The Torrington and Marland Railway was a
narrow gauge
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 structu ...
built to carry
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
from the quarries at
Clay Moor to
Torrington in north
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
.
History
The line was surveyed in 1879 by
John Barraclough Fell
John Barraclough Fell (1815 – 18 October 1902) was an English railway engineer and inventor of the Fell mountain railway system.
Fell spent the early part of his life in London, living with his parents. About 1835 he moved with them to ...
who was also the consulting engineer to the nearby
Pentewan Railway. Fell's survey was notable for its use of ten wooden viaducts, which were an unusual feature for a British railway.
The railway was a private line, built to serve clay traffic, but part of the agreement with the landowners over whose land it passed was that it would carry local passengers. Steam locomotives were used on both the main railway and the internal lines in the clay pits.
In 1925 the main line was replaced with a
standard gauge branch of the
North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway
The North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was a railway built to serve numerous ball clay pits that lay in the space between the London and South Western Railway's Torrington branch, an extension of the North Devon Railway group, an ...
. The Torrington and Marland was cut back to a 1½ mile stub and the internal quarry lines. These continued in use until 1971 when the line finally closed.
Locomotives
{, class="wikitable"
!Number
!Name
!Builder
!Type
!Date
!Works number
!Notes
, -
, 1
, ''Mary''
,
Black, Hawthorn & Co
,
, 1880
, 576
, Scrapped 1925
, -
, 2
, ''Marland''
,
W.G. Bagnall
,
, 1910
,
,
, -
, 3
, ''Peter''
,
Stephen Lewin
,
, c. 1870
,
, Scrapped 1925
, -
, 4
, ''Merton''
,
Fletcher Jennings
Fletcher, Jennings & Co. was an engineering company at Lowca near Whitehaven, Cumberland, England.
Overview
Fletcher and Jennings took over the business of Tulk and Ley in 1857. From then, until 1884, the company concentrated on four and six ...
,
, 1880
,
, Constructed from pieces of three
Fletcher Jennings
Fletcher, Jennings & Co. was an engineering company at Lowca near Whitehaven, Cumberland, England.
Overview
Fletcher and Jennings took over the business of Tulk and Ley in 1857. From then, until 1884, the company concentrated on four and six ...
locomotives.
, -
, 11
,
,
Avonside
, {{nowrap, {{whyte, 0-6-0, ST
, 1901
, 1428
,
Scrapped 1925
See also
*
British narrow gauge railways
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railwa ...
*
Tarka Trail
The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths (rail trails) around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of in a figure-of-eight route, centred o ...
References
* The Torrington & Marland Light Railway - Rod Garner (Kestrel Railway Books)
3 ft gauge railways in England
Railway lines opened in 1880
Rail transport in Devon