There was a thread on this sub-forum in July 2019, about incidences -- overall, never immensely numerous -- of the 3-feet gauge (a personal favourite gauge of mine) in Great Britain: going in different ways, beyond the very few conventional public railways on that gauge which ever ran on "our archipelago's biggest island and immediate-neighbouring lesser ones". With that thread's having been, with the elapsing of time, closed; I'm herewith taking up the subject anew -- concerning stuff which I confess is in the "minutiae" category, but which has, however, attracted my attention. It so happened that within a metaphorical couple of weeks recently, I in different ways -- via material on RailUKForums -- learned for the first time, of three (admittedly "small-time", and very short-lived) highly different and diverse and to me interesting, 3' gauge undertakings which long ago, operated in widely-separate parts of England. ("Pointers" given below -- I'm unfortunately incompetent in the matter of "doing" links -- for any who might feel similarly intrigued.)
Working north-to-south: one of the discoveries was the Blake Dean or Hardcastle Crags railway in the Pennines, in West Yorkshire -- nearest point on the main rail system, Hebden Bridge: active roughly 1900 - 1910, its purpose to assist in the making of reservoirs (going by various names) to provide water for Halifax. This 3' gauge system, totalling about five miles, was physically isolated from the national rail system far below: locomotives and plant had to be horse-hauled from railhead up to the relatively "lower" terminus. The railway was worked by small saddle-tank locos -- fifteen of them in all -- and included a high and impressive trestle viaduct. One of its upper termini was colourfully named Dawson City -- a temporary settlement for workers on the project and their dependents.
A Net reference -- with my track record, likely not to work as a link: [Edit -- well, I'm blowed -- seems it does work.]
Otherwise -- Googling "Blake Dean railway" will yield various material, including the item referenced above.
Next one southward -- discovered totally by accident, actually in a non-railway context; interest stimulated by its being basically in the part of the country which I hail from -- a 3' gauge timber-hauling system at Santon Downham: on the Ely -- Norwich route between Brandon and Thetford, village never had a passenger station. Said system came to be, late in World War I; initially for the purpose of timber extraction re the war's great need for that commodity. System was in two branches heading essentially southward from the standard gauge at Santon Downham (at which point a sawmill was set up), its total route length just under three miles. The motive power was three Bagnall 0-4-0ST; the system commenced operation in summer 1918, working for the Ministry of Supply --passed into private hands after the end of the war, and continued to work until approximately 1922.
(One can Google "Santon Downham Tramway".)
Last, and distance-wise very much least -- the LBSCR's Brighton -- Devil's Dyke branch (abandoned 1938) had for a brief while, a short but dramatic prolongation at its upper terminus, involving the "three-foot". There was a 3' gauge, double-track, passenger funicular line -- length 840 feet -- running from, basically, "the top of the hill", down to the (inland) village of Poynings at its bottom. The LBSC standard-gauge terminus; and the funicular's upper terminus; were kind-of linked (with two bits to be negotiated on foot) by a quite exciting cable-car set-up which spanned the chasm that divided the two. This whole thing -- marvellous though it strikes me as having been -- never prospered financially: in part because, as with many delightful railway byways in Britain and elsewhere, it essentially came into being too late in the day. These Devil's Dyke / Poynings doings, together, essentially ran for some ten / a dozen years, from the mid / late 1890s to very late in the decade of the 1900s. Even this early in transport history, the funicular's traffic came to be largely taken away by road motor buses running between the "summit", and Poynings.
I simply found the just-above one fascinatingly strange, and hitherto totally unknown to me. Have previously expressed on this site a sentiment that for me, funiculars are not real railways: feel that way for sure, re non-passenger ones; but this thing in Sussex just seemed so wonderfully odd. Interest kindled in part by my having a railway atlas which tries -- sometimes erratically -- to feature "all the railways that there ever were in Britain": way beyond just the national public rail system at its peak roughly a century ago. With attention directed by an item on these Forums, to the Dyke branch: I noticed this atlas's showing a short line from a separate "The Dyke" station, to Poynings; thought, "what the ****?", and resorted to Google.
(Googling thus: "Poynings cable railway".)
Working north-to-south: one of the discoveries was the Blake Dean or Hardcastle Crags railway in the Pennines, in West Yorkshire -- nearest point on the main rail system, Hebden Bridge: active roughly 1900 - 1910, its purpose to assist in the making of reservoirs (going by various names) to provide water for Halifax. This 3' gauge system, totalling about five miles, was physically isolated from the national rail system far below: locomotives and plant had to be horse-hauled from railhead up to the relatively "lower" terminus. The railway was worked by small saddle-tank locos -- fifteen of them in all -- and included a high and impressive trestle viaduct. One of its upper termini was colourfully named Dawson City -- a temporary settlement for workers on the project and their dependents.
A Net reference -- with my track record, likely not to work as a link: [Edit -- well, I'm blowed -- seems it does work.]
Hardcastle Crags | West Yorkshire
Explore Hardcastle Crags, West Yorkshire, a South Pennines beauty spot with over 400 acres of unspoilt woodland and the 19th-century Gibson Mill at its heart.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Otherwise -- Googling "Blake Dean railway" will yield various material, including the item referenced above.
Next one southward -- discovered totally by accident, actually in a non-railway context; interest stimulated by its being basically in the part of the country which I hail from -- a 3' gauge timber-hauling system at Santon Downham: on the Ely -- Norwich route between Brandon and Thetford, village never had a passenger station. Said system came to be, late in World War I; initially for the purpose of timber extraction re the war's great need for that commodity. System was in two branches heading essentially southward from the standard gauge at Santon Downham (at which point a sawmill was set up), its total route length just under three miles. The motive power was three Bagnall 0-4-0ST; the system commenced operation in summer 1918, working for the Ministry of Supply --passed into private hands after the end of the war, and continued to work until approximately 1922.
(One can Google "Santon Downham Tramway".)
Last, and distance-wise very much least -- the LBSCR's Brighton -- Devil's Dyke branch (abandoned 1938) had for a brief while, a short but dramatic prolongation at its upper terminus, involving the "three-foot". There was a 3' gauge, double-track, passenger funicular line -- length 840 feet -- running from, basically, "the top of the hill", down to the (inland) village of Poynings at its bottom. The LBSC standard-gauge terminus; and the funicular's upper terminus; were kind-of linked (with two bits to be negotiated on foot) by a quite exciting cable-car set-up which spanned the chasm that divided the two. This whole thing -- marvellous though it strikes me as having been -- never prospered financially: in part because, as with many delightful railway byways in Britain and elsewhere, it essentially came into being too late in the day. These Devil's Dyke / Poynings doings, together, essentially ran for some ten / a dozen years, from the mid / late 1890s to very late in the decade of the 1900s. Even this early in transport history, the funicular's traffic came to be largely taken away by road motor buses running between the "summit", and Poynings.
I simply found the just-above one fascinatingly strange, and hitherto totally unknown to me. Have previously expressed on this site a sentiment that for me, funiculars are not real railways: feel that way for sure, re non-passenger ones; but this thing in Sussex just seemed so wonderfully odd. Interest kindled in part by my having a railway atlas which tries -- sometimes erratically -- to feature "all the railways that there ever were in Britain": way beyond just the national public rail system at its peak roughly a century ago. With attention directed by an item on these Forums, to the Dyke branch: I noticed this atlas's showing a short line from a separate "The Dyke" station, to Poynings; thought, "what the ****?", and resorted to Google.
(Googling thus: "Poynings cable railway".)