What Three Words: ///funky.removing.doctor
OS Grid Reference: SX106597
The signal box is one of the few remaining parts of the original station buildings that served a busy passenger and goods line, a branch line, and industrial sidings
The mainline railway came to Lostwithiel in 1859, a mineral line to Fowey opened in 1869, and a passenger service to Fowey ran from 1895 to 1965. The opening of the Fowey line was associated with the construction of new station buildings, the installation of a footbridge, and the building of this signal box. A second signal box was in use from 1895 to 1923.
The Station platform in the 1930s
Passenger train for Fowey, 1958
The station yard in the 1960s
The original station buildings were demolished between 1976 and 1981, to be replaced by the existing buildings. The footbridge was removed in the 1960s and sent to a museum but was lost when the museum closed down. Removal of the footbridge left the town divided for much of the day, with pedestrians held up by the frequently closed level-crossing barriers. Following pressure from a local group headed by John Scott and Tim Hughes in 2014, Cornwall Council and a local MP obtained funding for a new footbridge. A temporary bridge was installed in 2024, pending the construction of the new one.
On the up-line approach to the level crossing are the remains of a cattle loading dock from which carcasses of beef from the nearby slaughterhouse could be loaded directly onto the London train. An additional siding allowed milk-tank wagons to be taken from the creamery (now part of the industrial estate). This remained in use until 1932, when milk transportation was transferred to road vehicles and the sidings were removed. On the opposite platform, on the down-line, is a single-track siding that is still used by the clay trains waiting for signals that will allow them onto the line to Fowey. The weed-covered area adjacent to the platform was originally extensive sidings used by the clay trains. The layout of the sidings can be seen in the map below.
The mineral line was built to take china clay down river to wooden jetties just north of Caffa Mill. Clay came from the pits in the St Austell china-clay district into large clay works at Par Harbour. Processed clay was taken to Lostwithiel for transfer onto the Fowey line. The complex signalling that this involved in order to keep the main line clear during shunting required the signalman to hand a physical token to the driver of the clay train. This continued until 2024.
Lostwithiel crossing signal box gained its Grade II Listing in 2013, for being one of the best-preserved and earliest known examples of a GWR Type 5 signal box, once a standard box on the GWR during the late nineteenth century The signal box opened in 1893 with just 35 levers, and gained its 63-lever frame in 1923. That frame gave the signal-box keeper control of 14 semaphore signals. The box was decommissioned in 2024 as part of the re-signalling of the main line from London. The semaphore signals were replaced by modern coloured-light signals, and the crossing gates are now operated through closed-circuit cameras by a controlling signalman in Exeter.
Inside Lostwithiel signal box when still in operation
To see a model railway layout of the station and town,