the south of Bitterwell Lake there was also a southern spur to New Engine Pit in Henfield. This early tramway scheme was designed to provide transport from the mines of Coalpit Heath to the wharves on the Avon at Keynsham which supplied both Bristol and Bath. The Dramway was built as a single track railway, built to a standard 4 ft 8in gauge, with passing places along the route. The whole length of the railway was built on a down hill gradient dropping 225 ft along the route. It lasted only nine years before a steam railway connected the pits. Railways Soon after the horse-drawn tramway was in operation pressure built up to convert the line to accommodate steam driven locomotives as the Great Western Railway (GWR) were keen to build a 7 ft gauge line from Bristol to Gloucester. The Bristol and Gloucester Company under the influence of the GWR started to convert the 4 ft 8in tramway to a 7 ft railway on 5 June 1844 and this was completed by 9 July. However the colliery owners at Coalpit Heath still had the right to transport their coal in 4 ft 8in trucks and the section of Dramway from Bitterwell Lake to Mangotsfield North Junction was the first dual gauge railway in the country. Another twist was that the line was sold to the Midland Railway in 1845 rather than to the GWR. In the 1st edition (1881) Ordnance Survey Map it shows that the southern branch of the railway line finishes at the New Engine Pit at Henfield, the centre branch having served Ram Hill Colliery. In around 1860 a northern branch was constructed near Boxhedge Farm that served the new Frog Lane Pit at Coalpit Heath. This line remained operational for almost 90 years until the closure of the mine in 1949. The South Wales Main Line was re-routed following the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886. The new route was established in 1903 with the building of what is often known as the Badminton Line. This involved the construction of about 33 miles of new track, part of which skirted Ram Hill and Coalpit Heath. The Great Western Railway purchased the land at the Ram Hill Colliery site in 1898 and a deep railway cutting was created immediately north of the former mine. To the west the Coalpit Heath Railway Station was opened and