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Burton to Ashby Light Railway 1906-1927


Ian Hargrave
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Once again Burton on Trent is cut in two.First St.Peter's bridge last year and now the original Trent Bridge is closed in the outward direction for urgent refurbishment and structural repair,causing major logistical difficulties for those of us who live on the Derbyshire side of the Trent.We have two months of this to endure but endure we must and use our initiatives at finding alternative ways of effecting a river crossing.Fortunately the St.Peter's Bridge is open but obviously that now gets congested ,especially at peak times.

 

There is however an exciting and interesting diversion to take one's off the frustration of being in slow moving traffic whilst crossing the bridge on the now one -way journey across the Trent. This morning,quite unexpectedly ,the by now week long excavations have revealed the track and pointwork of the now long disappeared light railway....just as if it were yesterday....stretching across the skeleton of the bridge under nearly a century of now disposed of redundant road surfacing.

 

It was a thrilling diversion.But it won't be around long I imagine.

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I'd be very interested to see a picture if possible.

 

My grandma many moons ago told me of her recollections of the light railway to Burton-upon-Trent... She'd been despatched as a youngster from her home in Leicestershire near Melton Mowbray to relatives at Burton. To get her there she'd been routed via Leicester then Ashby, and then on the light railway. It must have been the mid twenties, and I wonder if the booking clerk at Saxby had sent her that way to help boost passenger numbers on the tramway, it must have been slower. Anyway, her abiding memories of the tram when I asked her was firstly feeling sick on the swaying car and secondly losing her hat under the tram at Burton when she alighted. It's a story I'll not forget, and I remember her fondly.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

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And of course one tram survived , via Detroit, and is now preserved at Statfold Barn Railway , albeit battery powered. A remarkable survivor really.

 

It would be a nice touch if that original trackwork ended up at Statfold , even if only for display.

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And of course one tram survived , via Detroit, and is now preserved at Statfold Barn Railway , albeit battery powered. A remarkable survivor really.

 

It would be a nice touch if that original trackwork ended up at Statfold , even if only for display.

I'm afraid that by this afternoon,the section I saw yesterday is already entombed by the replacement road surface.However more track has been exposed at the town end.The logistics of removing it are mind boggling to contemplate.

 

Meanwhile,traffic in the town by the end of the working day today was,quite literally,gridlock.My homeward journey from my GP's surgery....one mile distant from home in the inbound direction ( 5 minutes )...,,,was achieved after much driving around from one blocked route to another.....by accessing the A38 in the northbound direction and then a deviation via Willington and Repton..45 minutes.

 

Bring back the trams please.

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I'm just recommending what I think is the best book on the Burton & Ashby Light Railways, 'Return to the sixpenny switchback' by Keith Gilliver, published by Ashby Museum, 2016. Covers No.14 restoration & other remains....but not those above!

 

Dava

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Thanks for posting Laurence, what a great piece of industrial archaeology, shame it's being trashed in the process but interesting to see the pics and how much of the formation had been buried.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

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Thanks for posting Laurence, what a great piece of industrial archaeology, shame it's being trashed in the process but interesting to see the pics and how much of the formation had been buried.

All the best,

Keith

 

Update midday. Track appears to be in process of being cut up in situ now as I drove over the bridge.You don't see as much from a car as you do from a bus

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After 90 years indeed it does.You have to wonder what effect it has had on the structural integrity of the bridge though,considering the huge volume of heavy traffic it carries.....all 4 lanes of it with it solid at peak times.Did it actually assist in strengthening the bridge or was it just adding extra weight,contributing to its eventual current restructuring and traffic chaos....the like of which I have never witnessed after 46 years in Burton.

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In an ideal world, someone involved in the project ought to have had the thought that at least a representative piece of this ought to be donated to one of the local museums, rather than being weighed in for scrap, but I don't suppose that's the case....

Edited by Invicta
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In an ideal world, someone involved in the project ought to have had the thought that at least a representative piece of this ought to be donated to one of the local museums, rather than being weighed in for scrap, but I don't suppose that's the case....

With the Brewery Museum and its rail exhibits a couple of hundred yards up the road.....

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When some rework was done in Cambridge city centre some years ago, track from the very long defunct & short-lived horse tramway was found. I was told that Crich collected a sample to their collection. Maybe Burton as well?

 

Stewart

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When some rework was done in Cambridge city centre some years ago, track from the very long defunct & short-lived horse tramway was found. I was told that Crich collected a sample to their collection. Maybe Burton as well?

 

Stewart

 

..... and I've got a slice of rail as a paper-weight - perks of arranging for the pumping station museum in Newmarket Road to have a set of pointwork from the St. Mary's Street terminus.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

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  • 4 weeks later...

When the new tramlines were going in around Manchester city centre at various stages in the 90' and again more recently, it was common for the lines from the turn of the century to be revealed.

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