Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A lost railway in the Shropshire hills


Whilst in Shropshire - at The Bog, to be precise - I bought a copy of Michael Shaw's new book The Lead, Copper and Barytes Mines of Shropshire. How could I resist a title like that?

On page 58 he writes:

If the Snailbeach Railway was a very minor line, the last of the three lines developed is positively shadowy.

Prior to the First World War Cothercott mine had a steep tramway from their principal mining area to the roadside loading dock and later mill site. In 1920, after much heated debate with the County Council over the damage their road locomotives were causing and the delays to their own shipments due to the state of the roads, they decided to connect the line to the mainline railway at Dorrington some 4 miles away.

About a mile of the line was built towards Castle Pulverbatch before either money ran out, the receiver stopped the work or the success of petrol lorries rendered the line unnecessary.

A little googling produces the above photograph of the route by Andrew Wood.

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