Lea Bailey Light Railway

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Lea Bailey Light Railway
Battery locomotive
Battery locomotive
Line of the Lea Bailey Light Railway
Locomotive shed
Route length: 0.183 km
Gauge : Originally 1435 mm
today 610 mm

The Lea Bailey Light Railway is a 183 m long narrow gauge railway with a gauge of 610 mm (2 feet) west of Mitcheldean in England . It is run on a voluntary basis as a museum railway.

history

Route of the Lea Bailey Light Railway (blue) on the old route of the Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway (pink)

Lea Bailey Light Railway was and will be built on the site of a former gold mine established by the Chastan Syndicate on November 20, 1906. After 75,000 shares were sold at £ 1 each, test digs at Lea Bailey and nearby Staple Edge showed that the small amounts of gold could not be economically mined. The syndicate was therefore dissolved in 1908.

The mine was later enlarged so that around 3000 tons of iron ore could be extracted, which is little compared to the 150,000 tons at the nearby Wigpool Ironstone Mine .

The owners of the Clearwell Caves wanted to open the mine as a tourist attraction in 2003, but they did not succeed. In 2012, a small group from the Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club explored the mine shaft and found a number of decommissioned rail vehicles there. They suggested to the owners that volunteers could renovate the site. By 2014, two locomotives and several wagons were brought from the warehouse in Clearwell Caves or the nearby Hawthorn Tunnel to Lea Bailey.

In 2013 the Bailey Light Railway Society was founded, whose members lay narrow-gauge tracks on the former route of the standard-gauge Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway and do voluntary work on the site. The tracks are also used to demonstrate the locomotives of other collectors, e.g. B. an Eimco compressed air locomotive imported from America (No. 401-216) or a Murphy battery locomotive with 12 V (No. WR8).

Locomotives

  • Hunslet 4wDHF 7446, built in 1975
  • Motor Rail Simplex 4wD 21282, built in 1960
  • Wingrove & Rogers L1009

Web links

Commons : Lea Bailey Light Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chastan Syndicate of 13-14 Abchurch Lane, London. Grace's Guide.
  2. ↑ Lea Bailey Gold Mine Experience . Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2014 and April 12, 2017.
  3. ↑ Oliver Hunter's Website - Caving . Retrieved January 7, 2014 and April 12, 2017.
  4. ↑ Lea Bailey Light Railway - Newsletter No. 1 . Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Lea Bailey Light Railway Society - Newsletter Archive . Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  6. ↑ Chance to see rare loco in action at Lea Bailey. Ross Gazette. Published September 15, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  7. ↑ Four adjacent Dean Forest narrow gauge railways to hold Open Days on September 20, (2014). Published August 30, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  8. ^ Robert Pritchard: Great Welland Railway & Railway Site. Published July 28, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 '23.7 "  N , 2 ° 31' 8.2"  W.