The Foxfield Railway is a preserved

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

line located south east of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

. The line was built in 1893 to serve the

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...

at Dilhorne on the Cheadle Coalfield. It joined the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a Great Britain, British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shro ...

line near Blythe Bridge. It is open at weekends and operates trains on Sundays, Bank Holidays and some Saturdays from April to October and Santa Special trains in December. It is home to the Knotty Coach Trust, the Foxfield Miniature Railway, a museum, café, bar and a shop.

History

The Foxfield Railway was built in 1892-1893 to provide a link to the

for the Foxfield Colliery. The railway was built by local labour provided by North Staffordshire Railway employees at weekends and supervised by the North Staffordshire Railway foreman plate layer Noah Stanier, using second hand material, again obtained from the North Staffordshire Railway.

Preservation

When the colliery closed in August 1965, local volunteers formed the Foxfield Light Railway Society to preserve the line. At first, passengers were taken in converted trucks up the formidable 1:19 to 1:26

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

out of the colliery site at Dilhorne, accompanied by a tank engine. Eventually, new coaches were purchased and a station was built at Caverswall Road, Blythe Bridge, half a mile from Blythe Bridge station. The service runs for from there to the top of Foxfield Bank.

Location

The original line left the Crewe to Derby Line a little west of the station. The link has been lifted, but several abandoned wagons can be seen in the old sidings from passing trains. A station and depot have been built at Caverswall Road, half a mile north of Blythe Bridge railway station along Blythe Bridge Road. The station at Caverswall offers visitor facilities such as a Buffet serving hot and cold food and drinks and a Real Ale bar "The One Legged Shunter". Also a museum building displaying a variety of artifacts relating to local railways and locomotives currently out of service. The adjacent Olcote Animal Sanctuary has an enclosure next to the miniature railway where animals can be found the first three Sundays in a month. The railway operates Sundays and Bank Holidays from April to October and Santa Special trains during December.

Locomotive fleet

The Foxfield Railway has the largest collection of standard gauge

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s in Staffordshire, most of which are of industrial origins. Also a reasonable sized collection of industrial diesels.

Operational steam locomotives

Steam locomotives off site

Steam locomotives undergoing overhaul or restoration

Stored steam locomotives

Operational diesel locomotives

Diesel locomotives undergoing overhaul or restoration

Stored diesel locomotives

Electric locomotives

Passenger carriages

The railway has a collection of carriages from a wide range of years which are used to take passengers up and down the line. *The NSR Rolling Stock Restoration Trust In 2008 a small group was formed with the aim of restoring the two surviving North Staffordshire Railway 4-wheeled coaches, with a long term aim of recreating a proto-typical Victorian train that would have once operated in the local area. The Knotty Trust, as it has become known as, was registered as a charity in 2009 and in 2012 received a £30,000 grant for the completion of the first vehicle (no. 127). This was completed at Stanegate Restorations, who have become a major supporter in the recreation of a Knotty Train. Since then the collection has grown to include other former 'Knotty Coaches' that have been discovered, as well as other historically important vehicles.

Use as a filming location

Although located in Staffordshire, the railway was used for the filming of sequences for the BBC television series ''

Return to Cranford ''Return to Cranford'' is the two-part second series of a British television series directed by Simon Curtis. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was based on material from two novellas and a short story by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 ...

'', which is set in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. The railway featured in two episodes first broadcast in December 2009. Matilda 'Matty' Jenkyns (played by

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...

), invited several of the main characters to ride on the train in an attempt to alter their opinions about the benefits of the railway being extended into the town of Cranford.

References

External links

The Railway websiteFoxfield Virtual Stock ListBBC Staffordshire - Out & About: Foxfield Railway
{{Heritage railways in England Heritage railways in Staffordshire Tourist attractions of the Peak District