Leighton Buzzard Light Railway
| Leighton Buzzard Light Railway | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| A train on the LBLR being pulled by № 11 PC Allen | |
| Locale | England |
| Terminus | Leighton Buzzard |
| Commercial operations | |
| Name | Leighton Buzzard Light Railway |
| Built by | A.J. Arnold and G. Garside |
| Original gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) |
| Preserved operations | |
| Operated by | Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society |
| Stations | 2 |
| Length | 3 miles (4.8 km) |
| Preserved gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 1919 |
| Closed | 1969 |
| Preservation history | |
| 1968 | First passenger trains run by preservation society |
The Leighton Buzzard Light Railway (LBLR) is a light railway in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, England. It operates on 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge track and is just under 3 miles (4.8 km) long. The line was built after the First World War to serve sand quarries north of the town. In the late 1960s the quarries switched to road transport and the railway was taken over by volunteers, who now run the line as a heritage railway.
A bed of Lower Cretaceous sand across Bedfordshire has been quarried on a small scale for centuries. The most significant occur around Leighton Buzzard. In the 19th century sand was carried by horse carts from quarries south of the town to be shipped on the Dunstable-Leighton Buzzard railway. The carts damaged roads and resulted in claims for compensation against the quarry owners from Bedfordshire County Council. At the end of the century steam wagons were introduced which increased the damage to roads.
The outbreak of the First World War cut off supplies of foundry sand from Belgium. Sand was needed for ammunition factories and new sources were sought. Leighton Buzzard sands proved well suited and production increased. After 1919 the quarry companies were told they could no longer transport sand by roads, so a private industrial railway was proposed to take the traffic.
Leighton Buzzard Light Railway opened on Thursday 20 November 1919, linking the sand quarries (Double Arches at the far end of the line) with the mainline railway south of the town at Grovebury sidings. The line was built using surplus equipment from the War Department Light Railways. The railway was built to a gauge of 2 ft (610 mm) and laid using mostly 30 lb/yd (14.9 kg/m) rail. The line opened using steam traction by two Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 side tank steam locomotives. These proved inappropriate for the tightly-curved line and the steam locomotives were sold in 1921. From that point the railway was run using internal combustion, almost exclusively the products of the Motor Rail company. It was one of the first railways in Britain entirely operated by internal combustion.
...
Wikipedia