The Shropshire Montgomeryshire Light Railway

Download or read book The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway written by Peter Johnson and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway, was one of the lines managed and operated by Colonel Holman Fred Stephens from his office in Salford Terrace in Tonbridge Kent. It was a revival of the long disused Potteries Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway, a railway that went bankrupt shortly after opening in the mid 1860s and was left derelict for forty years. The railway reopened in 1911 to much local rejoicing, however the company was in financial difficulties by the 1920s and withdrew its passenger services in the early 1930s. During the Second World War the army took over the railway, constructing ammunition and stores depots along its entire length. After the war the railway continued to be operated by the army until closed in 1960, when it was handed over to the Western Region of British Railways for demolition. The author has researched the history of this fascinating bucolic railway over many years. In this new book he presents much previously unpublished information and many fascinating insights into the railway’s complicated history.

Download or read book The Tanat Valley Light Railway written by Peter Johnson and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-09-30 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated in the Welsh borderland to the West of Oswestry, the scenic Tanat Valley reached westwards into Wales, its Llangynog terminus nestling where the road starts the climb over the Berwyn mountain range towards Bala. It was a lightly populated area that sustained agriculture and some mineral extraction whose residents struggled to get their produce to market. During the 19th Century there were several schemes for a railway that failed due their inability to raise sufficient capital. The Tanat Valley Light Railway is, therefore, a true child of the 1896 Light Railways Act, promoted by the Oswestry Urban District Council the following year to take advantage of the grant-making facilities of that legislation. Because it took so long to obtain powers, and it was not opened until 1906, the Light Railway never really fulfilled its potential. Operated initially by the Cambrian Railways, it was not heavily worked, although it benefited from pipe traffic generated by renewals of Liverpool Corporation’s Vyrnwy reservoir pipeline. Although closure came in stages during the 1950s, and was deemed to be complete in 1960, a short section of track remains in situ at Porthywaen. Author Peter Johnson has drawn on the material available at the National Archives at Kew and the Parliamentary Archives in the House of Lords as well as conducting extensive research in digitised newspapers to tell the Light Railway’s story, producing the first in-depth account of its development, operation and closure. Peter Johnson is also the author of The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway – the rise and fall of a rural byway, published by Pen & Sword Transport in 2024. The two railways were connected at Blodwel Junction and the surviving section of the Tanat Valley Light Railway thence to Porthywaen enabled stone traffic on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire’s Nantmawr branch to continue until 1971.

Download or read book The Light Railways of Britain & Ireland written by Anthony Burton and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1985 by Moorland Press, The Light Railways of Britain & Ireland has remained unavailable for more than twenty-five years, until now. Re-released by Pen & Sword, this is a thorough and engaging book that covers, in depth, the fascinating story of Britain's last railway development, the Rural light railways, constructed as a result of the Light Railways Act 1896.Rigorously detailed, it charts the overall history of the last great railway boom in Britain the light railway boom from 1896, to the beginning of the Great War in 1914. During this period a large number of narrow and standard gauge lines were constructed in both Britain and Ireland, in order to serve and open up areas in both countries that, at the time, lacked adequate transport links. This book tells the story of how these lines were constructed and why, in most cases, they eventually failed, due to post-First World War road competition.Authored by two highly acclaimed writers of transport history, this is a true testament to, and a timely reminder of, Britain's last railway development.

Download or read book Light Railways Act, 1896 written by Great Britain. Light Railway Commission and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Light Railway written by John Scott-Morgan and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2025-03-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The light Railways Act 1896 marked the final phase in the development of the traditional railway in Britain, being designed to open up rural areas of Britain that had been bypassed by the larger railway companies. The promoting and construction of light railways allowed many parts of Britain and Ireland, to have an outlet to the outside world and major cities, which previously they had not enjoyed. The Light Railway is not designed to be a definitive history, but a pictorial tribute to the brave attempt to develop a rural network of lines to serve some of the areas of the British Isles and Ireland that had sadly been neglected by the large main line companies throughout the initial and later railway development period from 1825 to 1896. This volume looks at the railways themselves, motive power and infrastructure that made up these small but important lines, promoted by our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors.

Download or read book Shropshire Railways written by Geoff Cryer and published by Crowood. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of four hundred years of railways in Shropshire, from the primitive wagonways of the pre-railway age to the county's current rail network and services. Fully illustrated with almost two hundred monochrome and colour photos, Shropshire Railways is an ideal resource for anyone with an interest in this county with its rich railway history, and home to one of Britain's top heritage railways. Including detailed route maps and a survey of timetables over the years, the book covers the pre-railway age and the coming of the main lines, with the opening of the Shrewsbury and Chester railway in 1848; the 'grouping' of the railway companies from 1923 - the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) era in the county; the British Railways period from 1948-1994 - nationalization and modernization, passenger and freight trains, and locomotive sheds; the minor lines, the industrial railways and the heritage railways; privatization and the current main line scene. Illustrated with 205 colour and black & white photographs and maps.

Download or read book The 1896 Light Railways Act written by John Hannavy and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story behind a Victorian law with a welcome and unexpected side effect - it allowed today's heritage railways to come into being.