Some industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the

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were primarily built to serve quarrying, mining, and similar industries. Some of these

narrow-gauge railways A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are listed by the primary industry they served.

Cement works

Many of the cement works and their associated

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

pits had narrow gauge railways, particularly those in the South East of England. The '' Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd.'' (APCM, later

Blue Circle Industries Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...

, and

Lafarge La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to: People * Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer * Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge * Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...

) was the major producer of cement in the United Kingdom in the second half of the twentieth century and many of their plants used railways.

Lime works

Image:Bugsworth 058063.jpg, Peak Forest Tramway

Brickworks

Clay extraction

China clay extraction

In Britain large deposits of

Kaolinite Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...

(commonly known as "china clay") were found in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. Many industrial railways, both narrow gauge and standard gauge, were built to serve the china clay quarries and mines of this area.

Sand and gravel extraction

The sand and gravel extraction industries made extensive use of narrow gauge railways, and several of these lasted into the 1980s – this was one of the last industries to make significant use of narrow gauge industrial railways in the UK. Image:Simplex at Leighton Buzzard 05-09-11 30.jpeg,

Leighton Buzzard Light Railway The Leighton Buzzard Light Railway (LBLR) is a light railway in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, England. It operates on narrow-gauge track and is just under long. The line was built after the First World War to serve sand quarries north of ...

quarry locomotive ''Red Rum'' Image:PentewanLocomotiveShed.jpg, Pentewan Dock & Concrete Company locomotive shed

Stone quarrying and mining

Slate

The most well-known of the British industrial narrow gauge railways were those serving the slate industry of north Wales. Many of the quarries had internal tramways and feeder lines connecting them to transhipment points on local railways, rivers, roads or coastal ports.

Granite

Other stone

Coal

Image:Wagonway.jpg, Little Eaton Gangway The British coal mining industry made extensive use of narrow gauge railways, particularly underground where the restricted size of the tunnels meant that narrow gauge lines were and are particularly well suited. Many

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

(NCB) mines used railways both underground and in the stock yards above ground. There were also many short lines at private mines, particularly in south Wales and the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

regions.

Peat extraction

Other mineral extraction

Metal mining

Tin, lead and zinc

Image:SnailBeachLeadMine.jpg, Snailbeach Lead Mine

Iron

Mainly ironstone quarries Image:RussellPorthmadog.jpeg, Russell that ran at the Brymbo Ironstone Railway File:Irchester Railway Museum - Flickr - mick - Lumix.jpg, Peckett metre gauge locomotive from the Wellingborough Iron Company tramway

Gold

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * ''Narrow Gauge News'', the journal of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society

External links

Narrow Gauge Railway Society

Industrial Railway Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:British Quarrying And Mining Narrow Gauge Railways Mining in the United Kingdom Industrial railways in the United Kingdom Quarrying in the United Kingdom British, narrow gauge railways