The Looe Valley Line - Moorswater Section and Viaduct

Photographs taken 2010 and 2016

The Liskeard and Looe Railway originally went to Moorswater, and joined with the Liskeard & Caradon Railway, for the transportation of granite and copper down from the quarries and mines on Bodmin Moor. The link up to Liskeard Main Line and the rest of the rail network was completed in 1901, with the junction at Coombe. When the L&CR was closed, the line up to Moorswater remained and became a mineral line serving the new China Clay dries that were supplied with china clay in slurry form gravity-fed down from the clay pits on Bodmin Moor, for processing in the dries before onward transportation in powder form by rail. The china clay dries closed in the 1990s, and a cement depot took its place, with occasional mineral trains only.

The old mineral line is the continuation of the line past Coombe Junction Halt

The old mineral line looking up towards Moorswater Viaduct and the old Moorswater China Clay Dries

The Moorswater Viaduct carrying the main line to Penzance
(the mineral line passes under this behind the tree line and river)

View of the Moorswater Viaduct from the north side. The mineral line runs under to the right of the photo.

Moorswater Viaduct - old and new. The old viaduct was built originally in 1867 and had a wooden structure atop,
and was replaced with the new viaduct in 1881 with stone and cast iron parapets.

Moorswater Viaduct

The old viaduct piers, now listed, are almost like an old cathedral

Six of the old piers still stand

The entrance to the old Moorswater China Clay Dries, now converted to a Cement Works

Into the Moorswater Cement Works

Back to the Top