Forest of Dean Central Railway
The Forest of Dean Central Railway was a British railway company based in Gloucestershire , England .
The company was founded on July 11, 1856. The aim was to build a railway line between a planned port at Brimspill on the Severn and the Howbeach, New Fancy and Foxes Bridge coal mines in the Forest of Dean . Since not all shareholders paid their shares, the company ran into financial problems shortly after it was founded. The Great Western Railway therefore got into the company. The 7.6 km long line, opened on May 25, 1868, was built in the broad gauge of 2140 mm. It was the last broad gauge line to open in Great Britain. In Awre the connection to the route network of the Great Western Railway took place. The section between the connection of the New Fancy mine and Foxes Bridge was no longer completed, as the mine had meanwhile transported its coal elsewhere.
The Forest of Dean Central Railway was only incorporated into the GWR with the Railways Act 1923.
With the construction of the route of the Severn and Wye Railway and Canal to the coal mines in the Forest of Dean, the company lost a large part of its customers from 1875. From 1921, operations were only carried out on the section to Blakeney . This section was closed in 1949.
literature
- Christopher Awdry: Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies . Stephens, Wellingborough 1990, ISBN 1-85260-049-7 .