An ambitious plan to re-open part of the Helston branch line has won the support of town councillors.

Members of the Helston Railway Preservation Society are working on a project which could one day bring steam trains back to the countryside around the town.

The society is keen to see the stretch of line between Water-ma-Trout and Nancegollan re-opened as a preserved tourist railway, to be built, staffed and maintained by volunteers and operated with a steam locomotive as well as various heritage diesels.

Members are developing a draft business plan for the project and have already grabbed the interest of landowners along the branch line route, including the Trevarno estate, which owns almost a mile of the track bed. A survey is to be sent out to landowners to canvas their views on a more formal basis.

Society co-founder Perry McDonagh said: "Apart from the obvious sentimental benefits this would bring to Helston, it would also significantly increase tourism to the area and, linked in with Trevarno, could bring real benefits to the area."

Campaigners keen to see the railway re-opened have acknowledged the enormity of the task before them, not least finding the necessary funding.

Society chairman Stuart Walker said the costs involved would be "huge", but members remained determined to see the project through.

He said: "There will be a slow, hard slog before trains can once again travel through the Cober Valley, and we will need a lot of staying power."

Discussing the project at a recent meeting, members of Helston town council agreed that if the scheme did materialise it could bring "immense" benefit to the district's tourism industry.

The Gwinear Road to Helston branch line was completed in May 1887 and the first train left Helston at 9.40am on May 9.

Helston was built as a through station, because the original intention was to extend the line to the Lizard, but the GWR road motor bus put paid to that idea