CLASS 153 TO GUNNISLAKE
The service
Plymouth to Gunnislake is a modern one-coach train service over a route which was once partly GWR and Southern Railway main lines and a Colonel Stephens light railway. The Beeching Report sought to close the Bere Alston-callington branch line, but it was decided that the line must remain open as far as Gunnislake in order to retain the crossing of the River Tamar at Calstock. Bridges over the Tamar were (and are) few and far between. The section beyond Gunnislake, to Callington, was abandoned and a new station was built at Gunnislake in order to eliminate a low road bridge. Thus, the Gunnislake branch follows the twisting route of the Plymouth Devonport & South Western Railway to Bere Alston, where it joins the stub of the former SR main line, and trains reverse to run over the SR line to St Budeaux and join the GWR main line into Plymouth. Original stations survive at Bere Alston and Bere Ferrers, the latter as a railway museum, while Calstock and Gunnislake are modern halts.
The trains
Initially worked by two-car Class 118s (with centre car removed) or 108 DMUS, in the 1980s Class 142 ‘Skippers’ were tried on the line but the rigid four-wheelers did not cope well with the sharp curves. Later Class 153 single-cars were introduced and, though longer than the ‘Skippers’, they cope better with the curves.
The models
Hornby produces a very nice Class 153 in ‘OO’ and has offered it in Wessex Trains and First Great Western liveries suitable for the branch (though, sadly, not yet the ‘Local Lines’ livery). Heljan’s Tackley Halt kit contains a waiting shelter similar to that at Gunnislake.
Best atmosphere
Calstock station is now in its third incarnation with a smart little FGW brick-built shelter. A great setting on the edge of the viaduct and still showing some evidence of its origins.
Present status
Operational. Bere Alston and Bere Ferrers station buildings are in private ownership, the rest are modern unstaffed halts.