Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway

Mitcheldean Roadon the

Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway

Bailey Level gold mine

Lea Bailey Light Railway

Hawthorns Tunnel

Drybrook Quarry

Drybrook Tunnel

Drybrook Halt

Nailbridge Halt

Steam Mills Crossing Halt

Whimsey Halt

to Churchway Colliery

to Lydney and Cinderford New

(Severn & Wye Railway)

to Newnham

The Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway was an independent railway company incorporated in 1871, to provide a northerly outlet for iron ore and coal products from the Cinderford and Whimsey area in the Forest of Dean, to the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line; mineral traffic to industrial centres in South Wales and the Midlands was foreseen.

The company ran out of money during construction, and the Great Western Railway purchased it and completed the line about 1882. By then the intended mineral flows were being adequately handled on other routes, and the GWR did not open the line to traffic, although in 1885 a short length at the southern end was opened to connect mineral workings.

The line remained dormant until in 1907 the Great Western Railway introduced a service of railmotor passenger trains, opening several low-cost stopping places on the line as far north as Drybrook Halt. The service was successful at first but declined later, closing in 1930. Ammunition was stored in the disused tunnel on the line during World War II, but later use was confined to a bitumen plant near Whimsey, and the line closed completely in 1967.

The considerable iron and coal wealth of the Forest of Dean, coupled with exceptionally poor road facilities, had encouraged the promotion of tramways to convey the heavy minerals to market. At first this was locally focussed, and then conveyance to waterway transport became important.

In the early 1840s the Great Western Railway was sponsoring the Monmouth and Hereford Railway, to build a line from Standish, south-east of Gloucester, to Hereford via Ross-on-Wye, with a southward branch line from Lea, near Mitcheldean, to Whimsey, near Cinderford. At the time Whimsey was an important centre of the mineral extraction industry in the Forest of Dean. The Monmouth and Hereford Railway was incorporated in 1845, but limited in scope by Parliament, and the powers were not exercised. However in 1851 the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway received its authorising Act of Parliament, and it opened a line on a similar alignment from Hereford to Grange Court on 1 June 1855. The GWR itself built the connecting section from Grange Court to Gloucester, and the South Wales Railway opened its line progressively from Grange Court to Chepstow.

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Wikipedia