Welcome to my website
| My
name is Andrew Baxter. I'm a retired Civil and Structural Engineer and
I live close to the site of the railway. The purpose of this website is to
be a focal point for all the interest that is out there for this
railway, and to be a place where photos, stories, documents, etc can be
put on line for all to enjoy. There are many accounts of the history of the railway. A good place to start is http://www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/ You will discover that the most interesting feature of the railway was its rope worked incline. The following photo says it all.
The incline was at a gradient of 1 in 6. Loaded wagons pulled empties up from the lower sidings using the cable seen on the left. The down wagons were shunted by Sankey to rest on the wheel blocks. Sankey then backed away and the top end of the cable was attached to the last wagon. The speed of decent was controlled by the brakeman in the white hut next to the left abutment of the bridge. The up wagons returned into a high level track on top of the wall: there being another on the right hand side, just out of shot. These high level tracks were used alternatively and were known as kips. They sloped downhill towards the bridge. They were a safety feature to prevent the returned empty wagons rolling back down the incline. Many, many words have been written about the railway, including this one by Eric Tonks dated 1948.
Other links are https://www.hfstephens-museum.org.uk/ http://thesmjr.ning.com/page/burton-dassettedgehill-light http://warwickshirerailways.com/misc/ehlr.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Hill_Light_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._F._Stephens http://www.michaelclemensrailways.co.uk/article/8th-july-1945-visit-edge/205 I would like to hear from people who visited the railway before it was dismantled, including those local old boys who as young boys played on it. I'm was told that the grand father of a local man was the brakeman on the wheel pit. Another local man is supposed to have the fire box door of one of the Terriors. So, if you have a story to tell, know where there are artifacts stored away, have photos of the line at any stage in its history, please contact me. andrewjbaxter@btconnect.com This site has gone on line whilst under construction. All photos will be acknowledged where possible, including dating them. Conducted tours of the railway are given. There is still a lot to see on site. Thanks is given to all who have contributed 'stuff' that helps to add to our knowledge of this amazing little railway. Particular thanks goes to Mark Fairhead, Mark Reader, Danny Batchelor, David Burge, Brian Little and James Rose. Also to those members of the public who contributed stories at one of my talks on the EHLR. I ask these kind folk to get in touch again so that I can record their stories on this website. Andrew Baxter January 2018 Return to first page |
