Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway

The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway (P&DR) was a gauge railway built to improve the economy of moorland areas around Princetown in Devon, England. Independent carriers operated horse-drawn wagons and paid the company a toll. It opened in 1823, and a number of short branches were built in the next few years.
The Lee Moor Tramway (LMT) was opened as a branch of the original line in 1856; the extraction of china clay had become an important industry, and the LMT brought the mineral down to processing areas and to shipment at Plymouth. The LMT too operated with horse traction, in conjunction with steam locomotives and rope worked inclines.
The Omen Beam Tramway was an independent tramway for the gathering of peat from the moor above Dartmoor prison, for the manufacturing of naphtha.
The P&DR cost much more than the estimate and the intended generation of agriculture on the moor did not take place. The railway was dominated by a trading company who used it for bringing granite to Plymouth for coastal shipping transport. China clay deposits on Lee Moor were exploited and a branch of the P&DR was built to bring the mineral to Plymouth. The original P&DR line declined and its upper section was later adopted for a branch line, but the LMT branch, and a short section of the lower end of the P&DR, remained in use until 1960. The line crossed the important Exeter to Plymouth main line on the flat, and many photographs have been circulated depicting the incongruous sight of the horse-drawn wagons crossing the busy main line railway.
Origins.
Conception.
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt was a substantial and philanthropic landowner in Devon and Cornwall. He had founded the settlement that he called Princetown, on Dartmoor, and he was anxious to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants. Dartmoor prison had been completed at Princetown in 1809 as a prisoner-of-war detention facility, but the peace following 1815 emptied the prison. Tyrwhitt wished to improve agriculture and extractive industries on Dartmoor, and he conceived the idea of a railway to connect Princetown and Plymouth. This was to bring lime and sea-sand up to the Moor for the improvement of land, together with timber and coal. Granite, peat, mineral products and agricultural produce would be carried down. Goods would be conveyed in wagons drawn by horses, on the turnpike principle, in which all-comers might run their wagons on the railway on payment of a toll.
He put forward proposals at Plymouth Chamber of Commerce in 1818 suggesting an 18% return on capital, and obtained subscribers, and a line was surveyed by William Shillabear of Walkhampton, a schoolmaster and surveyor. William Stuart was the engineer supervising the construction of the Plymouth Breakwater at the time, and this had a primitive internal tramway at the stoneyard. Stuart provided a cost estimate for the construction, and a Parliamentary bill was submitted to form the "Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway", with Stuart as its Engineer. It was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 2 July 1819 with capital of £27,783, authorising it to build from Crabtree to Princetown.
Tyrwhitt ceremonially laid the first rail on 12 August 1819, but in fact contracts had not yet been let for the construction, and some re-appraisal of the engineering of the railway was to intervene. At a Committee meeting on 26 July 1819 Stuart had been instructed to re-survey the line.
Extension to Sutton Pool, and first contracts.
The line was to run from Crabtree to Princetown; Crabtree was chosen because it gave access to tidal water, at a small dock on the River Plym near the Rising Sun Inn there. The location was about 2½ miles (4 km) east of the centre of Plymouth. However the wharf would only be accessible at high tide and the river approach was lengthy and awkward, and it was decided to extend the course of the railway westward to reach Sutton Pool. Accordingly, a further Act of Parliament, passed on 8 August 1820, was needed authorising the extension, and also a branch to the Cattewater. This added £7,200 to the projected cost of the line. The whole of this extension was referred to as "the branch railway", being considered a branch from Crabtree. William Stuart was now appointed to superintend the construction. At this time the Company had contemplated acting as dealers in granite, that is suppliers of the mineral at Plymouth, rather than simply carriers. There is reason to believe from Committee minutes that they intended to do so, but the necessary clauses were not inserted into the 1820 Act.
In April 1820, contracts had been let to William Bailey for the supply of cast iron rails; they were to be of the fishbelly pattern 2 ft 10 in (864 mm) long and 6 inches (150 mm) deep; they were to be butt jointed at the supports on stone blocks. The gauge was to be , it is not clear who chose this, or why. A contract for the construction of the formation was let to Hugh McIntosh of London in June 1820, for 9s 3d per yard; it was to be a single line with a number of passing sidings (referred to as "turnouts")—two per mile. Some sidings — at least at Roborough and Yelverton — were to be constructed of granite blocks dressed to as to provide a flange guide, similar to the construction of the main line of the Haytor Granite Tramway.
On 21 September 1820 the Committee signed a momentous agreement with the firm of Johnson and Bryse. They had acquired tenancy rights to extract granite from Dartmoor and needed to bring it down to Plymouth for use there in the breakwater project, and to coastal shipping for onward transit. They would pay a flat rate of 2s 6d per ton irrespective of distance for a volume averaging 8,000 tons per annum: a steady income of £1,000 a year for the Company. This was ratified at a meeting of all the proprietors on 3 March 1821.
Alteration to the main route.
On 26 December 1820 the engineer Stuart reported that Shillabear's route as far as Jump (later called Roborough) which ran via Fursdon was too steep for horse traction. He proposed a variation of the route on "Mr Archer's Land" that would reduce the gradient from 22" to 18" in the chain. (From 1 in 36 to 1 in 44; Kendall comments "as opposed to the estimated 1 in 72 maximum".) This required a further revision of the route immediately after obtaining the second Act of Parliament, and after the letting of contracts for construction, and Stuart's report was unwelcome. Some embankment works near Roborough had already been undertaken. The Committee held Stuart responsible and brought in Roger Hopkins as Assistant Engineer. In due course a new route with easier gradients was surveyed and approved; its course ran to the east of the earlier proposed route, but required a tunnel (Leigham Tunnel) and added a further £5,000 to the cost of the line. An Act authorising this was passed on 2 July 1821. The total estimated cost thus became £40,000 and the length 25½ miles (41 km).
The new route needed to pass through the lands of the Earl of Morley, and he had a slatestone quarry at Cann; this was not far from the proposed line, but at a lower level in steeply sloping terrain, and the other side of the River Plym. He demanded a connection from the line to serve the quarry, and this was formally (but perhaps injudiciously) agreed to by three committee members on 6 June 1821 without reference to the full Committee. The connection might be a conventional branch line, or an incline crossing the Plym.
The Engineer William Stuart engaged in a dispute with the Committee over responsibility for the route selection, and was dismissed in October 1821. The contractor McIntosh was also dismissed amidst controversy over construction standards in June 1822, and Johnson Brothers (as successor to Johnson & Bryse) took over the work. Hopkins was now in charge as sole Engineer, he modified the specification for the later batch of rails; they were to be 3 ft 10 in (1,168 mm) long, with lapped joints at the sleeper blocks.
Opening, and extensions.
The finances of the Company during the construction phase had been extremely difficult, and work had only been kept going by repeated Exchequer Loans and other financial arrangements. There must therefore have been considerable relief when the line was opened on 26 September 1823 with a celebration breakfast. The opening was between Crabtree and the foot of Kings Tor, Walkhampton.
The line followed a sinuous course to maintain a gentle falling gradient towards Plymouth: in a straight line the distance was 13 miles (21 km). The track gauge was 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm) and the rails were bolted to cast iron chairs on stone blocks. The Leigham tunnel was 620 yards (567 m) long and there was one stone arch road bridge near Plym Bridge over the Roborough to Plympton road.
John and William Johnson were the operators of the quarries at Walkhampton, and the Company soon found that their traffic dominated the income of the line: the hoped-for agricultural and general merchandise traffics had not materialised. Moreover, the Company had expended all the capital that they had, and indeed were unable to repay the exchequer loans they had taken out. The extensions to Sutton Pool and to Princetown were therefore carried out by the Johnson Brothers as contractors, and in return they took a mortgage on the Company and were able to offset their tolls against the sums due. In this way the line was completed to Princetown itself in 1826. The Princetown terminus was a few hundred yards east of the later Great Western Railway station.
The Earl of Morley had granted land for the line conditionally upon a branch line being constructed to his quarry in Cann Wood, and he exerted pressure on the Company to comply. However, in fact he converted an existing leat into a canal, the Cann Quarry Canal from his quarry to near Marsh Mills, and the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway built a half-mile branch from near Crabtree to a basin on the canal. These works opened either on 20 November 1829 or 20 January 1830. This required transshipment from canal to the Railway, and boat operation on the fast flowing converted leat was difficult; the branch was extended northwards to Plymbridge mostly on the towpath of the canal, in 1833.
Morley also had interests in the extraction of china clay (a form of kaolinite) at Lee Moor, somewhat to the north-east of Marsh Mills, and he arranged with Johnson Brothers for them to extend the P&DR eastwards from Marsh Mills to Plympton, where the china clay could be brought down a pack horse road from Lee Moor. This opened in 1834. It is not clear whether the railway extension was Morley's property or the Johnsons', but it is generally regarded as being part of the P&DR.
Passengers.
The P&DR was not planned, or authorised, as a passenger railway. However Kendall reports an extract from a "chronicle in diary form compiled by one William Bray, sometime Rector of Tavistock"; approaching King's Tor he found that
Some huts, one a blacksmith's shop now presented themselves, and before this stood a vehicle not much unlike a rude kind of vis-a-vis with an awning. This I had observed passing on with some degree of rapidity before us. I conclude that in these carriages with iron wheels, though as cumbrous and uneasy as the scythed cars of the Britons, many pleasure parties make excursions from Plymouth, for a man accosted me and said that if I wanted to see the works, Mr. Johnson, or Thomson or some such name, would show them to me ...
This seems to be a non sequitur, and it may be that the carriage was simply a stone wagon equipped with boards as seats for the Engineer to view the works on the line.
After opening day.
The original estimate for completion of the line had been £27,783 on which a return of 18% had been foretold. Now that the line was open, £37,000 had been subscribed and £28,000 borrowed from the Exchequer; the Johnson Brothers had negotiated an advantageous rate for their traffic, and any receipts from it would return to them for moneys owing to them; and there seemed to be little general traffic. The dominance of Johnson Brothers traffic is shown by the return of receipts from 26 September 1823 to 5 July 1825:
Now however the Earl of Morley demanded that the commitment of 1821, to connect his Cann Wood Quarry to the line, should be honoured at once. With the Exchequer demanding payment of capital and interest on Exchequer loans, the Company was now in serious trouble.
Nonetheless the Sutton Harbour "branch" (i.e. extension from Crabtree) was completed in December 1825 and the final section to Princetown in December 1826. The terminal of the line there was at the rear of the later Railway Inn; the railway "ran across the present street from the road which now leads to the Railway Station (which was formerly known as Frenchman's Row), up into a little garden in the rear of the Railway Inn, where it ended."
In desperation, the Company agreed a "reduction" in tolls to the Johnson Brothers in return for an end date to their effective monopoly seven years later; this was agreed in the face of objection from the Exchequer. Lord Morley, seeing the reality of the situation, cut a canal from his quarry down to Marsh Mills, in exchange for low rates. This was actually simply a widening of an existing leat and proved unsatisfactory as a canal. However a branch from the P&DR to Marsh Mills, crossing the River Plym. The branch opened on 20 November 1829 or 20 January 1830
Lord Morley had interests in china clay (kaolinite) deposits on Lee Moor, and in 1833 he agreed with the Johnson Brothers that they would build a branch line to Plympton largely on the northern margin of the Exeter Turnpike. China clay was to be brought down from Lee Moor by packhorse to Plympton. The line was completed by mid 1834 and leased for 75 years to the Johnson Brothers.
The seven-year agreement with the Johnson Brothers had given them an effective monopoly of granite transport until 1834, but on expiry of that period no other trader came forward to challenge their established position.
Thomas Tyrwhitt died in 1833; his vision, to generate agricultural development on the moor, had failed. As early as 1825-6, this had been evident to von Oeynhausen and von Dechen, who had made a tour of English railways:
The railway was completed satisfactorily, but the plan for cultivation on Dartmoor has encountered such severe difficulties, that it seems that there is little to show for the effort. Consequently this expensive project has missed its main objective and can only service the interest on the capital outlay with difficulty, as it is limited to the transport of granite alone.
The huge overspend on the originally subscribed capital outlay had been partly funded by Exchequer loans of £28,000; the Administrators periodically pressed the Company for repayment, which the Company could not afford. The line was effectively the private property of the Johnson Brothers and it appears likely that they made some payments on account to prevent premature seizure by the Exchequer.
Johnson Brothers' activity increased with the years; Rachel Evans, writing in 1846 passed the quarries:
An immense excavation presents itself studded with workmen ... some are boring holes in the flinty rock; others are filling the cavities with powder; some are chipping the rude blocks into shape; others are lifting their ponderous weight by cranes and levers; horses, carts and railway waggons, are in constant employment, to convey away the heavy masses of stone, (some twenty feet in length) which have been available in the principal public works, lately carried on in the metropolis: the Post Office and London Bridge, were constructed of this strong material, and at present it is furnished for building the new houses of parliament ... Three hundred men were recently in constant employment on the spot. "Note: original orthography retained"</ref>
General physical description.
Main line.
The P&DR railway was a horse-worked line with short cast iron rails on stone blocks, using a track gauge of , built with the intention of improving the moorland areas around Princetown. In fact granite quarries provided the dominant traffic. The main line descended from Princetown to Crabtree, east of Laira, following a very sinuous course in an attempt to limit the maximum gradient for the uphill haul; extremely small-radius curves were adopted in places to avoid major earthworks.
Priestley, writing in 1831 said
Commencing at Bachelor's Hall in the parish of Lydford, at no great distance from the prison erected for the reception of prisoners of war on Dartmoor, the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway runs in a very circuitous course from north to south by Moortown, Grenofen, Buckland Abbey, Hoo Meavy, and Borringdon to Crabtree in the parish of Egg Buckland, where it crosses the turnpike road from Plymouth to Exeter, and where the original line terminated; from thence, however, its course was continued, under powers granted by subsequent acts, to the sound at Sutton Pool, a short distance south of Plymouth.
From Princetown, where the terminal was intended for general merchandise servicing the small community there, the line ran west, passing between the Foggintor Quarry (to the north) and Swelltor Quarries (to the south, on the promontory formed by King's Tor); it swept round the north of King's Tor and to the west of Ingra Tor, now heading general south past Peekhill and across the western flank of Yennadon Down. South of Dousland there was a sharp turn to head north again, to maintain the contour, passing west to Yelverton where the line passed through the centre of the common. Close to the Roborough road, the line descended southwards curving past Clearbrook, and now with multiple twists the line descended to the west of the Tavistock Road through wooded terrain, before turning west through Leigham Tunnel. Negotiating more twist the line descended to the west of the River Plym to reach a point a little west of Marsh Mills. Here it turned west and followed close to the north bank of the Plym, eventually reaching Crabtree wharf.
On some similar lines a vehicle was provided for the horses to ride on the downhill journey but there is no evidence of this arrangement on the P&DR. The line was single-track and there were frequent passing sidings to enable opposing "trains" to pass one another.
The line was conceived as a toll line, where any carrier might use the line for his own wagons, but the overwhelming dominance of the Johnson Brothers' quarry traffic meant that the main line was effectively their private railway.
The intermediate land was moorland and agricultural upland but there were few significant settlements. Sidings, apparently for general merchandise, were provided at Yelverton and Roborough. Nearing Plymouth, the line ran to a wharf at Crabtree, and the later extension reached both Sutton Harbour and a wharf on the River Plym at Laira; at the time of construction the city had not been built up in those areas.
Branches.
The extension to Marsh Mills was of similar construction, but in generally flatter terrain, and the further extension to Plympton ran on the north margin of the Exeter turnpike road. There was a two-span cast iron bridge at Marsh Mills. When the line was extended again to Cann Quarry, it was laid on the towpath of the erstwhile canal.
At the crossing of the South Devon Railway main line, boards were laid between the rails of the P&DR for the horses to walk on.
Permanent Way.
The track gauge was 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm); the rails were of the cast iron fishbelly pattern 3 to 4 feet in length (914 to 1,219 mm). In contrast to later railways the rail spanned only a single space between stone sleeper blocks, being fastened in cast iron chairs. The "later" rails (after Hopkins' redesign) were 46.5 inches (1,181 mm) long with a 2.5 inch (63 mm) lap; the rail head was 1.75 inches (44 mm) wide with a web ¾ inch (19 mm) thick; the depth of the rails was 4 inches (102 mm) at the sleeper block and 6 inches (152 mm) at mid span. In some places wooden sleepers were used, 5 feet long by 6 inches wide by 3 inches thick (1,524 by 152 by 76 mm). The earlier rails were butt ended and 36 inches (914 mm) long with a head width of only ½ inch (12 mm). "These rails do not appear to be fastened so securely and durably as those with overlapping end laps."
Wagons and operation.
The main line had a generally falling gradient, and it was steep enough to require efficient braking. The wagon structure was founded on two main beams 9 feet (2.743 m) long, with the bed formed of 2½ inch (64 mm) planking armoured with longitudinal iron strips. The wheels were cast iron, 29 inches (737 mm) diameter with 4½ inch (114 mm) treads; the wheel treads were conical "so that the diameter close to the flange is 29¾ inches" (756 mm) . The axles were 41½ inches (1,054 mm) apart. The brakes were cast iron and fixed to a long wooden lever, acting on both wheels on the same side. The couplings were connecting links 15 inches (381 mm) long.
There was a mobile crane, mounted on a wagon body; it was capable of lifting loads of 80 cwt (4 tonnes). It was in addition to the fixed cranes.
South Devon Railway.
Crossing at Laira Green.
For some years the P&DR line was the only significant line in the area: but in 1843 the South Devon Railway (SDR) deposited plans for its proposed line from Exeter to Plymouth. When the Bill was presented in the 1844 Parliamentary session, it contained the statement that "Messrs John and William Johnson are in possession of and claim to be entitled as mortgagees or assignees to the said Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway ... " This was the de facto position, and the P&DR proprietors were unable to have the clause containing the words removed. The section from Plympton to the junction near Marsh Mills was sold to the SDR and closed in 1847 to allow them to construct their main line without the necessity of making a crossing of the P&DR. Lord Morley seems to have acquiesced in this; his china clay traffic from Lee Moor used Plympton as a railhead and he may have considered the SDR a more efficient carrier from there to Plymouth.
The SDR obtained powers in the 1846 session to take over the P&DR line between Crabtree and Sutton Pool, but the terms were subject to negotiation, and this proved difficult and slow. At one stage the SDR attempted to install a crossing of the P&DR without agreement:
The progress of this extension was stopped by a dispute between the South Devon Railway Company and the mortgagee in possession of the Dartmoor Railway, a line 24 miles long, constructed in 1820. This railway was crossed on the level at right angles by the South Devon line. The mortgagee not getting the terms he asked from the South Devon Railway, brought immense blocks of granite from his Dartmoor quarries, and deposited them on the line where the South Devon wished to cross. This effectually prevented the railway from proceeding with the line and they soon arranged a compromise, which had the desired effect, the granite blocks being then removed by the mortgagee of the Dartmoor Railway.
This crossing became "the well-known oblique crossing at Laira", although the location was really Laira Green as opposed to Laira Wharf on the River Plym.
The South Devon Railway opened its line to Laira Green on 5 May 1848. The station was immediately on the Exeter side of the Laira crossing, at the turnpike bridge. The completion to Millbay took place on 2 April 1849.
Sutton Pool line sold.
The South Devon Railway was anxious to get rail access to Sutton Pool, and on 23 April 1851 they finalised an agreement with the Johnson Brothers: it transferred ownership to the SDR; the SDR would lay mixed gauge track (broad gauge and 4 ft 6in) to maintain P&DR access to Sutton Pool while giving themselves access from Laira. The Cattewater section (the stub to the wharf on the Plym) was excluded from the arrangement. The triangular junction between the line to Sutton Pool and that to Cattewater had very short radius curves, but this area (referred to as "the Granite Works"), and wharves at Laira, were horse-operated for the first years. Some improvement to the curve was made, and the broad gauge rails opened in May 1853. The SDR obtained an Act on 3 July 1854 authorising the strengthening of the line for locomotive operation, and a deviation near the Granite Works to further ease the curve there.
Tavistock line.
At the time of the South Devon Railway reaching Plymouth, promoters were already proposing a branch line to Tavistock, and after initial uncertainty it was a South Devon and Tavistock Railway (SD&TR) that seized the initiative. On 5 July 1852, the Committee negotiated an agreement with Lord Morley, owner of the china clay extractive works on Lee Moor. The SD&TR agreed to build a branch line to Lee Moor for Morley; in doing so they would acquire the right to take over the P&DR Cann Quarry branch from Marsh Mills, which they needed to build their line. The Lee Moor line "would be at once constructed": presumably entirely on Morley's land no authorising Act was required, but the Company was not yet incorporated.
Work started on building the Lee Moor branch in September 1852: it was to be an intrinsic part of the SD&TR lines, and possibly on the broad gauge. The SD&TR got its authorising Act on 24 July 1854. In August 1854 trial operations on the Lee Moor line were under way, but were suspended following an accident on 4 October 1854. An investigation revealed that the construction of the line was gravely inadequate.
William Phillips (as J & W Phillips) was the lessee of Morley's china clay deposits and had been relying on the completion of the line to get the mineral to Plymouth. After an investigation he undertook, it was plain that the works were unsatisfactory, and an agreement of 5 June 1856 the SD&TR relinquished its interest in the line, and Phillips took over.
The SD&TR opened its line to Tavistock on 21 June 1859, but without taking over any of the P&DR line.
Sutton Pool improvements.
The SDR closed the Laira to Sutton Pool line in 1856 so that it could be rebuilt for locomotive working, implementing the authorisation of 3 July 1854. When it reopened in 1857 the 4 ft 6in gauge and broad gauge lines had been separated between Laira, Prince Rock and Cattewater. In 1869 the obligation on the South Devon Railway (by agreement with Phillips) to maintain the 4 ft 6in gauge access to Sutton Pool lapsed, and on 19 April they introduced locomotive operation, having removed the Dartmoor gauge rails.
Lee Moor Tramway: construction.
The heavy mineral commodity being extracted by William Phillips, lessee of Lord Morley was situated on Lee Moor at an altitude of 900 feet (275 m). After the failed attempt of the SD&TR to build a branch line to Lee Moor, Phillips took over the line on 20 December 1855, determined to construct the line himself. This was to become the Lee Moor Tramway, from Lee Moor to join the P&DR line near Plym Bridge (on the Cann Quarry branch, not the P&DR main line), and his line was built to the same track gauge as the P&DR. There was much to do, involving a completely new alignment at the Torycombe incline and total or partial reconstruction of several bridges. Phillips finally opened the line on 24 September 1858.
There were two inclines, called Cann Wood and Torycombe; they were of the counterbalanced self-acting type. There was a passing loop in the middle of each; above the loop there was a three-rail section, with the middle rail common; below the loop there was a single track. When the ascending and descending cuts crossed at the loop, the descending cut pushed through the points at the lower end of the loop, and they were therefore correctly set for the next ascending cut.
Cann Wood incline was 6,600 feet (2,012 m) long on a gradient on 1 in 11; Torycombe was 2,145 feet (654 m) long on a gradient of 1 in 7.
The line ran through Lee Moor village to Cholwichtown, and there was a spur line to Wotter Village (the Wotter Tramway). The original alignment and incline approaching Lee Moor was closed, but part of it was used as a dead-end approach to kilns.
The P&DR from 1865.
An agreement was made on 3 May 1865 to reconstitute the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway Company, with all the preference shares owned by William Johnson. The new company was sufficiently profitable to be able to pay a 0.25% dividend in 1870.
Relaying on the P&DR main line proceeded: 600 tons of new rail were laid in 1873-4.
Princetown Railway.
However in November 1877 plans were deposited for the Princetown Railway: a standard gauge branch line from a junction on the Tavistock line at Yelverton. Near Princetown this would serve the town and the quarries on the P&DR line, which it was to replace. Some minor alignment improvements were made to accommodate locomotive working, and a major section of new route to pass east of Yennadon Down and to descend to the Tavistock line at Yelverton.
The transfer took place in 1878: the Princetown Railway paid £22,000 in shares for the necessary part of the line, and it opened on 11 August 1883. The activities of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway were now confined to the Lee Moor traffic from the point where that line joined; in Plymouth there were interchange arrangements with the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Laira, and a wharf on the Plym, also at Laira.
Turnchapel branch.
 In the 1870s the GWR and the LSWR were competing for possession of territory around Plymouth, especially in the South Hams, the area east of the Plym. The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway worked as an ally of the LSWR in promoting a branch lines locally, and they obtained powers in 1875 to construct short branches from the P&DR line at Cattewater. The LSWR took over these powers in 1882 and the branches were from the LSWR Friary line.
On 2 August 1883 the P&DR obtained powers to build a line to Turnchapel; it succeeded in building a bridge over the Plym near Laira road bridge, opened as far as Plymstock (then called Pomphlett) in 1887. The LSWR took over the powers for the branch, and they opened it on 1 January 1897.
Final years of the P&DR.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century the P&DR had lost the quarry traffic from Dartmoor (to the Princetown Railway) and practically all the general merchandise traffic. The Lee Moor line flourished as the trade in the mineral flourished, and the china clay work therefore dominated the residue of the Company. In 1916 the rails on the disused section above Cann Wood were recovered for scrap, and under the Railways Act 1921 the Company was transferred to the new Southern Railway. In practice this referred to the short branches around the Cattewater. The Lee Moor Tramway continued in use, traversing the southern end of the P&DR main line, and the entire section of route from Lee Moor to Laira became colloquially known as the "Lee Moor Tramway".
Lee Moor Tramway in operation.
In 1862 Phillips, having managed all the difficulty of creating the Lee Moor line, sold his china clay business and the lease of the line to Mrs R Martin.
The dominant traffic was china clay downhill to the Cattewater or Laira exchange sidings and stores and coal uphill to Lee Moor. The inclines operated by balancing loaded wagons with empties; at Cann incline five loaded wagons downhill would pull three empties and two loaded wagons up. At Torycombe water tank wagons were kept ready when an unbalanced uphill movement was required.
Increasing volumes of traffic caused to locomotives to be acquired in 1899; they worked the section between the inclines, horses continuing to haul the wagons above and below. Heavier rails were installed ready for locomotive operation.
At Lee Moor there had been short branches to Wotter and Cholwich Town but these closed in 1900 and 1910 respectively.
In 1919 the china clay operation and the Tramway were sold to English China Clays Limited (ECC), and this company became part of English Clays, Lovering Pochin Ltd (ECLP). From 1936 the section above Torycombe incline ceased to be used, and the operating company increasingly installed pipelines to transmit the china clay in slurry form, and also by road.
The last commercial use of the Tramway seems to have been at the end of 1945 and commissioning of a major pipeline from Lee Moor to Marsh Mills in 1947 made the closure irrevocable. The owning company did not wish to relinquish the right of way, however, and token movements carrying sand from Marsh Mills to Maddock's concrete works were made at three-monthly intervals. This continued until the final movement on 26 August 1960, the last time the Lee Moor Tramway horses pulled wagons across the Great Western Railway main line. The trackwork in the main line was removed in October–November.
Omen Beam Tramway.
In 1844 two Plymouth businessmen, Jacob Hall-Drew and Peter Adams, attempted to generate a business in processing peat to make naphtha. They rented Tyrwhitt's mill at Bachelor's Hall, east of Princetown, and in 1846 moved to the Dartmoor Prison, which was not otherwise in use. They formed the "British Patent Naphtha Company" and built a tramroad to Yearlick Ball, north of the prison, to bring the peat down from that point to a works at the prison building; they also built a branch to Omen Beam near Fice's Well. The track gauge was probably 4 ft 6in, and horse traction was used.
The peat was processed to produce naphtha, used for making candles and mothballs, and the fibrous material in the peat was used in paper making. Over 30 tons of peat were used daily.
The track rails were spiked direct to wooden sleepers, not stone setts, and fine ballast was laid between the rails for the horses' walkway. The total cost (probably including the works) was £19,000. The total length was 2¾ miles (3.6 km).
When the prison was reopened as a convict prison, the entire building was at first lit using naphtha gas, and in the twentieth century a gas engine ran on the fuel.
The track may easily be seen from the Two Bridges Road east of Rundlestone Corner.
A present-day description and photographs are available on Richard Knight's "Dartmoor Walks" website at and a description of the process of peat processing, and references to the Omen Beam activity are on the "Legendary Dartmoor" website at


Chester Northgate engine shed


Culm Valley Light Railway

The Culm Valley Light Railway was a standard gauge branch railway that operated in the English county of Devon. It ran for just under from Tiverton Junction station on the Bristol to Exeter line, through the Culm valley to Hemyock.
It was intended as a very low-cost scheme, but by the time it opened in 1876 had cost more than twice the originally anticipated budget and taken five times the expected time to complete. It was operated from the start by the Great Western Railway, who purchased the line outright in 1880. It was loss-making and underused until United Dairies built a creamery and milk products factory at Hemyock; their output became the dominant traffic.
The line closed to passengers in 1963 but served the milk depot at Hemyock until 1975.
Starting the company.
The valley of the River Culm was an attractive, but remote and declining area in the early nineteenth century, containing the villages of Uffculme, Culmstock and Hemyock. The Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) opened its main line in 1844 with a station at Tiverton Road (later Tiverton Junction), and local people observed the improvements in the local economy of places effectively served by the railway, and the decline of places that were by-passed. The small communities in the Culm Valley fell into the latter category.
An engineer, Arthur Cadlick Pain, born 1844, had become interested in the concept of a low-cost railway on his return from working overseas, following the enactment of the Railway Construction Facilities Act, 1864, which authorised railway construction without the necessity of an Act of Parliament if no affected landowner objected. The Regulation of Railways Act 1868 authorised the construction of a "light railway"—the first use of the term—subject to conditions that might be imposed by the board of Trade.
He discussed the idea of a light railway with Henry S Ellis, a director of the B&ER; Pain suggested a low-cost line as a steam—or possibly horse operated—tramway running in or alongside the roadway, to serve the Culm Valley settlements. There were to be no stations, but the train would simply stop at road crossings. Such a line might be narrow gauge if the business was expected to be light; and by securing the enthusiasm of local people for the improvement of the district, land acquisition costs might be low. The line would be on the standard gauge.
A public meeting was held at Uffculme on 15 May 1872 and the idea was received with enthusiasm, and on 19 June at another meeting he reported that he had prepared plans and a prospectus. There was some discussion about the location of the Hemyock terminus, in case extension to the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) were later required: Honiton is about ten miles away, but over challenging terrain. There were two objections to the scheme among many positive opinions.
The Construction Facilities Act authorised construction of a light railway provided that no affected landowner objected to the scheme, but here there were two; the provisional directors decided to apply for an Act of Parliament for their line, although that would incur considerable expense, in order to get compulsory acquisition of land. (The objectors soon withdrew their objection, but notice of the fact was received too late to avoid the Parliamentary process.) Pain calculated that the line could be built for £3,000 a mile. Enthusiasm was high and a meeting on 18 November 1872 set the process in motion. Pain was soon appointed Engineer to the company for a fee of £1,125, to be taken in shares.
The Parliamentary Act.
Pain was invited to explain his idea at a Board Meeting of the B&ER later that month. The B&ER were supportive, and agreed to work the line, but they required a number of conditions that had not been expected: there must be proper station accommodation for passengers, with platforms, and for goods, with covered loading accommodation; bridges at the Turnpike road were to be of stone or brick, not timber; and a much improved track specification was required, with 15 inches of ballast.
However, they agreed to work the line for 50% of receipts, and they would contribute £105 towards the Parliamentary expenses of obtaining the Act. They might agree to buy the line later for a small premium, but the line was not to be extended (presumably towards the LSWR) without their agreement.
Pain managed to persuade the Board of Trade to relax its customary dislike of level crossings, provided the train speed was limited to 16 mph.
The Bill was presented to Parliament, and it passed, gaining its Act on 15 May 1873. The "Culm Valley Light Railway" was now incorporated, with a capital of £25,000.
Construction.
The next stage was to obtain the money for the construction. A share prospectus was issued on 25 September 1873, stating that "The works being so unusually light, the Railway will be opened in about six months after it is commenced". Moreover, "It is nearly sure to prove a safe investment for capital at a rate of interest of between five and six per cent." Pain was quoted as saying:
I might safely say that if people living in the locality do not look sharp, they will get no shares at all. The capital is small and there are many gentlemen of influence around willing to take shares ... I know of no line which has been received with so much public approval.
In the event about a third of the subscribed capital was local. The B&ER subscribed £4,000.
Invitations to tender for the construction were soon issued, in ten separate sections, the intention being to enable small local contractors to participate; in the event that expectation was little justified. Contracts were not to be let until all the capital had been subscribed, but that too was soon abandoned. D A Jardine of Hawarden in North Wales was awarded most of the heavy contracts for the earthworks and track laying. The total of awarded tenders came to £18,497 10s 7d.
The B&ER, evidently believing the claim about a six months' construction period, quickly set about constructing locomotives and rolling stock to operate the line.
By September 1874, Pain was obliged to report that progress on construction had been consistently slow, and Jardine was warned that if this was not quickly accelerated, his contract would be terminated. He failed to act as required, and the work was transferred to Richard Broome. He needed the services of a locomotive to assist with the construction work, and one was hired in from Henry Hind & Son of Nottingham, but this proved catastrophically unreliable.
Broome was informed on 24 April 1875 that the company was running out of money; unpaid calls amounted to £1,212—about 5%. The company, and not Broome, had been paying the locomotive hire charges and it is likely that they had taken responsibility for a number of other costs not properly specified in Pain's contract arrangements. The financial crisis could be averted, they felt, if the line could soon be opened, on 17 July. Inspections showed that the line was far from ready, and a desperate plea was made to the B&ER to purchase the uncompleted line from the Company at once; the B&ER declined.
Colonel Yolland of the Board of Trade was asked to make a formal inspection of the line with a view to opening, and he visited on 14 July. He found many areas of dissatisfaction and refused authority to open.
More delay was incurred, and Pain was given an ultimatum to complete by the year end; this passed and the company was borrowing increasing sums of money, now beyond the authorised limit. Yolland was asked to inspect the line again on 12 February 1876; he found a number of issues still outstanding and again refused opening. However, on 20 May Yolland made another inspection, and this time he found the line ready, subject to operation on the "one engine in steam" principle, and a speed limit of 15 mph.
The B&ER had amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) on 1 January, and as a new partner, the GWR was less tolerant of the little Company's shortcomings. Accordingly, in the discussion that now took place about working the line, the Company discovered that the GWR expected that station buildings to be furnished; in addition there was a long list of items that needed to be completed before the line was usable. There was a considerable gap between the GWR's expectations and what Pain thought was reasonable, but on 27 May 1876 a special train passed up the line, depositing at the general stations stationmasters, clerks, porters and the necessary appliances for business.
Opening.
On Monday 29 May 1876 the line opened. Instead of taking six months to build, the construction had taken two and a half years, and the expenditure had exceeded £46,000 compared with the estimated cost of £22,500. Expenditure on infrastructure had been £42,903, and the cost overrun was attributed by the Board to the increased cost of rails, the failure of the contractor to complete the works, necessitating the company to execute some of the works directly, and the increased cost of purchasing land.
A formal opening was organised for Thursday 1 June 1876, with a grand lunch, rural sports and pastimes, and a ball.
The line in operation.
There were five mixed (passenger and goods) trains each way daily, operated by the GWR. Two locomotives worked on the line, nos. 114 and 115 built by the B&ER specially for the line; they were 0-6-0T weighing 20 tons 8cwt, with 3 ft 6in wheels and a water tube boiler. In view of the apparent urgency for providing them at the time of obtaining the authorising Act, other locomotive construction had been delayed, a fact that remained a point of contention with the GWR. Pain now complained to the GWR that the locomotives were excessively heavy; he was probably prompted to do so by damage to the track, which was exceptionally light in construction. As the locomotives were now two years old, the GWR were not sympathetic to the complaint; however the trailing wheels of the locomotives were decoupled, making them 0-4-2T.
The Taunton to Exeter line had been converted to mixed gauge earlier in 1876, so that there was no break of gauge at the junction station.
Money problems.
The financial performance of the line was extremely disappointing, with an income of about £4 a week. The directors had borrowed additional money on overdraft against their personal guarantees, and there was no income to pay the interest on that debt. A number of measures were considered, including issuing additional share capital, and it was no surprise when almost no interest was shown in buying into a loss-making business.
The GWR were still dissatisfied with the facilities provided at the stations, and with the standard of the track, and this issue continued as a point of conflict. The company had wished the GWR to take over the line, but the GWR were not prepared to consider that. In the face of shortage of money Pain gave notice in June 1877 to the GWR that he would discontinue maintenance of the line, leaving the GWR to take care of the matters. It appears that he did not actually do this.
The following months were a continuous series of difficulties over money; even quite small financial obligations posed insuperable challenges. A number of quite fantastical proposals were dreamed up, including sale to the LSWR, and using the line as the springboard for a new independent GWR route to London. The directors' personal guarantees of the overdraft emphasised the crisis. This dragged on through 1879 and it was obvious that the only way out was for the GWR to be persuaded to buy the line—at any price. The appropriate price was low and it took some time for the shareholders to come to terms with the loss of value of their investment, but agreement was formalised on 5 August 1880, from which date the line was owned by the Great Western Railway. The final meeting of the company, no longer the owner of a railway, took place on 3 November 1882. The shareholders had received 5½% of their investment back.
In Great Western ownership.
Accordingly, without much enthusiasm the Great Western Railway now owned the little railway. Pain's dream of a very low-cost branch line with minimal station facilities and light track and rolling stock had been frustrated by the Board of Trade (personified by Yolland) and the GWR's attitude, which was that the line was defective in falling short of proper GWR standards for a branch line. They soon replaced the original locomotives with two 2-4-0T locomotives that had been built as broad gauge machines for the South Devon Railway, but not actually put into service. Completed at Swindon as standard gauge engines, they were numbered 1298 and 1300.
Refrigeration became a practical process in the 1870s and it had the result of enabling cheap imported butter, undercutting what could be produced in home dairies. This had the effect of spurring mechanical production methods and the Culm Valley Dairy Company was established at Hemyock in 1884. The quality of the product was much in demand and the Company despatched butter throughout England. Skimmed milk was a by-product of the process, and it was useful in pig husbandry, so that piggeries were established in the area also. Suddenly there was a focus of industry and agriculture on the line, and in 1890 the factory moved to larger premises next to Hemyock station. Quarry stone was also sent from Hemyock in later years.
In 1915 the United Dairies Company was formed, and it set about acquiring local dairy businesses. It took over the Hemyock plant the following year, and started sending liquid milk to London in ever increasing volumes; in addition condensed milk and dried milk were transported away, and coal was an inwards traffic.
Passenger traffic, never very heavy, remained broadly constant. The 1920 timetable shows four journeys each way, most of the trains being mixed. The first train from Tiverton Junction to Hemyock, at 9.0 a.m., was allowed 65 minutes for the journey of 7½ miles, time being included for shunting sidings on the way.
In the 1920s the GWR began to examine the cost base of rural branch lines; in 1925 receipts on the line were £22,609 against costs of £7,587. A GWR report recommended closure of the passenger service and limiting the branch activity to handling goods during a single working shift, and heavily reducing facilities on the line. The report was not acted on, and conversely a new halt, Coldharbour, was opened in January 1929. Later in 1929 it was agreed to spend money improving facilities on the branch, and in particular making it fit for standard rolling stock. The original loading gauge had been somewhat limited. However "main line" coaching stock was never used, and the imperative for this may have been the foreseen introduction of six-wheel milk tank wagons, then being trialled elsewhere on the GWR. These were introduced on the branch in 1932. The tanks were glass-lined and cork-insulated; the dairy company owned the tank while the GWR owned the underframe and running gear.
Contemplating electrification of the main line, a 1929 report considered electrifying the branch too, or using "petrol cars" on it, but electrification never became a serious possibility. A number of alternative locomotives were used on the line in this period, most of them having come to the GWR from other independent lightly engineered lines. In 1932 the 4800 class of 0-4-2T locomotives started to be delivered, and variants of the class and the similar 5800 type dominated the subsequent history of the line.
Whitehall Halt was opened on 27 February 1933.
From 1948.
After nationalisation in 1948, the railway continued pretty much unchanged in the custody of British Railways. However, in 1950 the two ancient passenger coaches were replaced by two bogie coaches from the former Barry Railway. The slow speed on the line was inadequate to re-charge the lighting batteries on the coaches, so they were converted from electric to gas lighting, and were the last gas-lit coaching vehicles on British Railways. The coaches acted as guards' brake vehicles and Messenger suggests that the passenger service would have been terminated if they had not been used; five passengers a day were recorded as using Hemyock station a few years later.
Passenger usage continued to decline and early in 1962 notice of intention to discontinue the passenger service was given. In the last months the Barry Railway passenger coaches themselves had to be replaced, and two ex London and North Eastern Railway vehicles were found; Messenger says that they were run to Exeter once a week to charge their batteries. The last passenger train ran on 7 September 1963. No replacement bus service was considered necessary.
Freight only.
The following Monday a 204 hp diesel locomotive operated the remaining goods traffic on the line, and was the general motive power subsequently. General freight continued for a while, but that too was discontinued on 6 September 1965. However, the line continued to serve the dairy at Hemyock until 31 October 1975. Class 25 diesel locomotives were used in the final months. From the following day the line was closed.
The line today.
Today the line forms some popular riverside walks at various points along the valley. The station sites have been redeveloped.
Model railway.
A model railway of the line at Tiverton Junction with branch to Hemyock is displayed at Culm Valley Model Railway club at the Old Well Garden Centre.
Topography.
The line was 7 miles 27 chains in length; single track throughout, it fell consistently from Hemyock to Tiverton Junction, with two short rising lengths; the steepest gradient was 1 in 66. Stations on the line were:
The line approached Tiverton Junction station in a southward direction.
Original track.
Colonel Yolland described the track as originally provided:
The width of the line at formation level is 11 feet on the embankments and 12 feet in cuttings. The gauges were 4 feet 8½ inches. The permanent way consists of flat-bottomed or Vignoles patterned rail stated to weigh 40 lbs per lineal yard in lengths of 15 feet, 17 feet 6 inches, and 21 feet, laid on transverse sleepers of half-round Baltic timber creosoted (4½ in.), and 9 feet long placed at an average distance of three feet apart, centre to centre, except that on some of the sharpest curves an extra sleeper has been inserted under every 21 feet length of rail. No chairs are made use of, but the rail is fastened to the transverse sleepers by a fang-bolt with a clip under the head, overlapping the flange of the rail on one side, and by a wrought iron spike on the other side. On the sharpest curves a wrought iron plate is laid between the rail and the sleeper, with holes punched in it, through which the fang-bolt and spike are driven; the joints of the rails are fastened with wrought iron fish-plates and bolts, and secured to the sleepers with a fang-bolt and clip on each side of the rail. The ballast is of gravel, a small proportion of sand; it was required according to the contract, to be eight inches deep under the sleepers, but is stated to average about one foot. No engine turn table has been provided. The line has a very large number of sharp curves having radii of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 chains. The steepest incline is 1 in 66.
Literary association.
R D Blackmore wrote a three-volume novel called "Perlycross: a Tale of the Western Hills" which is set in the fictional villages of Perlycombe, Perlycross and Perliton, which represent Hemyock, Culmstock and Uffculme respectively.


Blackburn Railway


Lanchester Valley Railway

The Lanchester Valley Railway was an English railway line that was developed by the North Eastern Railway to run between to . Extending along the valley of the River Browney, it opened on 1 September 1862. Closed under the Beeching Axe, it has been redeveloped by Durham County Council as a foot and cycle path as the Lanchester Valley Railway Path.
Background.
In 1842, the Derwent Iron Company (DIC) had taken over the southern part of the former Stanhope and Tyne Railway. After the West Durham Railway constructed a line to , the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) began construction of the Weardale Extension Railway to Crook, which opened on 8 November 1843, from a junction on its leased Weardale Railway. As a result, the DIC proposed an extension from Crook to the foot of the Meeting Slacks incline, which later became , to provide a southern shipping route for their lime and iron products. Having obtained an extension of their right of way from the Bishop of Durham, the DIC submitted the plans to the S&DR, who agreed to the extension as long as the DIC leased the entire southern section of the former S&TR to them. The Stanhope to Carrhouse section passed into the possession of the S&DR on 1 January 1845, with the completed Weardale Extension Railway from the to Waskerley opening on 16 May 1845.
After the opening of the Weardale Extension Railway and the completion of Hownes Gill Viaduct under Thomas Bouch in 1858, the DIC had pressured the newly formed NER to link with the River Tyne via Gateshead.
Construction.
After the North Eastern Railway (NER) was formed in 1854, they looked for commercially sound new projects within their territory. The proposed Derwent Valley Line would give great commercial value to the DIC, but its potential value to the NER was unknown.
The NER hence proposed a larger scale plan, to connect to and onwards to via a second route. At this time, the NER had only the Leamside Line connecting the two major cities (there was no East Coast Main Line), and so a secondary line seemed promising. Further, it was known that there was coal in the valley of the River Browney, and so developing a railway through it would show speculators that relatively low-cost and reliable transport was easily available. Finally, by the 1860s the DIC needed better access to the iron town of Middlesbrough and the neighbouring ironstone of the Cleveland Hills to feed its furnaces. At this time they were accessed by various circuitous rail links between the two towns, but a direct route was required.
Construction commenced in February 1861 from Durham in the south, with all infrastructure built to double-track standards, but the line was initially built only as a single track. The line opened a year later, with stations at (North to South):
Bridges.
The NER built a number of substantial stone bridges along the line to span the River Browney, but the largest was located east of over Kitsley Burn. Needing to span a valley which was across, the railway chose a wooden structure, which when finished was a maximum of high. At the outbreak of World War I, the bridge was found to be in need of major repairs, and so under instruction from the Ministry of War and with assistance from the army, the NER replaced the structure with an embankment using colliery slag and old ballast.
Operations.
In 1870, Lord Lambton accepted an application to search for coal, and the following year it was found. After the agreement of suitable mineral rights leases, the NER in anticipation double-tracked the entire length of the line. Collieries subsequently opened at Bearpark, Malton, Lanchester and Langley Park, all served by the railway.
Passenger numbers were always light on the line, mainly from coal miners taking early morning and late night works trains, and later from workers travelling to Consett. The expansion of the coal mines in the late Victoria era resulted in the additional opening of a station at in 1883 (renamed Bearpark in 1927).
The line became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. Passenger numbers fell as the various collieries closed, and the LNER ceased regular passenger services at the outbreak of World War II.
Closure.
Occasional excursions to the Durham Miners Gala continued until 1954, after the line had passed to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. Goods traffic to the various stations continued until 1965, but the branch was closed under the Beeching Axe. Consett Steelworks traffic was diverted by British Railways via the former Stanhope and Tyne Railway, allowing the Lanchester Railway to close on 20 June 1966. Contractors removed the track the following year.
Present.
Closed under the Beeching Axe, today has been redeveloped by Durham County Council the Lanchester Valley Railway Path, suitable for walking, cycling and horse riding. At the western end of the path south of Consett, the route links with the Sea to Sea cycle route. The eastern end of the path at Broompark Picnic Area near Stonebridge meets up with the Walney to Wear route. There are many beautiful sites along its route, the ruins of Beaurepaire at Bearpark being one.


Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway


Wirral Street Car

The Wirral Street Car is a proposed tramway from Bidston Dock to Woodside Ferry Terminal to provide transport links for the Wirral Waters development. The line will use pre-existing rolling stock as well as incorporating both the disused Birkenhead Dock Branch and the Wirral Tramway that already operates as a heritage service from the Wirral Transport Museum to Woodside Ferry Terminal.
History.
Plans for the Street Car were first announced in February 2013, intending to redevelop part of the abandoned Birkenhead Dock Branch route into a streetcar system. The plans involved connecting Wirral Waters to the Merseyrail network at the Birkenhead North and Hamilton Square stations, utilising the stretch of dock branch trackbed along Beaufort Road and Corporation Road, with inner and outer loops around Vittoria Dock and East Float, respectively. Options to connect this new system to Conway Park and Birkenhead Park stations are also available, along with a further extension for the Wirral Tramway to Seacombe ferry terminal.
In November 2018, the details of a consultation by Wirral Council & Peel Land and Property called the 'Streetscape Project' were announced. The consultation is not directly focused on the street cars but the concept of a street car service is featured heavily, with the consultation suggesting that the scheme could be completed "over the next five years."


Eastern and Midlands Railway

The Eastern and Midlands Railway was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of several small railways in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, England, including the Yarmouth and North Norfolk Railway, the Lynn and Fakenham Railway and the Yarmouth Union Railway. Many of these lines were built by contractors Wilkinson and Jarvis. In 1893 the Eastern and Midlands Railway became part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.
Constituents.
The constituents of the Eastern and Midlands Railway were:
The spellings of some place names have changed since the 19th century (e.g. Wisbeach/Wisbech and Bourn/Bourne).
Locomotives.
In 1884, William Marriott became the locomotive superintendent at the company's Melton Constable Railway Works. The railway's stock included:
To the M&GN.
The Eastern and Midlands Railway became a part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1893.


Liskeard and Caradon Railway

The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was a mineral railway in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, which opened in 1844. It was built to carry the ores of copper and tin, and also granite, from their sources on Caradon Hill down to Moorswater for onward transport to market by way of Looe Harbour and coastal shipping. At first this was on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal and later on the parallel Liskeard and Looe Railway.
The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was exceedingly successful while mineral extraction boomed, but it was entirely dependent on that traffic and when the mines and quarries declined, the railway declined too, and eventually failed financially. In 1909 it was purchased by the Great Western Railway, but its days were already numbered, and it closed in 1917, its track materials being removed in aid of the war effort.
Origins.
Traces of copper ore had been discovered in streams for some time, but the turning point was the discovery of copper ore at South Caradon in 1836 by James Clymo and Thomas Kittow. The discovery encouraged the search for the lodes nearby, and in due course these other locations were successfully producing ore. In 1839 granite also was being quarried at the Cheesewring nearby. The heavy minerals needed to be transported to remote markets, and this implied getting them to the coast, for onward transport by coastal shipping. While some material went to St Germans and to the Rover Fowey, the most convenient route was to Moorswater, where the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal had its basin, giving easy connection from there to Looe Harbour. The transport of the ore cost 4s 6d per ton to get to Moorswater; the granite from Cheesewring cost 8s.
By this time, many railways were being successfully operated elsewhere in the country, and in 1842 a committee of interested businessmen proposed a railway to bring the minerals down from Caradon. Robert Coad was the engineer of the neighbouring Canal, and he was asked to prepare an appraisal of the possibilities. His report was presented on 25 June 1842, recommending a mineral railway between the canal at Liskeard and the Caradon Mines, Cheesewring and Tokenbury. The railway was to be capable of gravity operation for the loaded direction, so that the proposed route followed a broadly constant downward gradient at the expense of directness; locomotive or horse power would convey the empty wagons upwards. The line would operate as a toll road, open to independent carriers, with the railway not acting as carrier itself.
Captain William Moorsom was engineer to the Cornwall Railway (then being planned) was asked to review Coad's proposals; he approved, with the sole adjustment that horse power would be preferable. The proposed railway swiftly obtained parliamentary approval, on 26 June 1843. The capital of the Liskeard and Caradon Railway company (L&CR) was to be £12,000 in £25 shares, with authority to borrow £4,000. Horse power was specified in the Act, with a £50 penalty for crossing any turnpike road with a locomotive.
The Act had a remarkable 344 clauses and incorporation of the Company took place the following day, 27 June 1843.
Construction.
Construction started at once; it seems that it was mostly carried out by direct labour under Coad's control. Some modifications to the route were required as Coad's original alignment was found to be impracticable in certain details. Work started at the Cheesewring, and the permanent way used stone block sleepers, the stone blocks being procured at Cheesewring itself. Lower down, serious problems were encountered in gaining possession of land from the Duchy of Cornwall, who were demanding very high prices for the land. The railway construction was costing more than had been estimated, and at the same time some subscribers were not responding to calls on shares they had taken up. The Company found itself unable to pay the Duchy's price.
Loans were taken out – apparently beyond what was authorised in the Act – and to obtain some income the Company decided to open the railway as far as they could, down to Tremabe, on 28 November 1844. It is not clear how attractive the short railway transit was, involving an additional trans-shipment to road transport there.
The line was finally extended to Moorswater, opening about 8 March 1846 – the date is not certain. The proposed Tokenbury branch was not built, no doubt due to lack of funds. The tunnels originally contemplated were also avoided, but there was a rope worked incline at Gonamena to climb towards Cheesewring.
The construction had cost £27,000; about £11,000 of that was beyond the sum authorised by Parliament; by an Act of 25 June 1847 further capital of £10,500 and loans of £3,500 were authorised.
Early years.
The new railway was operated by gravity and horse traction; Murray's handbook said in 1856:
Towards evening the produce of the mines and quarries is brought down to Moorswater in detached trucks, which follow one another in succession, under the control of breaksmen, and are drawn back the next day by horses.
Because of this tidal flow arrangement, frequent passing loops were not necessary. Contrary to what was contemplated before the Act, the Company was its own carrier, with the possible exception of the granite traffic from Cheesewring.
The track was T-section rail in chairs fixed to stone blocks. It was laid to standard gauge, . Speed was limited to , half that over level crossings. It was graded at about 1 in 60 (1.7%) for most of its length.
The Company was immediately successful, with considerable and increasing tonnages conveyed: 10,000 tons were carried in 1849, and net profit was £364. About 70% of the carrying was metal ore downwards, with nearly 30% being coal uphill to fuel the mine engines; the remainder was granite – although this did not realise the volumes originally contemplated – timber, sand, lime, iron and sundries.
The route of the railway was from close to the dressing floors of the South Caradon Mine, south and then westwards on the slope of the valley below Darite, crossing under the road at Polwrath Bridge, and then south-west, turning back eastwards across the northern margin of St Cleer where there was a goods depot. Passing south of Venland Cross, the course then turned west again to Tremabe. It was here that the line terminated in 1844; it is likely that there was no depot here, but simply that the individual wagons were stopped alongside the road and the ores trans-shipped there.
At the same time, a branch from near the Cheesewring Quarry – the owner, John Trethewey had internal sidings – ran broadly south, crossing through what became Minions village, and then descending by the incline at Gonamena, passing South Caradon further up the hillside, and running parallel to the main line, descending and joining it at Polwrath Bridge.
When the line was extended in 1846 from Tremabe to Moorswater, it ran west at first, soon turning back on a curve of 3 chains radius (66 yards, 60 m) at Old Treworgy, then turning south and then west, finally descending with the East Looe River all the way to Moorswater, where there were sidings adjacent to the Canal basin.
Passengers.
The L&CR was conceived as a mineral railway, and the carriage of passengers was not contemplated or authorised. However the rock formation at the Cheesewring was a considerable local attraction, and organised excursions to it were undertaken; the West Briton reported a temperance excursion to the spot in June 1850. The excursions appear to have been hauled uphill by horse traction and returned by gravity.
Individual businessmen appear to have been granted passes on a casual basis; the Company did not have passenger coaches, so any passengers had to travel in wagons, such conveyance being at their own risk. The L&CR had no powers to carry passengers but did carry them, in open wagons, by using a legal loophole. The passengers travelled free, but a charge was made for the carriage of their hats, coats and parcels, "a system not abandoned until 31 December 1916". This form of casual passenger carriage had also been taking place on the LLUC's railway.
More traffic and more mines.
The success of the South Caradon mine encouraged a frenzy of speculative prospecting in the area; and the availability of transport to market further encouraged this. While much of the exploration turned out to be fruitless, there were many good finds as well. West Caradon Mine was soon productive, on the hill opposite South Caradon. The mine owners constructed a tramway on an inclined plane to reach down to the L&CR Cheesewring branch opposite Crow's Nest, probably by 1849. It was standard gauge on a gradient of 1 in 6, and it was 480 feet (146 m) long.
From 1852 ore was discovered at the Phoenix Mine and it became productive by 1854; the mine was a little to the east of Cheesewring Quarry. L&CR plans in 1854 to build a branch of the L&CR did not mature, and the mine owners built a narrow gauge tramway westward from their mine to the L&CR Cheesewring branch just north of Minions. Messenger says (on page 118) that this was "about 1850".
In 1858 traffic carried reached 28,650 tons (copper ore: 16,000 tons; coal: 5,600 tons; granite: 6,572 tons) all of which was carried on the canal also. Net profit was £2,317.
Quarrying on Kilmar Tor received a boost from 1856 when a lease was taken from the Duchy of Cornwall for the purpose. The Cheesewring Granite Company Limited started to exploit the abundant "loose, tumbled granite, easily quarried moorstone". Road access was impossible, and the granite company arranged to build a railway to it, and agreed with the L&CR that the Railway Company would operate it; this may have included maintenance. The line was opened on 26 August 1858. It diverged from the Cheesewring line in Minions village, running broadly north a little lower down the hill, and at first about level; it passed east of Cheesewring Quarry. Messenger says that "It must be presumed that it crossed the Phoenix Mine tramway on the level". 10,000 tons of granite were brought down it in 1859.
In the closing years of the 1850s, the production of South Caradon continued to increase, but West Caradon declined somewhat, and it became clear that the emphasis was moving eastwards, with East Caradon, Glasgow Caradon Consols, and mines in the area of Tokenbury Corner and the Marke Valley starting to become productive. Minerals from these mines were being brought to the surface some distance from the railway. At the same time, the process of transshipping to the canal at Moorswater, and the carrying capacity of the canal itself, were proving serious limitations.
In 1859 there were two platelayers and 27 brakesmen.
Extensions and locomotives.
The Liskeard and Looe Union Canal company (LLUC) responded to the volumes of traffic by building a railway closely paralleling the canal itself, and extending to the quays at Looe; their railway opened to mineral traffic on 27 December 1860, forming a direct connection with the L&CR at Moorswater. For the time being the railway, usually referred to as the Liskeard and Looe Railway, was wholly owned by the Canal Company. They hired a locomotive, "Liskeard" but they used L&CR wagons. At last the transshipment at Moorswater was eliminated.
The L&CR had applied its attention to the need for connecting the new mines, and obtained an Act of Parliament on 15 May 1860, authorising additional share capital of £12,000; the stated purposes were the construction of a Tokenbury branch, the building of a new line by-passing the Gonamena inclined plane, the acquisition of the Kilmar railway, and several local improvements to the existing lines. The L&CR evidently saw their sphere of influence as extending from Caradon to the sea at Looe, for the Act also authorised the L&CR "to arrange with the Commissioners of Looe Harbour, with respect to laying down of rails at, and the use of, the works of the Commissioners." Not all of these powers were exercised.
Work quickly started on the branch to Tokenbury; this ran south and east from the South Caradon terminal, over a high embankment near there; it was opened by May 1861 at the latest, and an extension at Tokenbury to the East Caradon dressing floor nearby was opened too. The earthworks for the line to by-pass Gonamena were started, to the west of the Gonamena line near Ponton's Piece, and abutments for a bridge were constructed, but this deviation was never completed. (The embankment is shown on modern 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey maps.)
The L&CR observed that the locomotive "Liskeard" was operating successfully on the Looe line, and the L&CR ordered a locomotive of their own from Gilkes, Wilson and Company; it was delivered in about August 1862: it was an 0-6-0ST, named "Caradon". On the original main line, many of the road crossings were level crossings and the authorising Act had forbidden locomotives from crossing the turnpike roads: a £50 penalty was specified. It appears that the company may have violated the law for a period; most of the level crossings were replaced by bridge crossings in due course. In 1864 a third engine, "Cheesewring", was acquired. Locomotive maintenance was carried out at a shed at Moorswater.
The reality now was that the overwhelmingly dominant traffic was throughout between mines and quarries on Caradon and the harbour at Looe, and in March 1862 a Joint Committee was formed between the L&CR (three members) and the LLUC (two members); it was agreed that the L&CR would work all the rail-borne traffic, purchasing the LLUC's locomotive "Liskeard" for £600, and setting tolls for carriage throughout between the mines and quarries and Looe Harbour.
Copper ore carried on the railways reached 27,000 tons in 1863, but this proved to be a peak and gentle decline followed. Coal carryings peaked at 22,000 tons as the mines went deeper and pumping became dominant.
Bodman (page 87) says that: "A narrow gauge tramway on an inclined plane was constructed to link Phoenix United with West Phoenix mine some time after 1870. It burrowed under the Kilmar Railway and near its summit ran in cutting, terminating near Stowe's Shaft. The plane was probably self-acting, taking ore down to Phoenix United for processing. Its total length was 1,230 feet (375 m)." The reference to West Phoenix is ambiguous, but here it means Stowe's Shaft near Cheesewring. Gamble defines it as "Stowe's section, also referred to as West Phoenix Shaft. West Phoenix Mine proper was further west again (south of Witheybrook Marsh)".
Against the tide, from 1865.
In the second half of the 1860s the Company started systematically upgrading the track, beginning the task of replacing the stone block sleepers with timber, and making a start on replacing level crossings with bridges (starting with Woodhill) and a third new locomotive, to be called "Kilmar", was acquired in 1869.
In 1868 the Kilmar branch (still in independent ownership) was extended with a tramway to Bearah.
In 1869 a branch line was built from Minions to Phoenix Mine. This replaced, and partly followed the alignment of, an earlier tramway. In 1871 a new line into Cheesewring Quarry at a lower level was constructed.
In this period the world prices of the minerals were reducing, and this affected the profitability of the mines considerably; this impacted also the level of tolls the company could demand, and therefore its own financial status. The improvements undertaken cost heavily, and the finances of the company were under considerable strain. Operating expenses had increased more than fivefold while income had nearly tripled. Moreover, the focus of mineral extraction was moving east and north, away from the railway, compelling it to build extensions to retain the business.
The branch to Marke Valley, and a further extension around Caradon Hill, called the Kilmar Junction Railway, opened in August and November 1877. The Kilmar Junction line, although a circuitous route, connected the locations from Minions northwards without the use of the Gonamena Incline, which was closed immediately.
The North Kilmar branch (from the Kilmar line) was opened in 1879, evidently using stone block sleepers from the Gonamena incline. The Kilmar line was not the property of the L&CR, but was worked by it, and this probably included any maintenance, as well as this extension work. Entirely remote from roads and habitation, it was apparently built without Parliamentary sanction.
In 1877 the company was taking stock of its situation, and it decided to regularise its relationship with the LLUC's railway; it had been working that line without a formal contractual arrangement. It developed proposals to lease the line, and prepared a Bill in Parliament to confirm the lease, and also to construct a connection to the line of the Cornwall Railway; that company had opened a line between Plymouth and Truro in 1859, passing Liskeard broadly east-west at a high level, and crossing the LLUC line by a viaduct.
This would have strained the financial resources of the L&CR and the Bill was in fact allowed to lapse. A formal agreement was made on 29 January 1878 to lease the entire LLUC undertaking; this was effective from 27 February 1878.
There had long been pressure for the provision of a formal passenger service on the Looe line, and this started between Looe and Moorswater on 11 September 1879, worked by the L&CR. That line was being managed by the L&CR, and the considerable upgrading works required to obtain Board of Trade approval for passenger operation were carried out by the L&CR. The process is more fully described at the Liskeard and Looe Railway article. At this time the L&CR made informal enquiries about authorising passenger traffic on its own lines, and a response from Colonel Rich (of the Railway Inspectorate, visiting to approve the Looe line's passenger facilities) was not discouraging. However the proposal seems to have been dropped, probably from simple financial considerations.
In June 1880 the Company approached the Cornwall Railway for help in subsidising a road coach between their Liskeard station and Moorswater to facilitate passenger transfer, but this was refused by the CR.
A struggle for new income – and survival – from 1882.
The "Liskeard and Caradon Railway Bill" passed its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 June 1882 and received the Prince of Wales (as Duke of Cornwall) consent for seven more branches, totalling 12 miles. Two of these had already been built: the Phoenix Mine line and the Kilmar Junction Railway; as they crossed moorland, it is likely that the formality had not previously been thought necessary.
An extension of over five miles to Trewint, near Altarnun, was planned, possibly to be extended to Camelford or Launceston, as a reaction to feared incursion into the area by other railways, and to open up mineral extraction in the area. The line was to cost £15,000 and the hoped-for subscription to fund the capital expenditure was not forthcoming. The L&CR plainly did not have the financial resources to construct such a line, and only a couple of miles of earthworks were constructed before being abandoned. The earthworks are clearly shown, labelled "Dismtd Rly" near Smallacombe on the 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map.
Other lines authorised by the Act included a connection from Moorswater to Liskeard; this too was not built, and the only new line authorised and actually built was a 400-yard connection at Rillaton (just north of Minions), providing a proper connection between the Kilmar Junction line and the Cheesewring line. Prior to this, and since the closure of the Gonamena incline, trains from Cheesewring Quarry to Moorswater had to reverse in Minions village and again on the Phoenix line. The reversal at Minions blocked the main street and had led to complaints.
Even as the L&CR's financial position declined steeply, the idea of reaching the Launceston area continued to be developed as a solution (by bringing in new income to replace the declining mineral business) and a new Act was obtained on 28 July 1884 to extend the unbuilt Trewint line by another 9½ miles. The Act also authorised a new lease of the LLUC's railway for 30 years. Passenger traffic, as a source of income, was once again proposed, and Col Rich of the Railway Inspectorate was asked to assess the line as a Light Railway. His report was very critical, due to the very sharp curves, worn out track, lack of signals and lack of gates and supervision at level crossings. Alarmingly the Board of Trade examined his report and drew the L&CR's attention to the prohibition on crossing public roads with steam locomotives under the original 1843 Act, "and that penalties were being incurred daily". The Company replied that three of seven level crossings had been replaced with bridges since 1860, and they gave instructions for the remainder to be dealt with. However Rich suggested that passengers could be carried "gratuitously" and this practice seems to have been adopted. Passengers were carried free, but they had first to purchase a ticket to Looe! A first class ticket cost 2s 6d and entitled the holder to ride in the van; third class was 1s 4d and the holder rode in open wagons. A 1910 periodical reported that at about this time travellers could be issued with a free pass if they paid for the carriage of an umbrella or hat.
School parties were frequently carried however; occasionally these amounted to forty wagons hauled by two or three locomotives; when the destination was on the moor, "even these lengthy trains returned by gravity with the locomotives following".
The income from these carryings was wiped out when in 1885 the South Caradon mine ceased operation, followed quickly by the other Caradon Hill workings; the L&CR was letting contracts for the Trewint extension and at the same time finding itself unable to repay borrowings as they came due. The crisis had no solution, and on 13 October 1886 the Liskeard and Caradon Railway went into receivership. The company continued to trade, and it was making a modest, but declining, "operating" profit. From 1886 however there were insufficient funds to pay the LLUC lease charge, and that company too then found itself in difficulty. Drastic operating economies were put in place.
In November 1885 the locomotive "Kilmar" had broken down, leaving only "Cheesewring" serviceable. An 0-6-0T hired from Peckett's of Bristol had already been returned to the owners. Money was somehow found for a new boiler for "Kilmar" and, astonishingly, money was found for an Act of Parliament, passed in 1887, to extend the time allowed for construction of the Trewint extension. In 1892 a further Act was obtained allowing extra time for the line beyond Trewint to Launceston, and to constitute that as a separate concern, the "Launceston Railway".
In 1890 the Board of Trade ordered that the block system and continuous brakes be instituted on the lines (L&CR and the LLUC line, for which the L&CR had responsibility). The block system is a train control procedure in which a railway line is considered to be divided into "sections", and no train may enter a section unless it can be verified that no other train is in the section. See Signalling block system. Continuous brakes are brakes that can be controlled throughout the train by the driver, and if they are "automatic brakes" then they are automatically applied in both portions if the train becomes accidentally divided. See Railway brake.
This was another unwanted expense, and the Company tried to negotiate an exemption; but eventually vacuum brakes were fitted, and the "One engine in steam" operating system was instituted, achieving the object of the block system.
The Looe line reaches Liskeard.
With the L&CR in receivership and defaulting on payments due to the LLUC, the latter looked gloomily at the declining fortunes of mineral extraction on Caradon, and the idea of an extension to the Cornwall Railway's main line at Liskeard was raised again. (The Great Western Railway absorbed the Cornwall Railway in 1895; their broad gauge line had been converted to standard gauge in 1892.) A number of schemes were considered over a decade or so, culminating in the Liskeard and Looe Railway Extension Act of 1895. This authorised a connecting line from Coombe to Liskeard, on a very steep gradient and forming almost a complete circle to gain height. The LLUC Company name was finally changed to the Liskeard and Looe Railway (L&LR); new capital was authorised, but was very hard to find, until a Captain John Spicer, not a local man, offered to subscribe a large sum in purchasing both preference and ordinary shares. After some delay this was done, and Spicer acquired a controlling interest in the L&LR. The Company could now proceed to build the connecting line, and work started in 1898. It opened on 8 May 1901. The L&LR had given the receiver of the L&CR notice that it would work its line itself, and that it would take over the operation of the L&CR in accordance with the terms of the earlier lease. The two lines were now operated under common management.
Nonetheless the L&CR receiver claimed for the value of the L&CR's equipment taken over, and after protracted legal processes, the L&LR were compelled to pay £3,850 to the L&CR receiver; the money was distributed among that Company's shareholders.
The L&LR passenger operation grew enormously, but despite some small new traffics, the L&CR continued to decline. The weak and worn out track was also expensive to keep in repair: maintenance costs per train mile were three times the English average.
The cost of construction of the Liskeard extension had overrun very considerably, and Spicer footed the escalating bill. Despite the relative profitability of the L&LR it was unable to pay interest charges consistently, and paradoxically it now failed to pay the L&CR lease charge, and the L&CR receiver took action against the L&LR. Hopelessly unable to pay off its huge debts, the company looked for a purchaser in the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR was anxious to keep the rival London and South Western Railway out of the area, and agreed to purchase the L&CR.
Owned by the Great Western Railway.
The purchase took effect from 1 July 1909, the GWR having taken over maintenance from 1 January. They also agreed to work the L&LR from 1 January 1909. The Great Western Railway, Liskeard & Looe and Liskeard & Caradon Railways Act was passed on 25 May 1909, confirming the changes. A liquidator was appointed; and Captain Spicer lost a considerable amount of money.
The GWR soon had a thorough technical assessment of the L&CR line done, and for a short time passenger trains, or even revival of the extension to Launceston, were under consideration. However the very poor state of the track soon put paid to these ideas, and the GWR turned to consideration of road motor service to the area.
There were sporadic signs of a resurgence of mineral extraction in the L&CR area, but the commercial possibilities were limited, and the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 finished off the projects. The GWR announced a temporary closure of the L&CR lines "to assist the war effort" on 1 January 1917, and the rails were taken up. The GWR continued to pay the wayleave rental to the Duchy of Cornwall for the Phoenix and Cornwall lines until 1933, but legal abandonment of the L&CR lines took place in 1931.
Locomotives.
"Ownership of locomotives as between the LLUC and L&CR, and whether they worked on both railways, is sometimes uncertain."
After 1909, various GWR locomotives began to appear on the line, including 1901 class Saddle tanks and 2021 class 0-6-0PT. Later, 2-6-2T of classes 4400 and 4500 were also used. In addition, experimental locomotive No. 13, then a 4-4-0T and originally built by the GWR in 1886, was recorded as being allocated to Moorswater shed in 1922.
"Note: not all of the above details are verifiable in available sources, but the primary outline is in Messenger."
Mileages.
Cooke gives milepost mileages for the line on adoption by the GWR (when the Gonamena incline had closed); from a zero at Looe the Moorswater point of junction was 7m 29c; South Caradon was 13m 66c. Tokenbury Corner (via reversal) was 14m 79c; Minions was 17m 16c; Cheesewring Quarry was 17m 67c; and Kilmar Tor was 19m 50c. (Railway distances were measured in miles and chains; there are 80 chains in a mile. One mile = 1.61 km.)
MacDermot gives the aggregate mileage at closure as 12m 45c.


Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company

The Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company operated a steam tramway service between Dudley and Stourbridge between 1884 and 1899.
History.
The tramway was authorised by the Dudley, Stourbridge and Kingswinford Tramways Order of 1881. The line to Kingswinford was not approved.
It opened on 21 May 1884 running from the London and North Western Railway Dudley railway station through Brierley Hill and Amblecote to Stourbridge.
Fleet.
Locomotives:
Eight passenger vehicles were ordered from the Starbuck Car and Wagon Company in 1884. On closure, five of these were transferred to the Birmingham and Midland Tramways Company.
Closure.
The company was purchased by British Electric Traction on 2 April 1898, and converted to electric traction. The last steam tram ran on 25 July 1899 and the operation was taken over by a new company, the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company.


Knebworth Park and Winter Green Railway

The Knebworth and Winter Green Railway was a narrow gauge railway built in the grounds of Knebworth House in 1972 as a tourist attraction.
The railway was built by Pleasurerail Ltd. a company set up to build and operate private tourist railways which included the Great Whipsnade Railway and also the line at Blenheim Palace. In 1972, they started construction on a railway in the grounds of Knewbworth House near Stevenage. The initial line was an end-to-end layout running from the house to the adventure playground. In 1980, the track was extended to form a mile-long continuous loop.
During its existence, the line hosted a number of steam and diesel locomotives. The line continued to run until 1990 when it was lifted and the remaining stock transferred to other lines
Locomotives.
These are the locomotives that stayed at Knebworth for extended periods. Not all ran there at the same time and the exact dates when they were present are not always known.


Fleetwood branch line

The Fleetwood branch line consists of the railway line from to . It passed through many smaller stations along the way (most of which are now closed). When work at Fleetwood docks was under threat in the mid-1960s, the main Fleetwood station was closed; the remainder of the branch south to Poulton followed in 1970. Proposals exist to re-open the branch to passenger services in the near future.
History.
The line was first opened in 1840. In 1966, station was closed, and station became the terminus; however, four years later in 1970 passenger services were curtailed as far as . The line continued as a freight route to access the ICI plant at until 1999, when all traffic on the line ceased.
Current situation.
Some of the track is now clear of being overgrown as the northern track was never lifted up past to just beyond Jameson Road Fleetwood although the road bridge was filled in below it. On this stretch the junction is still there where goods trains used to take coal to Fleetwood Power Station. If you look over the road bridge on Jameson Road you can still see the track (to both north & south) through the undergrowth. In the 1990s, the new A585 Amounderness Way bypass was built on the former trackbed, though sufficient space still exists for a reinstated railway should it be required.
Future of the branch.
The Association of Train Operating Companies has supported the re-opening of the branch line to Fleetwood in its report, and Lancashire County Council's (LCC) Rail Improvement Schemes draft report in March 2010 stated the case for re-opening was "compelling". Network Rail has stated that a feasibility study must first take place, which would cost around £30,000. As well as re-opening the branch, it is likely that a third platform would also be constructed at Poulton-le-Fylde.
The cost of re-opening the branch is estimated at £5.5 million as the northern track is still "in situ" to just past Jameson Road, Fleetwood.
In January 2020, the government announced funding of £100,000 for a feasibility study of the route.
As part of the Preston to Blackpool Electrification there is passive provision for reinstatement of the line to Burn Naze and Fleetwood to be reopened.
This line has been identified by Campaign for a Better Transport as a priority 1 candidate for reopening.
Preservation.
The Poulton & Wyre Railway Society is a local organisation campaigning for the line to be re-instated and have taken a three-year lease on station; LCC seeks to support the society to help to deliver the scheme.
The Society – having completed full restoration of Thornton-and-Cleveleys station, (as their headquarters) – have now begun work to clear vegetation & restore the disused platform at Burn Naze halt, (two miles north of Thornton-and-Cleveleys) as part of their ambition to restore most of the line for heritage trains.


Bere Ferrers rail accident

The Bere Ferrers rail accident occurred at Bere Ferrers railway station in England on 24 September 1917 when ten soldiers from New Zealand alighted from their troop train on the wrong side of the train, having assumed they should leave by the same side they had entered, and were struck and killed by an oncoming express.
The accident.
Two troopships of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, the "Ulimaroa" and the "Norman" had just arrived at Plymouth Sound from New Zealand, and the soldiers were en route to Sling Camp on Salisbury Plain. Their train left Plymouth Friary railway station at 15:00, the soldiers had not eaten since 06:00 that morning and had been told that at the train's first stop, Exeter, two men from each carriage could collect provisions from the brake van.
In response to a signal the train made an unscheduled stop at Bere Ferrers station at 15:52. The length of the train meant that the end carriages were outside the station and those aboard assumed that this must be Exeter station. Eager to break their ten-hour fast and ignoring the 'two from each carriage' rule, many jumped down, some onto the down-line track.
The London Waterloo to Plymouth express train had left Exeter on time at 14:12 and had made its previous stop at Tavistock. As it approached Bere Ferrers the driver noticed the stationary train and gave a prolonged blast on his whistle, but there is a sharp turn on the approach to the station and the driver was unable to see the soldiers on the track ahead until it was too late.
The express was travelling at 40 mph (65 km/h) and nine soldiers were killed instantly before the express managed to come to a halt a quarter of a mile (400 m) beyond the station. A tenth died later in Tavistock Hospital. One of the survivors said "We never thought of expresses travelling at 40 miles per hour. They don't travel at that rate in New Zealand. It was a wonder more of us were not killed." The inquest revealed that the men instinctively exited the train from the same side they had entered, placing them on the railway's other track. They would also have been unaware that in Britain all stations had high platforms, unlike New Zealand and many other parts of the world where it was normal to climb down carriage steps at stations.
Remembering the dead.
The dead were buried in Efford cemetery in Plymouth, but a brass tablet was unveiled in the local St Andrews Church the year after the accident and a plaque was also erected at the station. A further plaque was unveiled in 2001 in their memory in the village centre following a request by the New Zealand Army Museum.


Wigston Magna railway station

Wigston Magna railway station was a railway station serving Wigston Magna in Leicestershire.
In 1857 the Midland Railway opened its new main line to , diverging from the Midland Counties Railway main line at a junction slightly north of its Wigston station. A new Wigston railway station was opened on the new main line, and the Midland Counties station was renamed to reduce confusion.
In 1860 the Midland acquired running powers to on the South Leicestershire Railway, which was later extended to . In 1872 a south chord was added to Wigston Junction, creating a direct link between Wigston Magna and stations.
In its heyday Wigston was an important interchange with large sidings and wagon repair shop. A motive power depot (MPD) was added in 1873.
In the 1923 grouping the Midland became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and later the second Wigston station was renamed Wigston Magna for further clarity. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway closed the MPD in 1934 but reopened it in the Second World War while Leicester MPD was being rebuilt.
British Railways closed the MPD again in 1955. By 1968 BR closed all Midland Main Line stations between and , including Wigston Magna.