it's way to Cardiff via every telegraph pole ( well the station announcer was still announcing all the string of stations it was due to stop at as it pulled out!). The other even tattier one was coming from Cardiff presumably having stopped at the same telegraph poles!!. Pictures below..........
Along the line between St Erth and Penzance there used to be a station at Marazion. More or less where the station stood have also stood for many many, years some old Pullman coaches which were originally used as camping coaches. Over the years these old Pullmans have stood and are now completely derelict. Sadly there now only seems to be two of these Pullmans left, one having been burnt out where it stands. The sad remains of the underframe and bogies just rotting where they stand. One of the Pullmans is a rather elegant six- wheeler, wouldn't it be nice to see these restored & running again. one wonders why they haven't..
Come on someone..... we shouldn't let these rot away really should we!
Back to the scenery now, here are a few shots to end Jules's bits in Cornwall pages.
St Ives harbour at dusk Porthleven Harbour entrance with dramatic skyline
St Ives taken from the garden of "Tom Tidlers" and another dusk view of the harbour
that's all for Jules's bits in Cornwall
Hope you enjoyed it