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Devon & Cornwall Rail Ale Trails Newsletter

Edition 2 April 2005

Tamar Valley Rail Ale Trail 2

At last the revised, extended and improved Tamar Valley Rail Ale Trail has been launched!

Courtesy of Steve Smith from the Fortescue Hotel in Plymouth, the new leaflet was launched with members of Camra attending.

All establishments from the first edition were pleased to be included again. This edition sees three new pubs joining the trail: The Fortescue Hotel in Mutley Plain, and the Royal Albert Bridge Inn and the Ferry House Inn, both at St Budeaux.

A special edition beer glass has been commissioned for the first 50 people to complete the new trail. This trail will be harder to do in one day, as a handful of intrepid trailers have done in the past!

The new leaflets are available at staffed stations, information centres or direct from the Rail Partnership on 01752 233094. Leaflets can also be downloaded from the website www.railaletrail.com.

New Rail Ale Trails in 2005!

We are in the process of producing Rail Ale Trails for the St Ives Bay Line, which links Penzance, St Erth and St Ives and the Atlantic Coast Line between Par and Newquay.

The launch of the St Ives trail will be at the CAMRA beer festival in early June. Watch local press for details.

Rail ale trail t-shirts in USA!

Randy & Karen Utecht – spreading the word in USA! Randy & Karen are the first Americans to complete the Maritime Line Rail Ale Trail. They stayed in Falmouth last summer and used the trail as a way to explore the area between there & Truro.

Group outings

We know from telephone enquiries that several work groups held their works do's on Rail Ale Trails – and that's not just at Christmas!

Engineering work & new timetables

Engineering work will take place on the Maritime Line ( Truro – Falmouth) between 16 th and 20 th May and 23 rd – 27 th May. Buses will replace trains.

Buses will also replace trains between St Erth and St Ives between 2 nd and 6 th May and 9 th and 13 th May.

Watch out for new summer timetables from 22 nd May weekends and 11 th June weekdays. Timetables will be available from Wessex Trains.

Presentation of Tour shirts

Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership has presented many members of the Flat Earth Society from North Tawton in Mid Devon with their Looe Valley Rail Ale Trail Tour shirts.

Development Officer, Stephanie Green was welcomed, and made an honorary member of this group at the occasion!

Welcome to new additions to the Tarka Line Trail!

The soon to be launched reprint of the first ever Rail Ale Trail, on the Tarka Line welcomes four new pubs to the scheme.

Within walking distance of Exeter Central, we now include the famous Michael Caines venue, The Well House Tavern and the esteemed White Hart Hotel. In Crediton we welcome Dianne and her staff at the Crediton Inn and in Barnstaple we have added the Reform Inn. The latter also boasts a micro brewery – Barum Brewery.

More tourist information has been included and the design updated.

Tour shirt for Xmas present!

Our souvenirs are now getting so popular that we have even had a request for one in advance of doing the trail from someone who wanted to give one as a Christmas present to her partner! Not something we want to encourage, but flattering none the less!

Website hits over 120 in one week!

Our Rail Ale Trail website now averages over 60 hits per week. If your website isn’t already linked to this site, contact Lyn Winter, for a free banner and reciprocal links between sites.

Finally - Community Rail Day – 14 th May,

Local walks, food, music, etc, etc. Events on all your local branch lines watch press for details.

Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, School of Geography , University of Plymouth , Drake Circus, Plymouth , PL4 8AA . Tel/Fax 01752 233094. E-mail: railpart@plymouth.ac.uk. Websites: www.railaletrails.com and www.carfreedaysout.com