Colne and Trawden Light Railway Company

Colne and Trawden Light Railway Company
Colne and Trawden Light Railway Company
	Remains of the terminus at Trawden
Operation
Locale	Colne, Trawden
Open	20 November 1903
Close	6 January 1934
Status	Closed
Infrastructure
Track gauge	4 ft (1,219 mm)
Propulsion system(s)	Electric
Depot(s)	Heifer Lane
Statistics
Route length	7 miles (11 km)

Last updated May 15, 2019

The Colne and Trawden Light Railway Company operated a tramway service in Colne and Trawden between 1903 and 1934.^[1]

Colne town and civil parish in Lancashire, England

Colne is a town and civil parish in Lancashire, England, six miles north-east of Burnley, 25 miles east of Preston, 25 miles north of Manchester and 30 miles west of Leeds. It is a market town and the cross allowing a market to be held there dates to the 15th century. The cross was originally at the junction of Colne Lane and Church Street. It was first moved to the grounds of The Gables on Albert Road, the location of Colne Library until around 1970. It has now been relocated to outside the Market Hall on Market Street, part of the main road through the town centre.

Trawden is a medium-sized village in the Trawden Forest parish of Pendle, at the foot of Boulsworth Hill, in Lancashire, England. Agriculture was the main industry of the village and surrounding area, although it did have several mills, most of which have now been demolished for, or converted to, housing.

History

The tramway was authorised by the Colne and Trawden Light Railway Order of 1901. It was built and operated by Greenwood & Batley of Leeds. Nuttal and Co were contractors for the permanent way, and R.W. Blackwell for the overhead wiring.^[2]

Greenwood & Batley were a large engineering manufacturer with a wide range of products, including armaments, electrical engineering, and printing and milling machinery. They also produced a range of battery-electric railway locomotives under the brand name Greenbat. The works was in Armley, Leeds, UK.

Construction started on 19 May 1903 when the Mayor of Colne, Alderman Varley, cut the first sod.^[3] Services started on the first section on 28 November 1903, and other sections opened in stages until the line reached Zion Chapel on Lane House Lane, Trawden by December 1905. A branch to Laneshawbridge opened by the end of December 1904. The system connected with Nelson Corporation Tramways.

Nelson Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Nelson, Lancashire between 1903 and 1934.

Colne Corporation purchased the entire system on 24 March 1914 and the name was changed to Colne Corporation Light Railways.^[4]

Fleet

The company purchased vehicles as follows:

1-6 G.F. Milnes & Co. 1903
7-9 Brush Electrical Machines, Loughborough 1903
10-12 Milnes Voss, 1906
13 United Electric Car Company 1914
14-16 Brush Electrical Machines, Loughborough 1926

G. F. Milnes & Co. Ltd was a tramcar manufacturer based in Birkenhead (1886-1902) and Hadley, Shropshire (1900-1905)

Brush Electrical Machines is a manufacturer of electrical generators typically for gas turbine and steam turbine driven applications. The main office is based at Loughborough in Leicestershire, UK.

The United Electric Car Company was a tramcar manufacturer from 1905 to 1917 in Preston, Lancashire, England.

Closure

The system closed on 6 January 1934. It was estimated that the tramcars had travelled over 4,582,000 miles and carried 57.5 million passengers during the years of operation.^[5]

Related Research Articles

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References

↑ The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.
↑ The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 9, No. 72, Winter 1972
↑ "Colne's New Light Railway" . Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. England. 20 May 1903. Retrieved 12 October 2016– via British Newspaper Archive.
↑ The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 9, No. 73, Spring 1973
↑ The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 10, No. 74, Summer 1973

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[1] The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.

[2] The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 9, No. 72, Winter 1972

[3] "Colne's New Light Railway" . Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. England. 20 May 1903. Retrieved 12 October 2016– via British Newspaper Archive.

[4] The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 9, No. 73, Spring 1973

[5] The Light Railways of Colne, J.S. King, Tramway Review, Vol. 10, No. 74, Summer 1973