Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway

The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway (L&MVLR) was a narrow gauge railway in Staffordshire, England, that operated between 1904 and 1934. The line mainly carried milk from dairies in the region, acting as a feeder to the system. It also provided passenger services to the small villages and beauty spots along its route. The line was built to a narrow gauge and to the light rail standards provided by the Light Railways Act 1896, to reduce construction costs. The route of the line is now a rail trail.

History

thumb|A timetable poster of 1904, now framed in the old station at Hulme End

Authorised by the ', this was the narrow gauge section of the Leek Light Railways. The railway ran for 30 years, from 1904 to 1934. Its engineer was Everard Calthrop, a leading advocate of narrow gauge railways and builder of the Barsi Light Railway in India; the chairman of the company was Charles Bill, MP for Leek. A private concern, it was run by the North Staffordshire Railway on a percentage basis, but it later came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923.

The line was constructed to a high standard, as Calthrop applied lessons learned on his other railways. Rail used was 35 lb/yard (17.28 kg/m) and the quality of trackwork is reflected in the fact that no relaying was ever necessary.

The line was single tracked and most services only involved the use of one engine in steam. Services began from Hulme End, where the locomotive sheds were, with a passing loop at Wetton Mill, which was never used as such. At Waterhouses, the timetable allowed for connections from .

Trains ran at a maximum speed of and most halts ran on a request basis. More than this, the train would also often stop to pick up passengers at other places on the lineside footpath, if requested. Timetables mostly showed single journey times of 50 minutes, with some showing an hour.

Most outbound freight consisted of milk, in both churns and bulk tankers, and the products of the dairy goods factory at Ecton. In all, some 300 milk churns were handled daily at Waterhouses and, from 1919, a daily milk train ran from Waterhouses to London specifically for this traffic. Latterly milk tanks were used, carried on the transporter wagons. Passenger traffic was minimal – the settlements were mostly some distance from the line – except on bank holidays, when all of the line's rolling stock was used to run frequent services to handle the crowds.

There was some talk of extending the line northwards to Buxton, whereby and its engine shed would become the halfway point of the line, but this never materialised.

The railway was filmed in operation for Pathé News in 1930, under the title "A Quaint Little Railway".

Route

The North Staffordshire Railway's branch from Leek ended at Waterhouses. The continued from an end-on junction with this line. It ran for down the valley of the river Hamps as far as Beeston Tor, before turning up the limestone gorge that the river Manifold had formed, through to Hulme End. The line had a large number of stations in a relatively short distance, and there were refreshment rooms at Thor's Cave and Beeston Tor. In all, the line crossed the river Manifold dozens of times, including nine times in the short section between Sparrowlee and Beeston Tor.

All stations had rather grand signs, sometimes grander than the facilities, and platforms were just high. All stations had sidings, except for Beeston Tor and Redhurst Halt:

station was a large building, with adjacent engine and coach sheds (two roads in each). In the timetable, it was described as Hulme End for Hartington. Hartington is around away.
station had both a standard gauge and narrow gauge siding, with a narrow gauge extension to the milk factory. The presence of the railway did not kick-start the local mining industry, as hoped.
station (also known locally as Ecton Lea) had a waiting room and a siding.
station had a waiting room and a standard gauge siding. It had ceased to be a working mill before the railway was built.
At , an old coach served as a waiting room. There was no siding here.
station largely served Wetton village. It had a waiting room and its refreshment room was moved to Wetton in 1917.
station, located at Weags Bridge, had a loop containing a standard gauge siding.
station had no siding, but a refreshment room.
station served Lee House Farm, but nowhere else; there was not even a waiting room here. The siding included a standard gauge section.
At station, the platform had booking offices and a goods shed. There were two short loops and three short sidings, which joined with standard gauge lines. The site of the station is now a car park for the Manifold Way; a road-widening scheme in the 1960s removed some of the evidence of the station.

Locomotives and rolling stock

thumb|right|Kitson's [[Builder's plate|manufacturer's plate dated 1904 from J.B. Earle, displayed in the museum at Tywyn, on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales]]

The company had only two locomotives, which were both outside-cylindered s, built by Kitson & Co. of Leeds in 1904, which were the first 2-6-4T locomotives to run in Britain; the first standard gauge examples were the Great Central Railway's Class 1B of 1914. Number 1 was named E.R. Calthrop, after the line's engineer, and number 2 was named J.B. Earle, after the resident engineer. Due to the influence of Calthrop, the locomotives had a somewhat colonial appearance, with large headlights which were never used. They also had fittings for cow catchers, again never fitted, and they sported rerailing jacks by the smokebox. The locomotives were originally painted brown with gold and black lining, replaced by crimson lake with gold and black lining after Grouping in 1923. Latterly, after the Great Depression had set in, they ran in plain black.

There was no turntable on the line and engines ran chimney first towards Waterhouses, In 1911, were brought in from the L&MVLR growing to in 1922. Initially, all the milk was carried in milk churns, which had to be manhandled across the platforms at Waterhouses.

After the First World War, the churns were loaded into standard gauge vans taken to and from Ecton on the transporter wagons. Eventually, milk tankers were also used, again being transferred between Ecton and Waterhouses on the transporters.

The Old Light Railway Hotel at Hulme End is now called the Manifold Inn. There are campsites at Hulme End and Wetton Village.

At Ecton Hill, a 4,000-year-old copper mine lies along the route; there is still evidence of the loading platforms along the route of the old railway. A dairy once stood here and one can still see where milk churns were once loaded onto the morning milk train. The Ecton dairy was famous for its Stilton cheese.

Modelling

Slater's Plastikard produces an O16.5 scale kit of the locomotives, with Dorset Kits offering brass coach construction kits together with etched brass kits for both long and short transporter wagons, the open bogie wagons and the bogie van to match in this scale. These can all be built to run on the correct 17.5mm track.

Port Wynnstay Models of Derby offered a resin outline of the short wheelbase transport car/wagon.

Meridian Models produced an OO9 scale locomotive body in white metal to fit on a Minitrix chassis. Worsley Works produces a basic scratch kit for the carriages, requiring addition of bogies (where applicable), couplings, door handles and interior to complete. Ducket Models produces the transporter cars/wagons in this scale, as well as detailing for the aforementioned Worsley Works coach kits.

Roundhouse has produced a live steam model in 1:19 scale (16mm/foot) of the Kitson 2-6-4 locomotive in the NSR livery.

There is a model at the visitors' centre in Hulme End, along one wall inside the former station building. This shows a representation of Hulme End station, yard and nearby buildings in OO9 scale with a short run (scaled down distance) to a model of Butterton station.

Gallery

File:Waterhouses Signal Box at Amerton Railway.jpg|A former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway signal box from Waterhouses, now located at the Amerton Railway in Staffordshire (June 2019).

File:Manifold Way near Wetton S.jpg|A typical view - looking south along the route today, near Wetton.

File:Manifold Way near Wetton N.jpg|Another typical view, looking north from the same viewpoint.

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Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Staffordshire Past Track has several photographs and a video of the railway in operation
BFI footage (1930), including the loading of a transporter wagon
Narrow Gauge Pleasure page
Details of operating models of the steam locomotives at nearby Rudyard Lake
Film of the line in 1933, Pathé News