A land train is on track to be launched in Looe to help tell the history of the town.

A launch party will be at the Looe Library on Friday at 1pm, which will be attended by Mayor Edwina Hannaford.

Passengers will be given a talk about the history and various interesting facts about Looe including the town featuring in the recent television series Beyond Paradise, the various buildings that have smuggler’s tunnels and a visit to the riverfront where the old steam trains would unload copper and granite straight from the moors.

Passengers will also be able to visit the Old Guild Hall Museum, which used to be the town jail as well as the Heritage Centre in the old Sardine Factory in West Looe which will tell people all about how “sardines” and canning them was a major business in the town.  

The train team are additionally looking into offering a monthly free trip out for the care homes in town as so many of their residents do not find it easy to get about.

Lorna Dickinson said: “Five years in the planning, the Looe Land Train project is a labour of love inspired by local man Matthew Hutchings.

“He knows from personal experience that trying to get a family group that includes a wheelchair and four young children from the car park to Looe beach is a long way with buckets, spades, toddlers, and babies in tow. And in the last few weeks now that council bus services to Hannafore and the hotels in West Looe have just been cancelled, it is making the inauguration of the Looe Land Train even more of a vital service for the town. 

“For 10 years Matt has been managing the Fore Street Co-op in Looe and has first-hand knowledge of how many visitors get puzzled about the town’s confusing layout. He has even had some tourists asking if the river is the beach? 

“His first-hand experiences told him there was a real need for a service which could provide an effortless way to get about, the two old towns of East and West Looe and their steep and narrow Cornish roads.

“Having had the idea on holiday seeing how other towns use land trains, the first stop on his journey was to persuade Looe town council. The council were aware that the town layout often proved a challenge to visitors but had not yet found the right way to resolve the issue. So, when Matt arrived at the Guildhall in February 2019 presenting his plans, the council realised his timely solution was quite possibly the answer to their problems and they immediately sent him away to make his plans more concrete. 

“That is when the hard work began, turning the idea into a reality. 

“In 2020, despite covid restrictions, he got Looe’s county councillors Armand Toms and Edwina Hannaford to walk around the proposed route and they were both incredibly positive.

“Although the council don’t have the final say, they do have a major influence on how the Highway Agency and the local police will perceive the project. It took many visits and phone calls with the highways office to ensure the plans would work within road safety regulations. 

“Unlike other coastal resorts where land trains just chug along a flat seafront, not only were the vertical hills in Looe an issue, but the tight medieval streets were also something that the highways office felt could be insurmountable. 

“However, where there’s a will there’s a way, and when the highway inspector arrived early one morning, and saw several large delivery trucks negotiating the streets of Looe he realised that it would be unfair to tell Matt that his slow-moving train with every possible safety feature, qualified drivers, carriage assistants and accompanying, ringing bells and toot toots could be any more of a danger. 

“Last November came the final stop on Matt’s journey as he completed a week’s training and passed his Cat-D PCV licence, which means he’s now a qualified coach and land train driver.

“This project is very much about providing a service rather than making a profit and, with the hands-on support of his wife Jamielee who has set up their Facebook page, Matt is taking a sabbatical from his job at the Co-op to get the first season going. 

“He is also looking into offering a monthly trip out for the care homes in town as so many of their residents do not find it easy to get about. 

“Matt has many more ideas and is already planning a special ghost train tour and of course come the end of the year a santa train special.”