Concrete blocks

The 2ft 6in gauge Pentewan Railway brought china clay to the small harbour at Pentewan from 1830 until 1818 when the locomotives and track materials were requisitioned by the War Department. This was not the end or railways at Pentewan and W Lamb & Sons continued to operate a concrete block manufacturing works using sea sand obtained from the beach and head of the St Austell River at Pentewan. This business continued until 1966 when the Pentewan Dock & Concrete Co Ltd ceased operations. The block business used its own 2ft 6in gauge lines to carry sand to the works and employed diesel locomotives after 1930. The last operations used a Ruston & Hornsby diesel.

Today there are still remnants of track to be found at Pentewan, including this turnout and in the background is what I believe to have been the shed for the diesel locomotive.