'As the train started to move I ran alongside smiling and waving... that was the last time I saw my mother': Presenter Petroc Trelawny revisits his native Cornwall, recalling his love affair with trains and the bittersweet memories they evoke

'As the train started to move I ran alongside smiling and waving...

that was the last time I saw my mother': Presenter Petroc Trelawny revisits his native Cornwall, recalling his love affair with trains and the bittersweet memories they evoke By Petroc Trelawny Published: 22:58, 25 August 2024 | Updated: 23:13, 25 August 2024 e-mail 1 View comments It is late evening at Paddington Station. The halogen lamps cast a cold, uncompromising light over the concourse. Pret a Manger and Caffe Nero have closed, their doorways now blockaded by metal shutters.

Even Burger King is locked up. Little in the way of greasy, starchy sustenance is available to the straggle of evening drinkers boarding the 22.48 to Neath, the 22.

50 to Worcestershire Parkway, the 23.32 to Bristol Temple Meads. As each last service departs, the column of glowing orange text that lists its calling points disappears from the information board.

Soon just one express train will remain – the Night Riviera to Penzance. Its rake of dark-green carriages rests at Platform 1, a gentle put-put sound coming from the Pendennis Castle, the locomotive that will power tonight's journey west. Petroc Trelawny journeys to coastal Cornwall - a trip down memory lane Finally, it is time for departure and the doors are slammed shut.

The no-shows are on their own now; they'll have to make their own way to Cornwall. The train dispatcher, himself eager to get home, blows his shrill whistle. An introductory jolt, a lurch back, a more conf.