Cornish Railway to Hold First Diesel Heritage Event Since 2019

The Bodmin & Wenford Railway is going to be holding a unique Gronk shunter day on 30 April.

The Bodmin & Wenford Railway is going to be holding a unique Gronk shunter day on 30 April.

Whilst primarily known for it’s steam locomotives, the railway also has a proud diesel heritage. To help celebrate this, it is putting on a Gronk shunter day.

Unusually for the railway, it currently has two Class 08 shunters in residency. It’s resident Class 08; 08444 and visiting 08; 08359. This will be the last time to see the 08444 in service before it goes in for overhaul and the 08359 takes over shunting duties.

On the left is resident 08; 08444 and on the right is visiting 08; 08359.

Credit to: Will Dingle

Services will be running to the standard blue timetable. There will be a mixture of double heading, top and tailing and single runs, providing a unique opportunity to see the locos hauling the trains before 08444 is withdrawn.

Malcolm Young, from the Bodmin Diesel Group said “The Class 08s are the work horses of the railways and were primarily used here to haul china clay rakes from the drys at Wenford. It has been over ten years since we last had the opportunity to run this type of an event,”

Visitors can purchase all day rover tickets, allowing them to pay once and travel as much as they like during the day. Tickets can either be bought online in advance or on the day. Passengers can join at either Bodmin General or if they are planning on visiting the railway via the mainline, at Bodmin Parkway. Tickets can be bought from the Buffet at Bodmin Parkway as they cannot be purchased on the train.

Adult rover tickets cost £20, whilst a child rover ticket costs £10.