Mystery narrow gauge line near Watford.

You're very welcome!

 

http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#509,193,1

From the Pumping Station (Colne Valley W.W.Co.) on the B468, a thin black line with cross checks head off to the north west. It crosses the river, crosses a footpath, passes the farmhouse and ends up by the railway just to the west of the bridge that I think is the subject of my other mystery picture.

Isn't that the Colne Valley Waterworks Railway?

Ron.

 

Further to my recent post about the bridge on the standard gauge branch line, I have heard from a local resident that the bridge is the one that I thought it was, but I was looking towards Watford when I photgraphed it. The fixed distant signal must therefore be protecting the junction where the Ricky branch joined up with the Croxley Green branch.

Another mystery solved!

Ron.

 

Thanks - can't see for looking!

 

On Google Earth go to 51º 38' 15.15"N, 0º 24' 42.08"W and I reckon that's where the line crossed the river. Looks like the bridge is now a pipeline.

 

It is :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/just1snap/4287782369/in/set-72157623243167922/

and :

http://www.lostlines.fotopic.net/p25802154.html

Ron.

 

Hello,

The line in the photograph and your question are both interesting. The photograph shows part of the one-mile of track owned and operated by the Colne Valley Water Company and is of 2ft gauge. This ran very close to the former LNWR branch from Watfod to Rickmansworth Church Street Station. It is thought the interesting wooden bridge was recovered from the non-stop railway at the 1924/1925 Wembley Empire Exhibition.

The Colne Valley Water Company opened the Eastbury Pumping Station near Watford in 1873. In 1931 the company opened a narrow gauge railway connecting the pumping station with the LNWR's standard gauge branch line between Watford and Rickmansworth. The line ran southeast from a private siding on the LNWR line, crossed the River Colne by a relatively substantial plate girder bridge and ended in a yard at the pumping station. The railway carried coal to power the pumping station and chlorine and salt for the water softening plant.

The pumping station switched from coal to diesel power in 1956; after this use of the railway declined significantly. Chlorine and salt were still carried by rail. The line closed in 1967. The two locomotives were purchased for preservation.

Another standard gauge mineral line branch also left the LNWR's line to Rickmansworth and served the canalside Dickensons Croxley Script Paper Mill, which operated a fireless locomotive.

My kind regards from

G G