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Shropshire Railways |
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Early Railways Transport of coal
and metal ores from mines was a great problem as the first method used was a
packhorse, which could only carry about 3 hundredweight of goods. Where possible, these were replaced with a
waggon pulled by three horses and that could move the equivalent of 20
packhorses. The waggons tended to turn
tracks into muddy quagmires and, as they moved to the sides to find firmer
ground, made the tracks very wide.
This was unpopular with landowners as it spoiled a lot of their land
and it sometimes led to them refusing access.
As a result, experiments were carried out using wooden planks over
which the waggons passed. This then
led to wooden rails being laid down in parallel, with rails usually being 3½
inches x 4½ inches thick and fixed to wooden sleepers. These were known as waggonways or tramways
and they reduced friction on the wheels, thus allowing horse-drawn waggons to
move along more easily. Another
benefit was that horses could now pull loads of up to 13 tons, a fourfold
increase on previously. The
first recorded use of a tramway, using a flange to keep the wheel on the
rail, was in 1604 when Huntingdon Beaumont constructed the Wollaton Waggonway
to transport coal from mines at Strelley to Wollaton, near Nottingham. It has
been suggested that the system may have been in use in Shropshire before that
date but there is no documentary evidence.
The
first recorded use of a wooden railway in Shropshire was in Broseley in 1605,
by Richard Wilcox and William Wells for carrying coal. It ran for ½ mile from a mine in Birch Leasows via Birch Batch to Calcutts and the River Severn
(known locally as the Jackfield Rails). The line crossed the land of James
Clifford, lord of the manor and rival coalmaster and, perhaps in anticipation
of his opposition, Wilcox and Wells had sought a licence from the Privy
Council for its construction. Within week, Clifford's men had attacked and
seriously damaged the railway and soon afterwards built his own railway from
his mines near Calcutts to the river.
Those rails were removed by Wilcox and replacements of them by Wells.
There is a reference to Clifford’s waggonway in 1606 as using “tylting
railes”, ie an incline down to the River Seven. By 1608 Clifford had also
laid rails from mines west of Calcutts.
A number of waggonways were constructed in the area from the mid-17th
century onwards :- 1686 – “Benthall Rails” from mines at
Benthall to the River Severn 1692 - 1,500 yards from Lane Pit to
the River Severn 1692 - from mines in Madeley Wood to
the River Severn 1702 – by Richard Manning and
Lancelot Taylor from Broseley to the river via Tarbatch Dingle 1706 - from a pit in Lloyds Dingle to
the River Severn, with a 'wind' and chain to let coal and ironstone waggons
down the steep hillside 1700s – from Broseley, west of
Corbatch Dingle to the Tuckies 1728
- by William Forester and William Hayward to carry ironstone from Little
Wenlock to Meadow wharf on the River Severn It seems that the average dimensions of wooden rails
were 6ft x 8 inches x 4 inches but other sizes were
in use. The early wagons had 4 wooden
wheels 1 foot in diameter. To reduce
wear, some rails were fitted with metal strips on top, although this meant
that wheel then took the wear instead.
As a result of this, wooden wheels were replaced by ones made of iron
and in 1729 the Coalbrookdale Ironworks began to produce iron wheels, with an
inside flange to run on the rails, and the Horsehay Ironworks produced the
axle-trees. The wagons at this time were 10ft long and
4ft wide, pulled by 3 horses and carrying 2½ tons. The extra weight led to the wooden rails,
even with a metal strip on top, starting to break because of the weight and
hardness of the wheels, which were about 3 hundredweight each.
Meanwhile more waggonways were built
:- 1730s – J U Smitheman
was buying large numbers of iron wheels for railway waggons from the
Coalbrookdale Company to be used in Madeley 1741 – from Lane Pits to Ludford Wharf. The waggons on this used iron axles and
wheels. 1747 - from the Horsepasture Mines to a wharf on Watling Street. 1747 - 8 miles from Hollinswood to Sutton Wharf on the River Severn 1747 - to the Shrewsbury Canal west of the Trench inclined plane 1747 - from Priorslee to the Wrockwardine Wood inclined plane 1748 - by the Coalbrookdale Company
at Lake Head 1748 - by John Wilkinson from Willey
Furnace to River Severn 1750
- 2 miles by the Coalbrookdale Company from Forester's mines at Coalmoor to
the Coalbrookdale Furnaces 1755 – by the Coalbrookdale Company
from Horsehay Furnaces to Coalbrookdale Ironworks via Dawley and
Coalmoor. There was a 112 yard gravity incline at Jigger’s Bank.
1755 – by the Coalbrookdale Company
from Horsehay Furnaces to mines at Lawley and Ketley. This was 16ft wide and ran from Horsehay,
northwest of Dawley Green and via Dawley Bank 1757 – by the Coalbrookdale Company
between Horsehay Furnace and Ketley Furnace 1758
– three by the Coalbrookdale Company from coal and ironstone pits to the
Madeley Wood ironworks The next development was to replace
the wooden rails with ones made completely of iron and this idea is usually
credited to Richard Reynolds, who purposely did not patent the idea so that
it could be used by everyone. He experimented first in the yard at Coalbrookdale
Ironworks and there is an entry in the ledger on November 1767 for “100 iron
rails 111cwt. 2qtr. 11lbs @ 7/-“. The experiment was successful and by August
1768 the Coalbrookdale Company was regularly producing iron rails at 1½d
each. No doubt the company replaced
its own wooden rails first and used these to impress customers to buy
them. There seem to have been two
types of iron rail, one type being 6ft long, 33⁄4 inches
wide and 11⁄4 inches thick, with four
projecting lugs (3 inches x 33⁄4 inches)
to enable them to be fixed to the sleepers. The other type was only 3ft long
and 2 inches wide. This type of
rail was known as “edge rail” and relied on the flange being on the waggon
wheel. The section of waggonway from
the Coalbrookdale Ironworks to the river was later described “… the tram
plates are 5 and even 5½ feet long and lie in cast iron chairs. The tramroad at Coalbrookdale comprises
really two; a small one of twenty inch gauge, which
is worked with small receptacles, lies in the middle of a large one of 36
inches gauge”. Another development was
to replace the wooden sleepers with stone blocks, which were sturdier.
Waggonway
Below Coalbrookdale Ironworks [W Law 1845] Another type of rail was invented by
John Curr from Sheffield, which came to be called a plateway. This had
L-shaped iron rails or plates, 3ft long and 4 inches wide, having on the
inner side an upright ledge or flange, 3 inches high at the centre and
tapering to a height of 2 inches at the ends. The purpose of this was to keep flat waggon
wheels on the track. Since plateways were cheaper than edge rails, both types
were in use until the early 19th century, when it was accepted
that the flanged wheel had a better performance on curves.
A later innovation in the early 19th
Century, called the Birkenshaw Rail, had a T-shaped cross section and was
very like the rails used today.
However, apart from being used on tramways between Madeley Court
Ironworks and local mines, it did not catch on locally. in Meanwhile, more tramways were being built :- 1769 – by the Coalbrookdale Company
to Park Furnace 1786 - 1,000ft by William Reynolds in the Tar Tunnel 1788
- by the Coalbrookdale company from Horsehay Furnaces to mines at Donnington
Wood. By this time the Company had
over 20 miles of iron railways. 1794
– by the Coalbrookdale Company from the bottom of Brierly Hill, along Lincoln
Hill to the River Severn 1799
– by Thomas Botfield from Hollinswood to Sutton Wharf on the River Severn 1799
- from the Shropshire Canal to Bedlam Furnaces, Lloyds Pit, Meadow Pit (via
an inclined plane), Shaw’s Pit, Madeley Court Pit, Tweedale Ironworks and
Hales Pits 1800 - from Lincoln Hill Limeworks to Bedlam Furnaces, via a tunnel 1800s
- in a sandstone mine at Madeley Wood and an ironstone mine at Ironbridge,
from the latter an inclined plane ran down to the River Severn. 1800s
- from Doseley Wharf on the Shropshire Canal to Deepfield Colliery at Little
Dawley 1800s
- from Horsehay Furnaces to Dawley Castle Furnaces, running over Pool Hill
Bank across the Pool Fields in front of Dawley Church. 1801
- from the top of Brierly Hill incline to Horsehay Furnaces. In 1801, Richard Trevithick had built a full-size steam road
locomotive at Camborne. He took out a
patent for his high pressure steam engine and, In
1803, in conjunction with Richard Reynolds, built a stationary engine at the Coalbrookdale Ironworks. The
Company then built a rail locomotive for him but little is known about it
apart from a drawing preserved at the Science Museum. The design incorporated a 4½ inch single
horizontal cylinder enclosed in a return-flue boiler. A flywheel drove the
wheels on one side with a stroke of 3ft through spur gears, and the axles
were mounted directly on the boiler, with no frame. On the drawing, the piston-rod, guide-bars
and cross-head are located directly above the firebox door, thus making the
engine extremely dangerous to fire while moving. It was designed for a
tramway with a gauge of 3ft. Whatever the layout of the locomotive it did not
run for long, as there was a fatal accident followed by an enquiry. The whole
episode was hushed-up and the locomotive converted into a stationary engine.
Yet more horse-drawn tramways were constructed - 1812 - from Old Park Ironworks to the Shropshire Canal at Hinkshay 1810 – by the Coalbrookdale Company from Coalbrookdale Ironworks to
the Shropshire Canal near Dawley Castle via the Lightmoor valley. 1817 – by the Coalbrookdale Company from Brandlee to the Shropshire
Canal near Dawley Castle, with feeders from Portley and Deepfield
Collieries 1820 - by the Coalbrookdale
Company from Horsehay Furnaces to Coalbrookdale Ironworks via Lightmoor
Dingle 1824
– by the Madeley Wood Company from Gleedon Hill to the River Severn about ½
mile west of Buildwas Bridge 1827 - along the riverside at Jackfield connecting
several lines running to the river from the area east of Broseley 1844 – 1 mile by the Lilleshall Company from the Shrewsbury &
Newport Canal at Lubstree Wharf to the company's various works 1849 – the main line railways from Shrewsbury to Birmingham and
Stafford were laid through East Shropshire and steam locomotives had
arrived. It would not have been long
before horse-drawn transport on all the tramways would have been replaced.
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