Copper ore had been discovered on Caradon in 1836, and as the volume of extraction grew, it had been taken to St Germans and elsewhere for onward transport. From 1839 granite too began to be seriously quarried at the Cheesewring. Moving the minerals by pack horse was expensive and inconvenient, and the Liskeard and Caradon Railway was promoted to bring the ore to Moorswater; the Canal company made room at their terminal for the railway. The railway reached that place in 1846, on 8 March, from when the ore was taken to Looe on the Canal.