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Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway

Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway
'Atlantic', the last locomotive built for the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway, Andrew Barclay 0-6-2T, builder's photograph, 1907.jpg
'Atlantic', the last locomotive built for the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway, Andrew Barclay 0-6-2T, builder's photograph, 1907
Locale Scotland
Dates of operation 1876–1932
Successor abandoned
Track gauge 2 ft 3 in (686 mm)
Headquarters Campbeltown

The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway was a 2 ft 3 in (686 mm) 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.

Coal has been mined on the Kintyre peninsula since 1498 or before. Although not of 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.

In 1773 James Watt surveyed a canal to connect the coal mines to Campbeltown to reduce the costs of transportation. The 3-mile (4.8 km) Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal was opened in 1794.

This early transportation link 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 transportation system was required and began to investigate the building of a railway to Campbeltown.

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, a distance of 4 12 miles (7.24 km). For a short length the line ran on the formation of the canal before reaching Campbeltown, where it ended on a pier.

The colliery railway only ever carried coal traffic and used two locomotives, Princess and Chevalier to haul the trains of mine tubs.


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