Tramways and Tramroads in the Forest of Dean

Fascinating stuff as usual, Roger

 

Humphrey Household included a short chapter about the Forest in his 1984 book about the railways of Gloucestershire in the 1920s

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/09/17/the-forest-of-dean-tramways-and-railways-an-addendum

While on holiday in the Forest of Dean in September 2021, I picked up a secondhand copy of "Gloucestershire Railways in the Twenties" by Humphrey Household. [1] It consists of a review of the development of the railways in Gloucestershire supported by a series of photographs which were predominantly taken in the 1920s by Humphrey Household. The photos are a significant resource. The text of the book is well-written. Its final two chapters were of real interest to me.

 

I continue to find tramways and railways in the Forest of Dean of great interest. For this next post we return to Mr Brain's Tramway which primarily served Trafalgar Colliery in the Forest.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2022/06/26/brains-tramway-forest-of-dean

Further research has resulted in a bit more information about the locomotives that worked on the Tramway. ....

 

Interesting stuff but at the start it says the loco "Free Miner' was delivered in 1965. The caption to the associated photo says 1865. I suspect that the the picture has the correct date and the text has suffered from 'fat fingers'.

 

Thank you. The change has been made!

 

Probably, Martin. It would be difficult to drive up much of Mr Brain's Tramway.

 

The Purton Viaduct and the Purton Steam Carriage Road. ....

On the road between Purton and Etloe on the Northwest side of the Severn Estuary there is a railway viaduct. Seemingly it sits remote from any former railway. Although you might just be forgiven for thinking that it is a remnant of the Forest of Dean Central Railway which ran through Blakeney, or even associated with the Severn & Wye Railway which ran close to, but to the South of, the hamlet of Purton.

[URL unfurl="true"]http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/09/10/the-purton-viaduct-and-the-purton-steam-carriage-road/[/URL]

 

Wonderful stuff! I wonder what state the tunnel is in after all of these years.

 

The Severn & Wye Joint Railway and it’s Locomotives – The Railway Magazine, November 1899.

Reading the November 1899 edition of The Railway Magazine, I came across an article about railways and tramways in the Forest of Dean … ‘The Severn & Wye Joint Railway’ by E.A. Clark.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2024/09/1...ocomotives-the-railway-magazine-november-1899

The article from 1899 adds something to the series of posts already made about the Forest and its tramways/railways

Clark says that “it was in the year 1809 that the initiative of the Severn and Wye took place. It had long been felt that there was great commercial scope in the Forest of Dean, and in this year Parliament sanctioned the construction of a tram road through the district. The undertaking was incorporated by the name of the Lydney and Lydbrook Railway Company, ‘for the purpose of making a railway or tramway from the River Wye at Lydbrook to the River Severn at Lydney, with various branches to serve the collieries in the Forest of Dean’. The Company finding their undertaking not complete, owing to there not being proper accommodation at Lydney for the export of coal, etc., in the following year (1810) obtained power by an Act of Parliament for the construction of a canal (over one mile in length) and docks or basins at Lydney to communicate with the River Severn, and the name of the Com- pany was changed by the same Act to the Severn and Wye Railway and Canal Company.” ...