Atlantic Conveyor

Godolphin Atlantic v St Austell

This weekend is the last of the summer rail timetable, with additional services to exotic holiday destinations. One such beneficiary is Newquay, where its usual six a day, single coach branch shuttles are swapped for through services from Paddington, Manchester and, for the masochists, Dundee. The 0458 Swansea – Paddington was had from Swindon to Reading, for the first London – Newquay of the day.

Joining me for a rare outing was my dad. For reasons unexplained he has recently taken an interest in white horses; not the actual ones, but the ones carved into hillsides. He has a book detailing their location and history, with the railway to the West of England giving prime viewing to five of them. This was my favourite at Westbury.

The famous stretch of line on the route is after Exeter where it runs along the waterfront, first of all the Exe estuary……

….looking across to Exmouth……

…..then the recently re-built sea wall at Dawlish and Teignmouth…

…..and down the Teign estuary.

Around Ivybridge the line skirts the south fringes of Dartmoor.

Before the shipwrecks of the Plym estuary.



On the other side of Plymouth, the naval yards of Devonport.

Before the dramatic crossing of the Tamar on the famous Royal Albert Bridge…

…..into Cornwall.

Just to confirm that.

Cornwall has the most viaducts per mile of railway of any English county, mostly over quaint inlets.

At textbook country junction station of Par, we head off the main line onto the Newquay branch, my dad informing me the last time he had used the station was in the 1940s.

Immediately passing Blaize Park, home of St Blazey FC, who, having gained sponsorship from the Eden Project, were previously dominant in Cornish football. My dad looks on whistfully, perhaps having an inkling of what Newquay might offer.

After an hour long 20 mph stagger along the branch, we arrived in Newquay with its trademark palm trees…

…..although the buildings must challenge for the ugliest station in Britain?

The main town sits high above the beach…

….with some dramatic structures…

….and some not so dramatic.

This pretty much set the scene for the town, consisting of fun pubs/sports bars, tattoo shops and e-cigarette shops. It’s like a theme park for stag do’s. The fixed wheel bike has been replaced by the hula hoop in the play thing for surfers-who-don’t-actually-go-surfing.

Only one guide pub, which was one of the three Whetherspoons…

….for a Cornish ale brewed in Cornwall, not Staffordshire like Doombar.

Next on the seaside tick list, some scenic fish and chips.

It was time to head to the football, with some novel advertising on one of the beaches…

…and then a very Father Ted-esque desolate crazy golf course…

…before the floodlights were viewed through an abandoned fun pub

Eventually we reached our destination.

Ground is located just off it’s namesake road opposite the pub.

Godolphin Atlantic 0 v St Austell 0, Carlsberg South West Peninsula League Premier Division

Godolphin Alantic were formed in 1980 as a pub team, playing in the Duchy League.  Steady progression took them to the premier division in the mid 1990s.  They were runners up in 2005, which saw promotion to the East Cornwall League, where another runners-up spot in 2008 gained promotion the South West Peninsula League.  They won Division 1 West in 2013, securing promotion to the Premier Division, where they join their local rivals Newquay.

St Austell were formed in 1890, joining senior non-league in 1951 when they were founding members of the South Western League, eventually winning it in 1969.   They have remained at that level since, though the league has become the South West Peninsula and the club AFC St Austell. 

Into the ground….

…with the main signage tucked away in the corner of the car park.

The ground is hemmed in very tightly on all sides by houses, and was previously just a pitch and basic changing rooms.

The only cover used to be an extension from the changing rooms…

….but a rather unusual stand has now been built, named after a couple who set up the club and who’s sons were playing in the game.

It is a very unusual construction, a metal work frame shrouded by an air raid shelter. Still, makes a welcome change from the usual Atcost offering.

Also new were dugouts with those posh bucket seats…

….but rather than being padded, Audi sponsored leather Recarro’s, these were solid plastic.

Befitting the rather modest ground, was an equally modest collection of agricultural junk.

A very reasonable refreshment van seemed an odd location for advertising horse stables.

Non-league football brings non-league sponsored car deals.

Godolphin have the rather strange nickname of the ‘G-Army’ which appeared in various location around the ground.

Proof that spell checking won’t always help with correct signage. Note the ball mark above the sign, just to make the point.

The far end of the ground looks out over the Atlantic. I am glad I was here in late summer and not February.

A new thing for this season is the warm up being so noisy, that on getting near to the ground, you think the game has already started. Godolphin had an extravagant array of cones, but still it consisted of lethargic kicks between bored players chatting about cars.

Another thing for this season is over choreographed pre-match hand-shakes.

And to the game. With sponsorship from the adjacent brewery (notice a theme here) St Austell won the league last season and got to the semi-finals of the FA Vase. They appear to have a different sponsor and team this year, being 5th, one place above Godolphin. Due to having no clubhouse, I watched all 90 minutes, but can’t really remember any of it. There was some crossing…

….some pointing….

….some running up the steep slope to the corner…

….a corner…

….from which two players collided, and the Godolphin attacker demanded a penalty and the referee needed to ‘toughen up’…

….which he did by promptly booking him.

This was the closest we got to a goal, a deflected shot which went just wide. A fairly entertaining game finished 0-0 but with only two shots on target.

So back to the station…

…. for the last London service for 8 months. The HSTs run none stop on the branch, through the bucolically named stations of Quintrell Downs, St Columb, Roche, Bugle and Luxulyan.

However, at Goonbarrow we were brought to a halt by the semaphore signalling….

…. As we had to cross the 0632 Dundee – Newquay at the passing loop, which exposes the archaic operations in the West.

The signaller takes the single line tokens off each of the drivers, exchanging them over…

…before heading back to the box…

…to insert them into the token machines, which unlocks the lever frame to change the points and signals for both trains to proceed. Good use for two 125mph trains.

Carrying on, the sun was setting over the China clay slag heaps, a scene which could only be bettered…

….if a mobile home park appeared.

By now the sun was setting as we crossed Tregoss Moor.

With the last rays nicely illuminating the rail and road crossings back into Devon and on to civilisation.