A town and its branch railway line are to get a significant boost with the creation of a new tourist attraction.

The Looe Valley Line Heritage Centre will be created on the platform at Liskeard Station thanks to a £40,000 grant from Great Western Railway (GWR).

The centre, set to open in Easter 2020, will give a permanent home to a project celebrating the history of the 159 year old scenic branch line.

The Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership has spent the past year collecting documents, photos and stories relating to the route, which began as a means of transporting copper ores and granite from the mines of the Caradon area to the port at Looe, and bringing coal and limestone in the other direction.

A mobile app that passengers can use on the train will bring this history to life - including the character of Horace Holbrook. Horace was the superintendent in charge of the line when the famed ‘horseshoe curve’ connecting Coombe Junction to Liskeard was opened in 1901. Thanks to the wonders of augmented reality, Horace has been reanimated to welcome modern day travellers as they embark at the Liskeard and Looe stations.

A website, www.looerailheritage.com, has been created and features memories and memorabilia as well as a song composed by local schoolchildren about the line and its past.

Also part of the heritage project are four short video documentaries telling the story of the Liskeard to Looe branch line. These have been created by filmmakers and self-confessed railway fanatics Vicky Pipe and Geoff Marshall. Vicky and Geoff were at Liskeard’s Public Hall on Friday to launch the project, speak about their adventures on the railway and show their films for the first time.

Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership manager Richard Burningham said: ‘This has been a fabulous project and we have been delighted to work with Geoff and Vicki who have done us a great job.

‘The Looe Valley Line has such a rich and varied history, dating right back to the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal in 1820, and it is great that this project allows us to introduce it to a new audience. We can use the history to encourage more people to visit South East Cornwall and take a trip on the line.’

The heritage centre will be established in three rooms on Platform 3 at Liskeard Station.

The original station building opened in 1901, and one of the rooms to be integrated into the new centre is the original Liskeard and Looe Railway ticket office. When the line to Coombe Junction and Looe first opened, Liskeard Station was split in two; while the main line was run by GWR, the Liskeard and Looe Railway was an independent company, and each had its own ticket office.

Now the original ticket window and hatch, made redundant when GWR took over operations in 1909, will be reinstated as a fun feature of the heritage centre.

The project to create the centre will cost around £70,000 in total, but now that their bid to GWR has been successful, the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership is confident of securing the remaining funding.

Drone footage shared by the heritage project shows the train travelling down the picturesque branch line towards the Looe estuary (see link below) - and there is more footage on the project’s website.

Read more about the history of the Looe Valley line in this week’s Cornish Times, out on Friday.