We will be travelling from London mid-August on a Saturday (or Friday night if we go on the night train) and returning on the last Monday of the holidays, beginning of Sept.
To get from our house in London to Paddington through London is another concern, at least if we travel to or back on a weekday. We can find generally quiet routes in London but not without some major junctions and roads and my youngest has a kamikaze streak in him
I'm going to wait a bit longer for a reply to my email to GWR, and failing that I might go down to Paddington when the night train is in the station and ask personally.
The main problem with trying to pack the trailer down small to sneak it onto the train is that it will be full! I can already imagine the expression on the faces of the railway station staff as we rock up with 4 bikes, 2 kids, 12 panniers and a full trailer.
I'm going to check out the freight services to see if they have any destinations of their own in Penzance to ship to where I can pick it up. Failing that I could ask our first campsite if they'll accept delivery. The return journey should be easy if I can sort out packing material in Penzance at the end of our trip. I'll just ship it to my home address.
@Horizon - when are you traveliing? Frequently or a one-off - and back again, presumably?
I am hoping but haven't had the time to search for it yet, that there is some sort of grassroots van sharing co-op where you can do the journey one-way by van with your stuff and hand the van over to someone else who needs it to go in the other direction. Probably a bit of a long shot though.
@Mick thanks for the offer, but you are too far east. I have cousins in Perranporth who could act as the drop but that involves getting out at Truro and going the wrong way for an hour. Actually if I'm correct they aren't even going to be there on the weekend we want to travel & pick up the trailer. Even if they were in, I'm not factoring in more than 3 hours per day cycling for my 7-year-old which I think might be pushing it anyway. I could arrange it that my girlfriend rides with the children direct to our destination at slow speed, and I zoom off to pick up the trailer at Perrenporth, but she always hates having to do the navigation on her own with kids.
Hale & St Ives might be an idea although I suspect they will be full for our peak time dates
All those bloody DFL Emmets
We're aiming for the Lizard peninsula because it doesn't get so rammed like elsewhere in Cornwall in August. I can still picture those endless traffic queues outside Newquay which seemed to have no reason for happening or disappearing.
