Scropton Tramway

Scropton Tramway
Locale	England
Dates of operation	1889–1949
Successor	Abandoned
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)
Length	1½ miles
Headquarters	Scropton

Last updated February 21, 2019

The Scropton Tramway was a British industrial 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway connecting several gypsum mines with the North Staffordshire Railway station at Scropton in Staffordshire. It was also used to transport munitions during World War II.

An industrial railway is a type of railway that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics or a military site. In regions of the world influenced by British Railway culture and management practices, they are often referred to as tramways. Industrial railways may be connecting the site to public freight networks through sidings, isolated or located entirely within a served property.

Three foot gauge railways have a track gauge of 3 ft or 1 yard. This gauge is a narrow gauge and is generally found throughout North, Central, and South America. In Ireland, many secondary and industrial lines were built to 3 ft gauge, and it is the dominant gauge on the Isle of Man, where it is known as the Manx Standard Gauge. Modern 3 ft gauge railways are most commonly found in isolated mountainous areas, on small islands, or in large-scale amusement parks and theme parks. This gauge is also popular in model railroading, and model prototypes of these railways have been made by several model train brands around the world, such as Accucraft Trains (US), Aristo-Craft Trains (US), Bachmann Industries, Delton Locomotive Works (US), LGB (Germany), and PIKO (Germany).

Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO₄·2H₂O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard chalk and wallboard. A massive fine-grained white or lightly tinted variety of gypsum, called alabaster, has been used for sculpture by many cultures including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire and the Nottingham alabasters of Medieval England. Gypsum also crystallizes as beautiful translucent crystals of selenite (mineral). It also forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite.

Locomotives

Name	Builder	Type	Date	Works number	Notes
	W.G. Bagnall	0-4-0T	Late 1880s	1050	Small inverted saddle tank locomotive; sold by 1894 to Joseph Boam Ltd., Norfolk
	W.G. Bagnall	0-4-0T	1892	1232	Larger version of the first Bagnall locomotive; sold by 1902 to the Manchester Corporation Rivers Department
	Lowca Engineering	0-4-0ST	1884	241	Scrapped 1950
	Manning Wardle	0-4-0ST	1888		Built for the construction of the Ashworth Moor Reservoir; purchased in 1913
	Manning Wardle	0-4-0ST	1888		Built for the construction of the Ashworth Moor Reservoir; purchased in 1913. Sold for scrap, 1946
Prince Charlie	Hunslet	4-6-0T	1917	1276	Built as a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge locomotive for the War Department Light Railways. Purchased in 1947; scrapped 1950
Vyrnwy	Orenstein and Koppel	0-4-0WT	1930		Built reservoir construction; purchased in 1947. Sold to the Piel and Walney Gravel company in 1953.

Related Research Articles

A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.

The Glyn Valley Tramway was a narrow gauge railway that ran through the Ceiriog Valley in north-east Wales, connecting Chirk with Glyn Ceiriog in Denbighshire. The gauge of the line was 2 ft 4 ¹⁄₂ in. The total length of the line was 8 ¹⁄₄ miles (13.3 km), 6 ¹⁄₂ miles (10.5 km) of which were worked by passenger trains, the remainder serving a large granite quarry and several minor slate quarries.

The Amerton Railway is a 2 ft narrow gauge heritage railway in the English county of Staffordshire. It is owned by the Staffordshire Narrow Gauge Railway Society.

There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.

British industrial narrow-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man that were primarily built to serve one or more industries. Some offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are categorized by the primary industry they served.

The Kerry Tramway was a 2 ft narrow gauge railway built in 1887 to serve the timber workings and slab quarry to the south of the village of Kerry, near Newtown in mid Wales.

The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial 3 ft narrow gauge railway that served the ironstone quarries around Kettering.

The Trefor Quarry railway was an industrial, 1 ft 11 ¹⁄₂ in narrow gauge railway connecting the Trefor granite quarry with the pier at Llanaelhaearn on the Llŷn Peninsula.

The Little Ormes Head Quarry tramway was a 3 ft narrow gauge industrial railway operating at three levels within the extensive limestone quarry on the Penrhyn Bay side of the Little Orme at Llandudno on the North Wales coast.

The Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway of 2 ft gauge near Tamworth, Staffordshire, England, also displaying locomotives of other gauges including 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ instandard gauge, 18 in and 2 ft 6 in, and other vehicles. It is privately owned by Mr Graham Lee, former chairman of LH Group Services Ltd – which in 2005 bought what remained of the Hunslet Engine Company.

The Eigiau Tramway might refer to the Eigiau Quarry Tramway or to the Eigiau Reservoir Tramway.

The Cedryn Quarry Tramway was an industrial narrow gauge railway that connected the slate quarries at Cedryn and Cwm Eigiau to the quays at Dolgarrog in the Conwy valley.

The Morda Tramway refers to two industrial railways south of Oswestry, on the border between England and Wales. They connected the coal pits around Morda to transport networks, the first to the Montgomery Canal and the second to the Cambrian Railways at Whitehaven.

Some industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man were primarily built to serve quarrying, mining, and similar industries. Some of these narrow-gauge railways offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are listed by the primary industry they served.

The Irchester Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a small railway museum and metre gauge railway near Wellingborough in Northants, England.

Scropton railway station was a short-lived railway station in Derbyshire, England.

Contemporary regional newspapers record that the horse drawn Harlech Tramway ran from near the Cambrian Railways' Harlech station 600 yards (550 m) west to the beach from approx 1878 to 1886.

The Finedonhill Tramway was a British industrial narrow-gauge railway which operated under various ownership between 1875 and 1926.

Neilson's Tramway was a British industrial narrow-gauge railway which operated from 1881 to 1929.

References

Baker, Allen C. "The Scropton Tramway". The Narrow Gauge. Narrow Gauge Railway Society. 164: 3–18. ISSN 0142-5587.

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Scropton Tramway

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Locomotives

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