the capital, receiving 3% guaranteed shares. Application was made to Parliament and the Bere Alston and Calstock Light Railway was established as a separate company by Act of 23 June 1902, capital £135,000. A further Light Railway Order of 12 October 1905 authorised the adoption of the standard gauge on the line, implying conversion of the existing East Cornwall Mineral line. The branch was engineered under the supervision of Colonel Stephens with the consulting engineers Galbraith and Church; it had to cross the River Tamar at Calstock at a high level and the construction took a considerable time, finally opening on 2 March 1908. The conversion of the gauge of the old ECMR line had taken only two days. The ECMR had used a rope-worked incline to reach the Tamar quay at Calstock; the incline was abandoned and a wagon lift was provided to move wagons to the quay. An approach was made to the LSWR inviting them to work the line, but the PD&SWJR were advised to work it themselves, which they did. Passenger stations were: Bere Alston; station on the main line Calstock Gunnislake; at the site of the former Drakewalls Depot Chilsworthy; opened 1 June 1909 Latchley Seven Stones; opened 15 June 1910; closed September 1917 Stoke Climsland; formerly Monk's Corner; renamed Luckett 1 November 1909 Callington Road; formerly Kelly Bray; renamed Callington for Stoke Climsland 1 November 1909. There were four return passenger trips and one short working from Bere Alston to Gunnislake, but the service was soon augmented somewhat. However, the goods and mineral traffic was disappointing. In 1912 the lift operator at Calstock was dispensed with on the grounds of infrequent use of the lift. An extension was proposed from the Callington Road station to Callington itself, and on to Congdon's Shop, and a Light Railway Order was secured for the purpose on 11 February 1909; however this was never built and the powers allowed to lapse. Similar extension proposals were tabled in later years, but never authorised. Whereas the PD&SWJR main line was worked by the LSWR ostensibly as part of its own system, the Callington branch was worked independently by the PD&SWJR. From 1923 The Railways Act 1921 determined that the most of the main line railways of Great Britain were to be formed into four "groups", and the PD&SWJR was listed as one of the "subsidiary companies" of the Southern Group.