Forest of Dean Central Railway
| Forest of Dean Central Railway | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Type | Heavy rail |
| Status | closed |
| Locale | Gloucestershire |
| Termini |
Awre New Fancy Colliery |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 25 May 1868 to Howbeach, 1869 to New Fancy |
| Closed | 1877 beyond Howbeach, October 1922 no regular trains beyond Blakeney, 2 August 1949 official closure |
| Owner | Forest of Dean Central Railway until Great Western Railway absorbed it in 1923 |
| Operator(s) | Great Western Railway |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge [converted 11–13 May 1872 from 7 feet 1⁄4 inch (2.140 m)] |
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The Forest of Dean Central Railway was a mineral railway line designed to connect certain collieries in the central part of the Forest of Dean to a new dock at Brimspill on the River Severn. It was authorised by Parliament in 1856, but serious difficulties were encountered in raising the money to build it. It opened in 1868 by which time the principal colliery intended to be served had ceased operation. It was unable to finance the construction of the dock at Brimspill and relied on transfer of traffic to the main line of the South Wales Railway (later the Great Western Railway).
It was a broad gauge line, and it was worked from the outset by the Great Western Railway. It was converted to standard gauge in 1872. The limited traffic potential resulted in a continuing inability to pay routine outgoings, and it was leased to the Great Western Railway in 1885.
About 1921 the last colliery on the line ceased operation and the line was shortened back to Blakeney, where there was a goods depot. That business too ended in 1949, and there was no more commercial use of the line.
For centuries, the Forest of Dean has been an important site of mineral extraction: coal and iron ore, and also stone. Free Miners had certain exclusive rights to minerals, but the restriction on outside involvement had prevented the introduction of capital and large scale industrial processes. Moreover the extremely poor road network in the area, due in part to the very hilly terrain, added cost to the products of the Forest. The Crown interest in timber had resulted in statutory control of development.
The small scale mining operations needed to get their output to market, generally by river transport on the Severn or the Wye, and a number of tramways, generally plateways, had been constructed. This culminated in the construction of the Severn and Wye Railway and the Forest of Dean Railway.
By 1830, tramroads were well established in the Forest of Dean for conveying the mineral products of the Forest to market. A coal mine was being developed at Foxes Bridge, about a mile east of Speech House, and the promoter Edward Protheroe proposed a "Steam Carriage Road", that is, a steam tramway to convey the output via Howbeach Slade to the Severn at Purton Pill, near the site of the later Severn Railway Bridge; it was to be about eight miles in extent.
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Wikipedia