IN March residents will see the first passenger train for some time venturing along the scenic branch line from Lostwithiel to Fowey.

The journey along Cornwall’s ‘forgotten tracks’ on Saturday, March 12, is being run by the company UK RailTours and they have given the special excursion the name ‘The Tre Pol and Pen’, after an old rhyme about the Cornish language prefixes used in many place names throughout the county.

The train, which will be unusually starting from London Euston, will head into Cornwall over Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash before visiting two lines which lost their passenger traffic some time ago but owe their continued existence to china clay traffic.

The first will be the line from Lostwithiel to Carne Point, the china clay shipping terminal at Fowey, and the other will be from St Austell to Burngullow Junction and then Parkandillack.

The company says on its website that the special rail tour is already completely sold out.