Colsterdale Waterworks Light Railway
| Colsterdale Waterworks Light Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Hunslet Locomotive Leeds No. 1 of the Leeds Corporation
fully occupied with Leeds Pals soldiers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Route in the area of Masham station, 1929
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| Route length: | 9.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 610 mm ( 2 foot track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Colsterdale Waterworks Light Railway was a 9.7 km long light railway with a gauge of 610 mm (2 feet ) from Masham Station to Roundhill Reservoir and Leighton Reservoir in North Yorkshire , England . It was operated from 1901 to 1932.
Route
The route led from the north end of Masham station on the North Eastern Railway , at which there was a transfer station from the standard gauge to the narrow-gauge railway , to the Leighton Reservoir, a reservoir whose water flows over the River Burn into the River Ure . The reservoir is located next to Roundhill Reservoir about 4 miles west of Masham.
Building and operating history
The light railroad was built around 1901 to transport building materials for the construction of the dam. It was initially operated by the Harrogate Corporation in the construction of the Roundhill Reservoir. Later it was also used by the Leeds Corporation, which built the Leighton Reservoir below it.
The two construction companies agreed in 1905 with the North Eastern Railway (NER) to build a transfer station north of the road from Marsham to Melmerby on the opposite side of the standard gauge terminal station. For this purpose, a standard-gauge siding was moved to the reloading station. Construction began on Leeds Corporation in 1908. In 1910, Harrogate Corporation acquired the light railroad after completing Roundhill Reservoir.
In a remote area called Breary Banks in Colsterdale, west of Masham, a camp was set up for the construction workers who built the reservoir. But it was abandoned after a mysterious crevice appeared in the reservoir's basin, after which the construction workers were relocated to another construction site.
After the outbreak of World War I, the light railway was confiscated for military purposes and then extended. The 15th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, the so-called Leeds Pals , took over the camp as a training camp in September 1914 and prepared there for use in the First World War . In December 1915 the Leeds Pals were relocated to Egypt .
In 1915, construction work on the reservoir was temporarily stopped. The military camp was used as a prisoner of war camp for German prisoners of war from January 1917. In 1919 construction work started again. The light railroad was not dismantled until the early 1930s, a few years after the construction work was completed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Disused Stations: Masham Station . Retrieved November 9, 2019.
- ↑ Route on OpenStreetMap.
- ^ A b Andy Elms: Stanley Thomas Arthur Neil.
- ↑ How we fed lobster and game to PoWs at Christmas: Long-lost diary reveals German officers held in Yorkshire Dales enjoyed festive feast and were even given presents.
Coordinates: 54 ° 13 ′ 36.1 ″ N , 1 ° 38 ′ 49 ″ W.