This is the foot of the ECMR''s incline up to Kit Hill Quarry. In January 1976, the ''private siding'' gate across it, installed by the Southern Railway, was still in place, just over a decade after the closure of the Callington Branch section from Gunnislake to Callington, and around 20 years after the lifting of the incline itself. With the conversion of the ECMR to standard gauge, and with the introduction of both passenger and freight services through to Bere Alston, transhipment of finished and rough granite was necessary at the foot of the incline. As an interim arrangement, the 3''6" incline track curved sharply to the east at its foot and ran parallel to the PDSWJR line and a standard gauge siding. A wooden crane transferred loads from narrow to standard gauge open wagons for onward transport: in the early to mid-1960s occasional specimens of shaped granite could still be found here in the undergrowth. With the conversion of the Incline and its quarry sidings to standard gauge, the SR - as successors of the PDSWJR and LSWR - reconstructed the Incline foot to provide very substantial runaway protection. Loaded and empty standard 10t wagons could then directly serve the quarry and its access siding at the Incline foot; the appropriate key to the local lever frame was added to the Callington-Gunnislake section staff as required (as far as I can recall).
This photograph is by Alec and was uploaded April 2nd 2018. © Alec please do not copy or distribute without prior express permission.
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