Recent decades have seen Cornwall take off big-time as a highly desirable location for second homes. One of the next such moves to the delectable Duchy will be from the opposite far side of southern England - 331 miles away from Wye, in Kent, in the form of the village's signalbox.
The 1893-built South Eastern Railway Saxby & Farmer Type 12 'box has been earmarked to play a pivotal role in the operation of the Helston Railway's planned southern extension to the edge of the market town that is internationally famous for its May 8 Flora Day, marking the coming of spring.
The heritage line currently runs for 1¼ miles from Prospidnick Halt, where its free car park is situated, to the superbly recreated Truthall Halt and its aim in the near future is to build a new station at Prospidnick - complete with Wye's signalbox. At the other end of the current operation, the railway plans to extend a mile from Truthall Halt to the industrial estate of Water-Ma-Trout on the northern edge of Helston, on a site accessible from the main B3257 Helston to Redruth road, on a main bus route and easy to find – and where a second-hand signalbox will be needed in due course!
The new station is planned to be a short hop from the main A394, the primary coastal route between Falmouth, Helston and Penzance, thereby opening up a potentially massive
