Industrial Loco's ?

Hi
I know very little about miniature railways so please forgive my ignorance.
I'm just curious if any loco's were ever used in light industry or whether they were all specifically built for private/pleasure line purposes?
Cheers
Steve

 

Depends on the gauge and purpose of the line. Hard to put it in a nutshell really, you can have industrial lines under 2 feet gauge and pleasure lines also below 2 feet gauge, no one would call the 18" gauge Hunslet "Jack" at Armley Mills a miniature loco, but the Curwen Atlantic "Crompton" built for the same gauge but different purpose most certainly is.

 

Steve (Bestieboy) - I forgive your ignorance, since miniature railways and their being used industrially is complicated, and further deepens the grey area between a miniature railway, and a narrow-gauge one.

If we take 15" as an example, then we draw upon the experiments of Sir Arthur Heywood, who built his estate railway at Suffield Bank using all his own equipment, to try the viability of an industrial style 15" railway which ran viable frieght and passenger trains. The Duke of Westminster's railway at Eaton Hall (from the Hall to an exchange siding with the GWR at Balderton) was built to Heywood's principles and was apparently quite successful.

You then also have the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway which, although does not carry regular freight other than PW/works trains, DOES serve an industrial purpose as a people-mover and commuting medium along that section of coast. There aren't many kids these days that say they go to school by miniature train!!

I do know of a family that lived in Boot, whose kids caught the early train down dale on the Ratty to catch the school train from Ravenglass to Millom! The Ratty had the post contract for Eskdale for a long time, the post being transported by rail-mounted scooter. Of course they also had stone and iron trains from the various mines along the route, and there was also wool traffic in the summer.

Going smaller, there's a 7.25" railway in North Yorkshire on a lavender farm, which is used to transport lavender from the fields to the processing plant. Half a gallon of petrol per day in the loco, cheaper than a tractor!!

If I could divert your attention, I wrote an article for Miniature Railway World some time ago discussing narrow-gauge/miniature railways - I think given your question you might find it interesting, especially the discussions raised afterwards. It can be found at http://s9.zetaboards.com/MRW_Forums/topic/98432/1/

I hope you find this interesting and that it goes some way to answering your question.

Cheers,

Dom Greenop

 

This discussion depends on one's definition of an industrial railway. The North Yorkshire lavender farm mentioned certainly seems to fit the bill. Estate railways like Duffield Bank and Eaton Hall, and one not mentioned so far Sir Thomas Salt's Shillingstone Railway in Dorset all fit the bill. But sorry, no, the RHDR's school train, unique innovative and interesting though it is, is NOT an industrial railway.

Worth mentioning perhaps, contractor's tunnelling lines sometimes used to be built to one foot gauge, using battery electric locos and wagons built by a Warwick firm called Iso Speedic.

 

Thanks Guys for helping me out in this area.
I used the link you posted Dom and very enjoyable it was to. I had no idea how big the miniature scene actually is. How many loco's under 1ft3in is there!!!
Cheers
Steve