The end of an era

The start of week announced the much loved Cornish theam park Dobwalls has closed. Back in 2006 it was closed when they said they were "Refurbishing it" Infact they were acctually ripping up the track and taking down the play areas and cafe and making way for a new arts gallery and holiday homes.

This came as an appsolute shock to me. Some of you may have already known this was happening but I certainly didn't. I would have loved to have come to the last running day hardly publicised to have one last journey on the beautiful railways they "Had" there.

William Jeferson better known as Big Boy or 4008 pulled the last train up the Sherman Hill route at 16:30 35years since the first commercial train was pulled up the line driven by Simon Whittal. What a lucky man he was.

The trains are at the moment being auctioned on an official website just for the trains. They are:

Pioneer: £65,000-£75,000
Mathias Baldwin: £50,000-£60,000
Spirit of America: £50,000-£60,000
Centinnial: £65,000-£75,000
Otto Mears: £120,000-£140,000
Queen of Nebraska: £120,000-£140,0000
Queen of Wyoming: £120,000-£140,000
William Jeffers Big Boy 4008: £340,000-£360,000

All of these are just guide prices and do not include VAT. Who knows what they could go for in the end.

Genaral Palmer has been kept back to be the center the new art gallery and the first train at Dobwalls David Curwen has not been mensioned. I will try to find out about that in a future blog. If you would like to look at the website the address is below:

http://www.locomotiveauction.com/