St Edwards Hospital Tramway

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St Edwards Hospital tramway

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St Edwards Hospital tramway
Overview
Type	Tram
Status	Closed
Locale	Cheddleton, Staffordshire
Termini	Leek Brook St Edward's Hospital
Operation
Opening	1899
Closed	1954
Owner	Staffordshire County Council
Technical
Line length	0.75 mi (1.21 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead catenary

The St Edward's Hospital tramway was a tramway built for Staffordshire County Council for the construction of the St Edward's County Mental Asylum at Cheddleton, Staffordshire. Opened in 1899, the line ran until 1954 before being closed and scrapped.

Contents

  1 Construction

• 2 Operation
• 3 Route
• 4 Notes
• 5 References

Construction

The County Mental Hospital, also known as St Edward's Hospital, was built in the late 1890s by the Staffordshire County Lunacy Committee to relieve overcrowding in other institutions.^[1] The hospital was located on a spur of land overlooking the River Churnet and the Caldon Canal at Cheddleton Heath just north of Cheddleton. Designed by the London architects Giles, Gough and Trollope, construction began in 1895.^[1] To assist in construction of the hospital the contractors, W Brown & Son,^[2] laid a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) line from the North Staffordshire Railway's (NSR) Churnet Valley Line at Leek Brook to the hospital site.^[3] Brown's used a small 0-4-0 Tank engine called Weaver (Manning Wardle H-class 1072) to transport both men and materials to the construction site.^[2]

Operation

Upon completion of the hospital in 1899, Staffordshire County Council took over the line and converted it to an electrically powered tramway, an overhead wire system was erected and the electricity, operated at 220 volt DC,^[4] was supplied from the hospital boiler house.^[5] Once electrification work was completed, in 1903,^[6] a new platform was constructed at Leek Brook station on the down (towards Leek) Churnet Valley line to allow passengers to alight from NSR trains and cross the platform to use the tramway to visit the hospital. The council purchased an electric locomotive from Wolverhampton and an old London horse tram was converted into a passenger coach; both vehicles were painted with the letters SCC to indicate their ownership by the county council.^[5] Although a passenger service was supplied, the principal function of the tramway was the supply of coal to the boiler house. About 200 long tons (203 t) was required each month, the NSR would deliver loaded wagons of coal to a siding at Leek Brook and the tram engine would propel the wagons, two at a time, to the boiler house with the empty wagons being returned to Leek Brook for collection.^[5]


After the First World War with the growth in bus and private car transport, there was a decline in passengers using the tramway so passenger services were discontinued in the 1920s.^[5] The coal traffic however continued until December 1954 when delivery by road took over and the line was closed^[5] and by May 1957 the line had been lifted.^[7]

Route

Map of tramway and connections to the NSR

From the platform at Leek Brook, the tramway swung to the right alongside the exchange sidings from the NSR. Railway engines were not allowed further than these sidings under the various agreements between the NSR (and its successor the London, Midland and Scottish Railway^[7] and also because being lightly built the tramway could not take the weight of railway locomotives.^[5] Past the sidings the line climbed steeply with a maximum gradient of 1:16.6 (6%) being encountered.^[4] The line then proceeded by way of a switchback arrangement to terminate at the rear of the main hospital building.

Notes

1. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Chadwick & Pearson (1993), p. 3.
2. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Jeuda (1986), p. 32.
3. Jump up ^ Jeuda (1999), p. 75.
4. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Jeuda (1999), p. 79.
5. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f} Voice (2007), p. 88.
6. Jump up ^ Jeuda (1986), p. 33.
7. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Jeuda (1999), p. 77.

References

• Chadwick, Max & Pearson, David (1993). A History of St Edward's Hospital, Cheddleton. Leek, Staffordshire: Churnet Valley Books. ISBN 978-1-897949-01-6. 
• Jeuda, Basil (1986). Memories of the North Staffordshire Railway. Cheshire Libraries. ISBN 0-904532-21-6. 
• Jeuda, Basil (1999). The Churnet Valley Railway. Lydney, Gloucestershire: Lightmoor Press. ISBN 978-1-899889-05-1. 
• Voice, David (2007). Hospital Tramways and Railways (3rd ed.). Brora, Sutherland: Adam Gordon. ISBN 978-1-874422-67-9.

Bridport reawkening ...

FACEBOOK GROUP

 

I do think it's time to start seriously looking at rebuilding this branch throughout from Maiden Newton to West Bay. Bridport is far too large not to be rail served, and the need will only increase in the future. This line always struck me as very rural (except in Bridport itself) which suggests there is little if any encroachment and the cost of purchasing the route would not be ridiculously high. As well as offering a full passenger and freight service it would surely make an excellent heritage style line as well. It is in a busy tourist area but the nearest steam line is a good hour away, so it's an open market. Bridport itself should provide plenty of volunteers. British seaside resorts are seeing a huge revival and West Bay would be an excellent terminus for this fantastic line. In 1975 even the Dorchester to Castle Cary route was a struggling single line, it now is much busier. It's this line's time!

 

train travel 2050 style

 

We took the Cathedrals Express to Ludlow yesterday, picking it up at Bath.

 

We topped up with water at Magor.

 

REAL carriage interior!

 

Hereford stop.

Britannia at Bristol Temple Meads. 

 

Perhaps the most enduring image of the day ...

 

 

We took our first ever steam excursion yesterday, taking the Cathedrals Express from Bath to Ludlow. I wasn't sure what to expect. I have of course travelled by steam on the main line before, but don't have any memories of it! And apart from a few brief glimpses of steam in the sixties - at Waterloo, Ryde, Lyminster and a few other places that was it! Seen plenty on heritage lines, but that's a whole different experience.

 

All in all it was a great experience but what struck me really strongly was how much a look into the future it is. A busy train, real coaches with space to sit and windows to look out of, superb service and, of course, all pulled by a locomotive that can run on sustainable fuel. The most striking example of this future experience was when we ran alongside an allotment in south Wales, with rows of compost bins looking over vegetables and good soil with a steam train in the background!

 

On the return we got a taste of the past, or what will soon be the past - a diesel loco heading the train. Britannia stayed on to provide (rather ineffective!) steam heating, but the diesel was doing most of the work.

 

As always I urge people to get out and travel behind diesel and photograph them as much as possible - it won't be many years before they are replaced by electric and steam locos, and once they are gone they really will be gone forever.

 

But the highlight of the day, for me and many others standing on the station, was watching - and listening - to Britannia reversing through the main station and vanishing in the dark on its way to London.

how the future will look

(© 23.5.1987 The Rail Thing)

SWISS  NARROW GAUGE RAILWAYS AND TRAMWAYS FACEBOOK

 

Switzerland is spot on with public transport. A superb national rail network links to dozens of private lines, many narrow gauge, as well as numerous funicular railways, cablecars and urban tramways. Where there isn't rail there is trolleybus or even old fashioned diesel buses. Basically you can get anywhere you want in the country, quickly, cleanly and cheaply. Nobody needs to own a car.

 

This is the Forchbahn, a suburban light railway which links several small towns and villages to Zurich. It's a single track line but has a very intensive service. The last mile or so is on Zurich city tram tracks, the trains get right into the city centre.

 

Yet back in the late 1950s this line was under threat of closure. Back then it was a rickety rural tramway, but the Swiss saw sense and rather than close the line modernised it. It's now an absolute showpiece and should become the model for rural and suburban transport throughout Europe,

 

When the oil runs out the Forchbahn will keep running. House prices will remain the same, people will still be able to get to work, to the shops and indeed anywhere else they need to be by changing to the rail network at Zurich.

 

This is a roadside route so the land footprint is tiny. The line is electrified using hydro power so is sustainable. The vehicles looked modern even back in 1987, they will almost certainly be running for many decades yet.

 

This is the future, 1987 style, and we should all be doing everything we can to bring this to the towns and villages of Britain.

 

 

 


 


 

the road thing

Imagine you were standing at Templecombe station in 1952, on a summer Saturday. If I'd told you then that the busy line to Bath and Bournemouth, on which at that time there was a constant stream of passenger and freight trains, would be closed within 14 years and that the very busy station you were standing on, served by both the Somerset and Dorset Railway and the main line from Waterloo to the west of England, would also close on the same day, you'd have probably dismissed me as a nutter! Yet all this came to pass.

Now think about today, think about our busy road network and what is your reaction if I was to say that within 20 years it would nearly all have gone? Pretty much the same I would think!

But think about this. Our rail network wasn't destroyed because the fuel to run it no longer existed. In fact there is still plenty of coal underground in the UK and, more importantly, plenty of commercial forests. But we saw fit to destroy our country's resilience so we could IMPORT oil to run our trains and, of course, our cars, lorries and buses. It was a short term political decision masquerading as an economic one. True, diesels were easier to run and much more comfortable for the people running them. And cars, lorries and buses gave us greater flexibility. Up to a point  ...

But take a look at the picture above. This was our trip into Bristol Friday morning. Two miles, it took about half an hour. Should we have taken the bus? Not really, because look what is a few vehicles ahead of us!

Think of all these stationary vehicles, burning precious oil. Think of it happening all over the world. Oil is a finite resource and most commentators now accept that we have already used more than is left in the ground. And at the same time we are burning more than ever before, not just in road vehicles, but in diesel locomotives, ships, aeroplanes, making plastics and growing food. Our whole economy is built on it, yet within twenty years almost all of it will be gone. Yet to look around you'd think there was an unlimited and renewable supply!

So what exactly do planners and politicians imagine we WILL be using in twenty years' time? They waffle on about exotic things like biofuels (hopeless as they depend on huge fossil fuel INPUTS to grow, and compete with food growing anyway), hydrogen (an energy sink as it is only an energy carrier, not a fuel, so the energy would still need to be generated), electric cars - really, with the power companies already warning us that we face electricity blackouts into the future? Imagine all those electric cars charging up as well! The fact is there isn't a serious contender, and when the oil runs out (or more precisely becomes too expensive for most of us to afford) road transport will come to a stop. There's nothing we can do about this, it's inevitable.

So if we want to keep things moving we need to switch to rail. Some will say 'but doesn't that need energy as well?' Of course it does, but the inherent energy efficiency superiority of rail means that we can move far more freight and people with the same amount of energy. This will become the ONLY factor considered in future transport planning. Rail also has a huge advantage in that the energy can be transmitted to the locomotive, through wires, conductor rails, stubs, conduits etc. This simply can not be done with road vehicles (with the exception of trolleybuses, but they may as well be trams anyway!) - it means both flexibility of delivery system and also (very important in an energy-poor world) the traction units don't need to carry on board fuel.

So the roads may seem busy today, and perhaps look like they will always be there, but return to Templecombe in 1952 and you'll see looks can be deceptive. The roads will begin to empty, less and less money will be available to maintain them (asphalt needs oil for example), people will start demanding an alternative way to get around and all of them will look to rail.

As for Templecombe itself? The station reopened in 1982, the line, which was savagely singled in the 60s, is gradually being returned to double track, soon trains will go beyond Exeter via Okehampton to Plymouth, and even the Somerset and Dorset is gradually being rebuilt. We are already seeing the switch from road to rail happening in this little corner of the world, soon it will be happening everywhere.

new camera

 

(All Bristol Parson Street 26.10.2013 copyright Rail Thing)

 

I treated myself to a new camera the other day and yesterday was the first chance I got to use it on the rails. My stepdaughter lives a minute away from Parson Street so I spent half an hour on the station. I've been here before and found it quite a hard place to photograph, the location is on a curve so there's no a lot of scope to snap the trains, and the bottom half of the platforms is out of bounds and overgrown. Previous shots just haven't worked for me.

 

The new camera is a Fujifilm Finepix HS50, a bridge camera, and it has an brilliant 42x manual telephoto lens. So I tried something different - actually using the telephoto to follow the trains in. This gave me far more scope to capture the trains and I'm quite pleased with the results.

 

My wife's keen for me to take up photography full time, which would be a great idea, but having run businesses for years I know just how difficult it can be to make a living from anything, let alone from something you love doing! We'll see ...

fragile link

DAWLISH SEA WALL FACEBOOK GROUP

 

I'm off to Plymouth on Monday for a couple of days, going by train of course. Storms are forecast for Sunday and Monday, a bit too early in the autumn for my taste.

 

It brings the fragility of what is currently the ONLY rail link to southern Devon and Cornwall. Of course it wasn't always this way and up to 1968 you have the choice of travelling via Newton Abbot or Okehampton. Until 1967 there was a third (but very rural and slow) link via the North Cornwall line. Perhaps by the logic of the times the North Cornwall should have been closed (but obviously the route preserved) but what madness affected bureaucrats back then then that allowed them to even consider closure of the Southern main line via Okehampton? Both ends (Plymouth-Bere Alston and Crediton-Okehampton) were retained anyway, and the line to Meldon Quarry, beyond Okehampton, had to stay open for freight. And the big town of Tavistock lost it's modern transport! You really couldn't make it up. Okay, Tavistock will be reopening soon but the entire route not only needs to be reopened soon, but proper through trains routed via it right from the start - Waterloo to Plymouth via Okehampton for example.

 

So I have to worry that getting to Plymouth on Monday may well be weather affected. The sea route, possibly the best in England, is a fragile thing indeed. The land round those parts has been sinking at the rate of around two inches a century since the end of the ice age. But far worse is the rise in sea levels now happening thanks to climate change, anything from 2 to 3mm a YEAR. With rising temperatures also giving storms more energy the outlook for the coastal line is bleak indeed.

 

It seems incredible to me that a large area of the UK could be cut off for days or even weeks if a serious storm hits the area. That diversionary route needs to be in place NOW, it may be too late in ten or twenty years time. As road traffic continues to fall despite cheap fuel the railway becomes more and more important. A small step towards tilting this balance will be the reopening - THROUGHOUT - of the Okehampton route.