| Burton and Ashby Light Railway | |||||||||||||||
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 Map of the Burton Corporation Tramways and the Burton and Ashby Light Railway | |||||||||||||||
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| Locale | Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton upon Trent, England | ||||||||||||||
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The Burton and Ashby Light Railway was a tramway system operating between Burton upon Trent and Ashby-de-la-Zouch between 1906 and 1927. [1]
The tramway opened on 2 July 1906 [2] and was operated by the Midland Railway. The system used the tracks of the Burton upon Trent Corporation Tramways from a terminus by the Town Hall in Wellington Street through Station Street, Borough Road and Guild Street before using its own infrastructure through Swadlincote to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. There was a branch from Swadlincote and Woodville to Gresley railway station at Castle Gresley which opened on 24 September 1906.
The journey time from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to the terminus in Burton on Trent was a minimum of 64 minutes and a 10-minute interval service was offered, requiring 17 vehicles.
One unusual feature of the line was the Swadlincote power house which was fitted with two 240 brake horsepower (180 kW) diesel engines, rather than the more traditional steam power. The adjacent depot could accommodate a total of 24 trams but the company only ever owned 20.
The Brush Electric Company of Loughborough provided the open top tramcars. Each had two 25 horsepower (19 kW) Westinghouse 80 motors and capacity for 51 passengers. The livery was Crimson Lake and white with a Midland crest. When the company was taken over by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, the cars were repainted.
The system was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway company when it absorbed the Midland Railway in 1923, and the system was closed on 19 February 1927. [3]
At closure, three cars were sold to the Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company and the remaining ten were sold locally for domestic or rural use.
Car No 14 was eventually transported to Detroit where it operated on a heritage trolley line from 1976 until closure in 2003. It was in storage at a Detroit Department of Transportation facility as of 2012. In October 2014 it was put up for sale by the City of Detroit, and the tram was repatriated to the United Kingdom, and is now in service at the Statfold Barn Railway.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire borders. Its 2001 census population of 11,410 rose to 12,370 in 2011. The castle in the town was an important fort in the 15th–17th centuries. In the 19th century the town's main industries were ribbon manufacture, coal mining, and brickmaking.
Moira is a former mining village about 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The village is about 3 miles (5 km) south of Swadlincote and is close to the boundary with Derbyshire. The population is included in the civil parish of Ashby Woulds.
The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal is a 31-mile (50 km) long canal in England which connected the mining district around Moira, just outside the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, with the Coventry Canal at Bedworth in Warwickshire. It was opened in 1804, and a number of tramways were constructed at its northern end, to service collieries. The canal was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1846, but remained profitable until the 1890s, after which it steadily declined. Around 9 miles (14 km) passed through the Leicestershire coal field, and was heavily affected by subsidence, with the result that this section from Moira, southwards to Snarestone, was progressively closed in 1944, 1957 and 1966, leaving 22 miles (35 km) of navigable canal.
Donisthorpe is a village in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, historically an exclave of Derbyshire.
Swadlincote is a former mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, England, lying within The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire, 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Burton upon Trent and north-west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and 11.5 miles (19 km) south-west of Derby. It also covers Newhall, Oversetts, Midway and the villages of Church Gresley and Woodville, with the sub-district of Goseley. It has a population of some 36,000. Castle Gresley is 2 miles (3 km) to the south-west and Albert Village 1.5 miles (2 km) to the south.
The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man runs along the seafront promenade for approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km), from the southern terminus at the Victoria Pier, adjacent to the Isle of Man Sea Terminal, to Derby Castle station, the southern terminus of the Manx Electric Railway, where the workshops and sheds are located. It is a distinctive tourist attraction. However works have been underway to relay all of the track in 2019 and at present only a third is usable, with no published completion date for the works.
Burton-on-Trent railway station is a mainline railway station located in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway, although only CrossCountry services call at the station.
Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited was a tramway operator from 1875 to 1897 based in Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Nottingham Corporation Tramways was formed when Nottingham Corporation took over the Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited, which had operated a horse and steam tram service from 1877.
The Melbourne Line was a railway line which ran from Derby to Ashby de la Zouch. It was used by the British Army and Allied engineers during the Second World War from 1939 until late 1944 to prepare them for the invasion of mainland Europe. Engineers practised the demolition and rebuilding of railways and the running and maintenance of a railway line and its rolling stock. There was also a bridge building school at Kings Newton.
Newhall is a suburban settlement located in Swadlincote, South Derbyshire, England. As of the 2011 census it had a population of 776. The village of Stanton is nearby.
The Leicester–Burton upon Trent line is a freight-only railway line in England linking the Midland Main Line south of Leicester to the Cross Country Route at Burton-on-Trent. The line closed to passengers in the 1960s, since when various proposals have been made to reopen it.
The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway was a pre-grouping railway company in the English Midlands, built to serve the Leicestershire coalfield. Both the Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) wished to build a line on similar alignments, and they agreed to build jointly. Construction began in 1869 and the railway was opened in 1873. It linked Moira and Coalville with Nuneaton. Mineral traffic was busy, and the line formed a useful link for through goods trains. Some long distance passenger operation took place over the line, but it was never successful in carrying passengers.
Nottingham is the seventh largest conurbation in the United Kingdom. Despite this, the city had a poor transport system in the 1980s. The government has in the early twenty-first century invested heavily in the transport network of Nottingham, which has led to the re-opening of the Robin Hood Line and the construction of a light rail network, Nottingham Express Transit.
Ashby de la Zouch railway station is a former railway station at Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire on the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line. The Midland Railway opened it in 1849 and British Railways closed it in 1964.
Melbourne railway station was a station at Kings Newton that served the adjacent town of Melbourne, Derbyshire, England.
Chellaston and Swarkestone railway station was a station at Chellaston in Derbyshire, England.
Gresley railway station was a railway station at Castle Gresley, Derbyshire on the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line.
Burton upon Trent Corporation Tramways was a tramway service in Burton upon Trent between 1903 and 1929.
Diamond East Midlands, formerly Midland Classic, is a bus company from Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. Since August 2022 it has been a subsidiary of Rotala,
Tramways in Derbyshire | |
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