Snailbeach Lead Mine

[Baldwin30762]

take a look here http://www.railway-books.co.uk/ I am just a satisfied customer drop him an email as he may be able to help

 

Regards

 

Colin Rainsbury

[gismorail]

Yes the book on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway is still available as is a more recent book 'Under Military Control' both are excellent boos and full of information.

 

Having wandering around this part of the country many times it is amazing have much old railway infrastructure still remains. The Shropshire Hills area  is very much a hidden gem and is known as 'The Secret Hills' almost a land that time forgot.

 

so don't tell too many people about it

[Leicester Thumper]

good find! interesting little line that. 

[1722]

Just read this thread through. As a Shropshire-based modeller, Snailbeach is a place that I was aware of but never really looked into. Quite fancy a visit now. 

[corneliuslundie]

If in the area it is also worth visiting the hamlet of Bog where there is a visitor centre dealing with Shropshire hills mining. It is on the west of the Stiperstones near the south end.

And Trevor Hughes' layout is still around and has been exhibited in Welshpool, though as he is currently starting a new layout i don't know how much longer it will be on the exhibition scene.

Jonathan

[rockershovel]

The round structures are probably buddles, a sort of gravity separation process by which crushed ore is separated by flowing water. They are quite common on Metalliferous mine sites from that period. 

[bécasse]

Drawings of the loco shed at Snailbeach can be found here .

[simontaylor484]

This brings back memories for me an a level geology field trip in the mid 90s i loved it. It lead to my degree course in mineral estate management. There was talk when we visited that some of the spoil heaps would be remined/worked for barite which is a heavy white mineral used in drilling muds . We travelled by train too including 30 mins layover at crewe

 

[rockershovel]

On 06/06/2020 at 19:46, simontaylor484 said:

This brings back memories for me an a level geology field trip in the mid 90s i loved it. It lead to my degree course in mineral estate management. There was talk when we visited that some of the spoil heaps would be remined/worked for barite which is a heavy white mineral used in drilling muds . We travelled by train too including 30 mins layover at crewe

 

 

Flourspar for steel making, barite for drilling mud, calcite, fluorite. Old lead mine tips contain all sorts of useful things, which weren’t useful or sought after, back in the day. 

 

That’s a general comment on old metalliferous mine tips. The Cornish tips were re-worked for whatever minerals remained, and the washed crushed granite sold for road-building in the 70s and 80s.

Edited June 9, 2020 by rockershovel

[Nearholmer]

Quite a lot of Snailbeach information has been published in NG&IRM magazine over the years, and Roy C Link has built numerous iterations of his Crowsnest Tramway, inspired in part by a possible extension or nearby might have been. When I visited the area a few years back, I walked on beyond the top of the SR, through the Crowsnest area and beyond, where there were once further mines.

 

It is indeed, all very fascinating.