Images Dated 2016 August

Mr A.W. Gills motor vehicle on a cart after being destroyed by fire. Liskey Hill, Perranporth, Cornwall. June 1906

On Sunday returning from Perranporth just as the car was negotiating Liskey Hill, there was a sudden jerk and then a continuance of motion as if everything was right. But almost immediately Mrs Gill saw flames coming through from the lower part of the car at the bottom of the steering gears. Mr and Mrs Gill and a man who accompanied them were out of the car in time to see the vehicle burst into flames. It was a complete wreck. The fire was apparently caused by a breakage of the supply pipe which caused the petroleum to leak onto the hot exhaust. The car is not covered by insurance. Referenced from the Royal Cornwall Gazette, 28th June 1906, page 8, column 2. Photographer: Arthur Philp

© From the collection of the RIC

Locomotive Smelter on the Redruth and Chacewater line, Cornwall. After 1854

Driver and fireman posing for the camera and a group of small children looking on from the vantage point of a high hedge in the background. Authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1824, the Redruth and Chacewater Railway opened on January 30th 1826, running from the Gwennap copper mines to the south coast port of Devoran, with a branch line to service the mines of Redruth. The 4ft gauge line carried minerals and goods only and generally worked profitably. It was worked by horses until 1854 when two tank locomotives, Miner and Smelter, were bought - the first steam locomotives in Cornwall. Eventually during the 1860s the two competing lines were joined to form a coast to coast railway line. The line closed in 1915. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC

Redruth Railway Station, Cornwall, 1st March 1867

This well known photograph depicts the first broad gauge passenger train to arrive at Redruth from the west on 1st March 1867. It also shows that the station has been extended towards the goods shed, revealed by the change in chimney brickwork colour. The corrugated iron roof covering to the station is shown clearly, whilst the goods shed was slate covered. It's sliding doors have been drawn across against the March cold. The locomotive is "Lance", which was one of the first contract engines built in October 1851 by Longridge and Company of Bedlington, to Gooch's "Corsair" design. Inside frames started behind the motion plate. The wheel base was 5'0"+5 1" + 7 8" giving a total of 17 9". The leading wheels were 3 6" diameter and the driving wheels 5 9". A relatively short tank of 800 gallons capacity rested on a boiler of 4 5" diameter with 220 tubes of 2" diameter. The engine was later destroyed in the collision occurring between Menheniot and St Germans early in the morning of 2nd December 1873 with the double headed goods drawn by 0-6-0STs "Brutus" and "Romulus". The authorisation "All right Dick" was given to the guard of a down train at Menheniot, but Lance`s guard was also called Dick and his train was started by mistake. The heavy down goods had already left St Germans and disaster was thus inevitable. The first passenger carriage is covered, whilst the second, just in view, is open to the elements. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC