Fantastic Facts project launched

This year is the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, and as part of the national Railway 200 celebrations, the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership has dug into the archives to uncover some of the unexpected and wonderful ways in which the railway has shaped and enriched life in the South West.

The project, called ‘Fantastic Facts’, tells these stories via a website, podcast, interpretation boards at stations and even cutting edge digital animation techniques (to be unveiled soon!).

Highlights include:

• How Cornwall’s clocks had to change with the arrival of the railway
• Buffalo Bill bringing his Wild West Show to Penzance by train in 1904, even finding time for tea at St Michael’s Mount
• How the Tamar Valley’s flower trade blossomed thanks to the railway
• The Beatles visiting Newton Abbot station in 1964 as part of filming A Hard Day’s Night
• How a Cornish scout group harvested bamboo to be shipped by train to feed London Zoo’s pandas

All these facts and more can be found at www.fantasticfacts.co.uk

The project is funded by GWR’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund and CrossCountry Trains’ Community Engagement Fund.

12 stations around Devon and Cornwall will be displaying local facts on special interpretation boards, like this one at Bere Alston on the Tamar Valley Line:

Read the expanded version of this board – including video interview and podcast – on the Fantastic Facts website.