 Andrew Barclay "Sir Thomas Royden" with a train of mineral wagons. | |
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| Location | Cottesmore, Oakham, Rutland |
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| Type | Railway museum |
| Website | https://www.rocks-by-rail.org/ |
Rutland Railway Museum, now trading as Rocks by Rail: The Living Ironstone Museum, is a heritage railway on part of a former Midland Railway mineral branch line. It is situated north east of Oakham, in Rutland, England.
The museum offers an open-air site dedicated to recreating an ironstone tramway system in its entirety from the extraction of iron ore from a 'first cut' quarry face reproduced in the quarry viewing area to the exchange sidings with the BR rail head. The museum aims to preserve and operate industrial locomotives and mineral wagons from local quarry railways as well as artefacts related to quarry railways in general.
The museum site is based on a typical 1950s or early 1960s quarry system when both steam and diesel power was evident in the industry. The branch line linked to the Melton Mowbray to Oakham main line at Ashwell Signal Box. Exchange sidings were once located at the museum serving three separate private quarry railway systems associated with the past extraction of iron ore. The museum site was known locally as Cottesmore Iron Ore Mines Sidings.
The concrete tipping dock built for Cottesmore quarries has been conserved, along with the locomotive running shed from Woolsthorpe Quarries on the Lincs/Leics border, in its entirety. Also preserved are several items of quarry machinery including a 22RB Ruston-Bucyrus face shovel, a 22RB Ruston-Bucyrus dragline excavator and a Euclid dump truck as used in local quarry systems. The cab of the massive Ransomes & Rapier dragline excavator Sundew is on display along with a cab from 110RB Ruston-Bucyrus dragline from the Barrington Cement Works quarry railway.
Also present at the museum is the Simon Layfield Exhibition Centre which comprises three roads of locomotive/wagon exhibits and related displays concerning former local quarry railways.
Also on display at the museum is Hawthorn Leslie locomotive "SINGAPORE" works number 3865 built in 1936. This locomotive was exported to Singapore Royal Navy Dockyard and was captured in February 1942 by the Japanese during World War II. The locomotive features superficial bullet and shrapnel damage sustained during air raids on the dockyard from Japanese aircraft. The locomotive HL3865/36 "SINGAPORE" is an honorary member of the FEPOW organisation and a registered War Memorial.
The museum operates passenger rides on a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) length of track and occupies an area of nearly 9 acres (28,000 m2). Passenger rides are provided in restored brake vans, typical of those formerly used in freight trains in the area. The museum welcomes any related donations of artefacts or information which may help further its aims.
The museum has a selection of typical quarry wagons which are used for demonstrations on open days. Details are below. The list is not exhaustive.
Numerous wagons from this list are available for use and can be seen in operation.
Numerous wagons from this list are available for use and can be seen in operation.
The brake vans are used both in the passenger and goods trains.
The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow-gauge railways situated at the Tywyn Wharf station of the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales.
The Tanfield Railway is a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge heritage railway in Gateshead and County Durham, England. Running on part of a former horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, later rope & horse, lastly rope & loco railway. It operates preserved industrial steam locomotives. The railway operates a passenger service every Sunday, plus other days, as well as occasional demonstration coal, goods and mixed trains. The line runs 3 miles (4.8 km) between a southern terminus at East Tanfield, Durham, to a northern terminus at Sunniside, Gateshead. Another station, Andrews House, is situated near the Marley Hill engine shed. A halt also serves the historic site of the Causey Arch. The railway claims it is "the world's oldest railway" because it runs on a section dating from 1725, other parts being in use since 1621.
The East Kent Railway (EKR) is a heritage railway in Kent, England. It is located at Shepherdswell station on the London and Chatham to Dover mainline. The line was constructed between 1911 and 1917 to serve the Kent Coalfields. See East Kent Light Railway for details of the original lines. The Kent Collieries were mostly a failure with only Tilmanstone on the line producing any viable commercial coal and commercial traffic over the line. The line is operated by heritage diesel locomotives. It is home to a collection of heritage diesel locomotives including a British Rail Class 08, DEMU and electric multiple units including an in service British Rail Class 404 built in the 1930s and a more modern British Rail Class 365, which is to be used as a restaurant and a major events venue.
The Bowes Railway, built by George Stephenson in 1826, is the world's only operational preserved standard gauge cable railway system. It was built to transport coal from pits in Durham to boats on the River Tyne. The site is a scheduled monument. The railway is open every week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as on a number of event days throughout the year.
Peak Rail is a preserved railway in Derbyshire, England, which operates a steam and heritage diesel service for tourists and visitors to both the Peak District and the Derbyshire Dales.
Barrow Hill Roundhouse, until 1948 known as Staveley Engine Shed, is a former Midland Railway roundhouse in Barrow Hill, near Staveley and Chesterfield, Derbyshire, now serving as a railway heritage centre.
The Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust operates a 1+1⁄2-mile (2.4 km) long heritage railway line at Hunsbury Hill, south-west of Northampton. The line is mainly dedicated to freight working, featuring many sharp curves and steep gradients which were typical of the industrial railway, but rides are available in a variety of vehicles including a converted brake van.
The Cambrian Heritage Railways is a heritage railway company, trust and society based at both Llynclys and Oswestry in its restored Oswestry railway station, Shropshire, England.
Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd was a British company based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire that made steam-powered lorries, railway locomotives, and later, diesel engined lorries, buses and locomotives.
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R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982.
The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial 3 ft narrow gauge railway that served the ironstone quarries around Kettering.
The Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway is a heritage railway whose stated aims are to re-instate as much as possible of the former Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway which closed in 1989.
The Hook Norton ironstone quarries (Brymbo) were ironstone quarries near Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, England. The quarries were in operation from 1899 to 1946 supplying ironstone to the Brymbo Steelworks in Wrexham and were served by the Brymbo Ironworks Railway, an extensive, 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge industrial railway.
North Dorset Railway is a heritage railway based at Shillingstone railway station on the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway in the United Kingdom.
The Great Central Railway (Nottingham) (formerly known as the Nottingham Heritage Railway) is a heritage railway located at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre (NTHC), on the south side of the village of Ruddington, in Nottinghamshire. The route consists of almost 10 miles (16 km) of the former Great Central Main Line from Loughborough South Junction (with the Midland Main Line) to Fifty Steps Bridge and the site of Ruddington's former GCR station, plus a branch line from Fifty Steps Bridge to Ruddington Fields station which is located on a former Ministry of Defence site next to Rushcliffe Country Park.
The Wellingborough Tramway was an industrial narrow-gauge railway that connected a series of ironstone mines and quarries with the Midland Railway and later with the ironworks on the north side of Wellingborough. In various forms, the tramway operated between 1875 and 1966.
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