The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Kintyre, Scotland, between Campbeltown and the coalmining village of Machrihanish. Only three other passenger-carrying lines in the UK operated on the same gauge, all of them in Wales - the Corris Railway, the short-lived Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway and the Talyllyn Railway.
History
Coal has been mined on the Kintyre peninsula since 1498 or before. Although not the highest quality, the coal found there was abundant and relatively cheap to extract. In the middle of the eighteenth century the collieries of the area were kept busy supplying the many whisky distilleries in the Campbeltown area.
Canal
In 1773, James Watt surveyed a canal to connect the coal mines to Campbeltown to reduce the costs of transport. The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal was opened in 1791.
The canal fell into disuse and had been virtually abandoned by 1856. In 1875, the Argyll Coal and Canal Co. acquired the main colliery and found the canal in a state of disrepair. They decided a better transport system was required and began to investigate the building of a railway to Campbeltown.
Colliery railway
As rail transport developed in the 19th century, the colliery owners sought to build a tramway to replace the canal. In 1876 a lightly constructed industrial railway was built connecting Kilkivan Pit to Campbeltown, on 14 February 1933.
Accident
On 9 August 1910, there was a fatal accident when a train being stabled in the Linecraigs engine sidings collided with an engine already in the sidings. A cleaner, G. Jamieson, engaged in cleaning the standing engine, was knocked down by his engine, run over, and killed. The cause of the accident was the irregular use of a key to unlock the electric token instruments. This practice was authorised by A. Black, the superintendent of the line. He stated at the Board of Trade Inquiry into the accident that the reason for this practice was a desire to save the expense connected with the wear of the batteries that supplied power to the tablet instruments. This was achieved by suspending tablet working until 9 am, as prior to that hour, there was only one engine in steam in use on the line, and the suspension of tablet working enabled the batteries to be overhauled and cleaned.
Rolling stock
Locomotives
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Name
!Photograph
!Builder
!Wheel arrangement<br>(Whyte notation)
!Works<br>Number
!Built
!Notes
|-
|Pioneer
|
|
|<br />
|unknown
|1876
|align="left"|Delivered for the original colliery railway; never ran on the C&MLR.
|-
|Chevalier
|
|Andrew Barclay & Co
|<br />
|269
|1885
|align="left"|Rebuilt in 1926 using parts from Princess
|-
|Princess
|
|Kerr, Stuart & Co.
|
|717
|1900
|align="left"|Skylark class, scrapped before 1931
|-
|Argyll
|220px
|Andrew Barclay & Sons Co.
|
|1049
|1906
|align="left"|
|-
|Atlantic
|220px
|Andrew Barclay & Sons Co.
|
|1098
|1907
|align="left"|Identical design to Argyll.
|}
Passenger stock
R. Y. Pickering and Co. of Wishaw supplied four passenger bogie carriages for the line in 1906. Each carriage had a central saloon with wooden tramway style seating for 64 passengers and open end platforms. Two further carriages were supplied by Pickering in 1907, the second of which had a central luggage compartment.
The carriages survived the closure of the line and in 1934 were moved to Trench Point on the other side of Campbeltown Loch where they were used as holiday homes. During the Second World War, they were used by the Admiralty. After the war they were left to deteriorate until the remaining underframes were finally scrapped in 1958.
There are six saloon coaches on the gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in Cumbria which are based on the exterior designs of the Campbeltown passenger stock, built in 1989 and 1990 for the Gateshead Garden Festival.
Freight stock
Colliery railway
The colliery railway likely used mine tubs from the collieries' internal lines when it opened in 1876. By 1902, 18 four-wheeled flat wagons were in use, each of which carried four "mine hutches". The hutches were small mine tubs, each of which carried of coal. The hutches were mounted transversely on short lengths of rail on the main railway wagons.
Light railway
With the rebuilding of the colliery line in 1906, the opportunity was taken to replace the hutch carrying wagons with more conventional stock. A set of four-wheel open-sided coal wagons were purchased from Hurst Nelson & Co. Ltd. of Motherwell. Like the earlier colliery wagons, these had dumb buffers and centre couplings. Later batches of wagons were built to a design. In all the railway used approximately 150 coal wagons, all owned by the Campbeltown Coal Co. rather than the railway.
In addition to the coal wagons, the railway company also had other freight stock. A brake van was supplied by R.Y. Pickering. The same company supplied an open-sided milk wagon based on the design for the wagon but with open spars extending above the sides to provide extra support for carrying milk churns. The railway also had a detachable snow plough and a small platelayers' trolley for maintenance work.
Stations
None of the stations had platforms, however a small wooden shed with a corrugated iron roof was present at Machrihanish. The stations and halts were located at Campbeltown, Plantation Halt, Moss Road Halt, Lintmill Halt, Colliery Road, Drumlemble Halt, Machrihanish Farm Halt, Trodigal Halt and Machrihanish.
See also
- List of 2 ft 3 in gauge railways
- British narrow gauge railways
References
External links
- Railscot - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway