Stratford and Moreton Tramway
The Stratford and Moreton Tramway was an approximately 25 kilometer long, originally operated entirely as a horse-drawn railway line from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire to Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire , with a branch line to Shipston-on-Stour . It was opened in 1826 and was originally supposed to continue to London .
history
initial situation
The Industrial Revolution had made the area around Birmingham one of the most important industrial areas in England. One reason for this was the wealth of natural resources, especially hard coal . But limestone and other rocks were mined here. For the transport of goods, a wide network of was in 1800 Narrowboat - channels built, including 1,816 completed Stratford-upon-Avon Canal , the connection to the river in the southern Birmingham Stratford Avon enabled.
Born in 1771 in nearby Henley-in-Arden , William James was originally a lawyer who later got rich with real estate businesses. He owned several coal mines in the area and shares in the Stratford Canal. He saw the solution to the transport problems in the United Kingdom in the then new technology of the railway . He became the mastermind of various railway lines, including the famous Liverpool and Manchester Railway . Around the same time his plans for a Central Junction Railway arose , which would run from Stratford-upon-Avon via Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford , Thame and Uxbridge to London . After consultations with his friend John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale , a stripped-down version was first tackled, which should only connect Stratford, Moreton and Shipston. At this early stage of the project, noted civil engineer Thomas Telford served as a consultant.
On May 28, 1821, Parliament approved the creation of the Stratford and Moreton Railway Company . William James and Lord Redesdale were among the 59 founding members. The shares were fixed at £ 33,500 , which was exactly the estimated construction cost. Another £ 7,000 was allowed to be taken out as a mortgage . The time limit for construction was five years.
Planning and construction of the main line
Initially, there were heated discussions within the company about the technical implementation of the plans. One group, including James, supported the operation with steam locomotives , which the use of rails of wrought iron instead of the much more brittle cast iron required. The other side planned to have the wagons pulled by horses on flat stretches of road; Differences in altitude should be overcome with the help of stationary steam engines .
In 1922 the company hired the railway engineer John Urpeth Rastrick , who seven years later was to be one of the referees in the famous Rainhill race . Rastrick doubted that the operation on the line between Stratford and Moreton could be managed with the locomotives available at the time, but recommended that the line be built to be suitable for locomotives in the event of later advances in locomotive technology. This proposal finally prevailed.
During the construction, the company ran into serious financial difficulties. In June 1825, Parliament approved the issuance of an additional £ 6,000 shares and an additional £ 30,000 mortgage. The time limit for construction was extended by another five years. However, it has now been made a condition that no steam locomotives may be used where the route ran next to public roads or even in urban areas.
Meanwhile, William James, bogged down with too many railroad projects , had been declared bankrupt . In April 1926, the Stratford and Moreton Railway Company separated from him.
On September 5, 1826, the main line between Stratford and Moreton finally opened, which was celebrated with a large market in Moreton. The Stratford and Moreton Tramway was the first railway line in Warwickshire.
Technical details
The car of Stratford and Moreton Tramway drove with flanged wheels on forged 15 foot long fish-belly rails every three feet, with horizontal mounting holes. Between two adjacent holes, the rails each had a fish belly. The rails were with cast iron rail chairs keyed , in turn, with pins from oak to 15 × 15 inch large stone blocks were attached. A total of 900 tons of rails, 180 tons of rail chairs, 66,000 stone blocks and 133,000 oak pencils were procured for the construction of the main line.
Continuous railway sleepers were dispensed with in order to create a continuous, level running surface for the horses between the rails. Later, however, full-length sleepers were sometimes installed to prevent the rails from drifting apart. Wooden sleepers were also used at the alternative points (see below).
The exact track width is no longer known, but in any case it was very close to the standard track of 1435 millimeters (4 ′ 8.5 ″).
Operation of the route
A special feature of the Stratford and Moreton Tramway was that the actual railway operations were not carried out by the company itself. Rather, users could drive their own vehicles on the route and had to pay a usage fee for it. The following schedule of fees was announced shortly before the opening:
| Cargo | Usage fee in pence per tonne per mile |
|---|---|
| Coal, coke, coarse grit , iron, lead and other metals, hay and straw, flagstones and building materials | 2 |
| Grain, lumber, floorboards, staves, lime, limestone, slab, peat, bricks and roof tiles | 1½ |
| Stone for building purposes, paving stones in the raw state, slag, gravel or stones for road construction, ash, sand, clay, manure, marl and chalk | 1 |
| all other raw materials, goods and commodities | 4th |
Residents had the right at his own expense sidings to let place.
About every quarter mile there were alternative points . If two oncoming trains met, the one less far from the next passing point had to reset. Later these passing points were closed and instead a changing system of facilities was introduced - in the morning you were only allowed to drive towards Moreton, in the afternoon only towards Stratford.
Less than two years after commissioning, numerous structural defects were found on the line. Among other things, damage to the superstructure such as broken stone blocks as well as steep embankments and cuts , which had already led to minor landslides , were criticized . John Rastrick's assistant (the latter had already withdrawn from the project by then) was fired and a new operations manager was hired to repair the damage in the years that followed.
From November 1, 1829, the tramway was leased to Benjamin Baylis, who was entitled to the customer's usage fees in return for a fixed amount. In addition, he had to remove the consequences of further landslides at his own expense.
The tramway had a positive effect on the condition of the Clopton Bridge , which spanned the Avon in Stratford parallel to the aforementioned Tramway Bridge . William Willmot, who had taken over the maintenance of the road bridge for an annual payment of £ 42, offered the same service in a letter of April 8, 1828 for only £ 25 a year after the extensive elimination of heavy traffic.
The branch line to Shipston
In June 1833, Parliament approved the construction of the previously planned branch line from Darlingscott, about nine miles south of Stratford, to Shipston-on-Stour . However, it was made a condition that locomotives or other motor vehicles were only allowed to be used if the route crossed or crossed all toll roads on bridges or in tunnels. Since this was too expensive for the tram company, the route was also only planned as a horse-drawn tram. The line was opened in February 1836.
Freight and passenger transport
Over the entire period of its existence, the tramway was primarily used for freight transport. The main cargo was coal , which was transported southward from Stratford. Its importance increased from 1850 after a gasworks had been built near Shipston-on-Stour station . Around 15,000 tons of coal were transported annually. In the opposite direction, mainly limestone from the Cotswolds was transported. But other building materials, metals and agricultural products were also transported on the tramway.
In contrast, passenger traffic only played a modest role. In 1832/33 an average of seven passengers per week were carried. In 1839 there was still a Friday only service for passengers, from Moreton to Stratford in the morning and back in the evening. At least in 1842, 1844 and 1850 there was a comparable connection every weekday. No passenger traffic can be proven for the branch line to Shipston for this period.
Takeover by the OWWR and partial conversion to steam operation
In 1845 the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was founded, whose route should run through Moreton-in-Marsh. An agreement between the Stratford and Moreton Railway Company and the OWWR stipulated that the latter should lease the tram, which happened in May 1847. At the beginning of 1852 the OWWR took over the tramway completely. Their chief engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel , should look into the possibility of switching to steam. Brunel saw little opportunity to achieve this economically for the northern part near Stratford.
From August 1, 1853, under the direction of a hotel owner from Shipston called Bull, passenger traffic from Moreton to Stratford and to Shipston began, with Moreton being connected to the trains of the OWWR. Bull used an ordinary railroad car that had been converted for horse riding and ran once or twice a day. These trips were stopped in October 1858. Regular passenger traffic was probably no longer offered on the route afterwards, but passengers continued to be carried occasionally.
In 1862, the West Midland Railway , in which the OWWR had meanwhile been absorbed, planned to close the tramway, but withdrew these plans after protests by the population of Shipston. In the following year, WMR finally merged with the Great Western Railway .
It was not until the 1880s that the section between Moreton and Shipston was converted to steam operation again. For reasons of cost, it was decided to continue to use the previous horse-drawn tram route and only build a new connecting curve at the junction. The restriction of 1833 that there were no level crossings with toll roads when steam was running was lifted by parliament in 1884. Steam operation could finally be started on July 1, 1889, with 4 mixed pairs of trains running daily on weekdays.
Cessation of operations
Operations on the northern section between Stratford and the Shipston Junction ceased in the early 20th century, probably in 1904. Plans for a kind of rail bus service between Stratford and Shipston failed. In the course of the First World War , the rails were removed in 1918 to be recycled as scrap metal . Eight years later, in 1926, the line was formally closed.
On the remaining route between Moreton and Shipston, passenger traffic continued until the introduction of the summer timetable in 1929. Freight traffic was only stopped in May 1960. Between 1961 and 1963 this line was also dismantled.
Current condition
Bridge over the Avon
The most significant structure still in existence on the Stratford and Moreton Tramway is the bridge over the Avon , built by John Rastrick in Stratford in 1823 , which is now used as a pedestrian bridge. It has nine arches made of brick, each 30 ft wide. Since 1951 it has been a listed building (classification Grade II ).
In 2010, a recessed lighting installation was commissioned on the bridge for £ 138,000, tracing the foundations and rails of the railway. Due to constant malfunctions, the installation was completely redone in 2016 for an additional £ 90,000.
gallery
The light installation on the bridge over the Avon (status 2011)
Underpass to the south of Stratford-upon-Avon
The Old Junction Cottage at Ilmington. The route coming from the left from Stratford split into the route to Moreton (front) and that to Shipston (rear). The larger part of the building on the right was not added until the second half of the 20th century.
The former route of the Stratford and Moreton Tramway on the grass verge next to the A3400 north of Newbold on Stour
Stone block with the holes for the oak pins
Former weighbridge at the station in Shipston
literature
- John Norris: The Stratford and Moreton Tramway , Railway & Canal Historical Society, 1987, ISBN 0-901461-40-7
- The Stratford & Moreton Railway in Railway Magazine, February 1935 issue, pp. 113-118
Web links
- Video of the light installation on the bridge (status 2016)
- Stratford-upon-Avon & Moreton-in-Marsh Railway Page with numerous photos of the route from the 1980s
Individual evidence
- ↑ OLD TRAMWAY BRIDGE on historicengland.org.uk
- ^ Poster for the opening of the railway line on www.warwickshirerailways.com
- ^ Robert Ferris: GWR Route: Moreton-in-Marsh to Stratford upon Avon Tramway at www.warwickshirerailways.com
- ^ John Norris: The Stratford and Moreton Tramway , Railway & Canal Historical Society, 1987, ISBN 0-901461-40-7 , pp. 16 f.
- ^ A Railway Relic at Stratford , Great Western Railway magazine, March 1938
- ^ Horse drawn railway wagon on the Science Museum Group website
- ↑ Maurice Ribbans: Clopton Bridge - A Short History of the Gateway to Stratford-upon-Avon , p 33
- ↑ OLD TRAMWAY BRIDGE on historicengland.org.uk
- ↑ Chris Smith: VIDEO Tramway lights are back on! , Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 6th December 2016