Mountsorrel Railway
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The Mountsorrel Railway was a network of industrial railway lines that served the granite quarries which dominate the Leicestershire village of Mountsorrel. A section was reopened in 2015 as a heritage line, run by Mountsorrel & Rothley Community Heritage Centre.
As early as 1860 there were eight and a half miles of track serving the local quarries of the Mountsorrel Granite Company, now owned by Lafarge Aggregates. The line ran from the Great Central Railway at Swithland Sidings, around the quarries, over the Grand Union Canal at Mountsorrel, to the Midland Main Line at Barrow-upon-Soar.
The line fell out of use in the 1950s, the track was taken up in the 1960s, and most of the route was abandoned.
The line between Mountsorrel and Barrow is still followed by a mineral conveyor to Barrow, where quarry rock is sorted for distribution.
A local resident, Steve Cramp, has been researching the railway and, as well as writing a book about it, is leading a project to rebuild the part of the railway going from Swithland to Mountsorrel. Donations have already come in for the project, including from Lafarge. The project will reinstate one and-a-quarter miles of new track to a small halt station under Wood Lane bridge. This will allow the villagers of Mountsorrel to catch a train for nearby Rothley and then onto the rest of the preserved network. The line climbs at a grade of 1 in 62, which when put into contrast with the gradients on the Great Central Mainline, is far steeper, as they only reached only 1 in 175.
Despite numerous examples, none of the original Mountsorrel wagons had been preserved, so three wooden-bodied open wagons (two 5-plank bodies and one 3-plank) which closely resembled the old ones were selected to be returned to service in the official light grey livery of the old Mountsorrel Granite Company.
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Wikipedia