The Creekmoor Light Railway was a small, privately run,
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
railway.
It was situated off Creekmoor Lane, to the north of
Poole
Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...
,
between
Broadstone and
Fleetsbridge
Fleetsbridge is a small area of Poole, Dorset, centred on a busy gyratory and flyover. It lies north of Poole town centre and borders the neighbouring suburbs of Waterloo, Creekmoor, Oakdale and Canford Heath. The use of land varies betwee ...
,
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, and was operated by a group of local enthusiasts from October 1968, to April 1973.
Origins
With the closure and demolition of the
Upton (formerly Lytchett Brick Co. Ltd) Brickworks to make way for a residential development
their
narrow gauge network, which had been in use since 1901, was scrapped allowing rails and sleepers, two 4-wheel drive locomotives (one workable), 8 vee skips, 12 tall brick carrying trollies/wagons and accessories to be acquired for the Creekmoor project, with other railway equipment from the brickworks being purchased by the
Launceston Steam Railway
The Launceston Steam Railway is a gauge narrow gauge railway, in Cornwall, England. The long railway runs from Launceston, Cornwall, Launceston to Newmills, where there is a farm park. It is built on the trackbed of the former standard gauge ...
.
In late October 1968 construction commenced with the line running for just over half a mile from land adjacent to the former
Creekmoor Halt Station across
smallholding
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...
s held by Trevor Waterman - the project's initiator - and his brother. They planned to utilise the railway to carry feed for their pigs.
[
The construction of the railway was a makeshift affair with sheds being constructed from scrap material and ]rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...
adapted from available stock.
A flat bogie
A bogie ( ) (or truck in North American English) comprises two or more Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets (two Railroad wheel, wheels on an axle), in a frame, attached under a vehicle by a pivot. Bogies take various forms in various modes ...
rail carrier, a bogie coach to carry 12 passengers, and a tool van were all built using the chassis and framework.[ This was flame cut from the brick carrying trollies, cutting down the pillars. Typically, a chassis had to be cut in half, a section of angle iron then welded on each end resulting in two bogies, each needing two axle boxes / wheels.
During 1970 ten ]shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...
s were offered, and accepted by the British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
Property division, for the Creekmoor Light Railway to remove all the redundant signal lattice posts, arms, signs and dummy signals from the line approaching Broadstone.
Locomotives
The steam locomotive (works number 9239 of 1939), ''Fojo'', built by Orenstein & Koppel
Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876, in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel.
Ori ...
was purchased with proceeds from the sale of scrap metal from the signaling acquisition. It was moved to Hertfordshire and subsequently sold to Welsh Highland Railway
The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; ) is a restored Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passes through a number of popular tourist destinations includi ...
, Beddgelert
Beddgelert () is a village and community (Wales), community in the Snowdonia area of Gwynedd, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census was 460 (rounded to the nearest 10). This includes Nan ...
in 1978.[
The diesel locos bought from Upton Brickworks were -
*No.1. Hibberd 1887 of 1934 named ''Samson''][ came from the Upton Brickworks in Oct 1968.
*No.2. Motor Rail 9778 of 1953, ''Delilah'' came from the Upton Brickworks in Oct 1968.
*No.3. ]Ruston Hornsby Ruston may refer to:
Place names
;United States
* Ruston, Louisiana
* Ruston, Washington
;United Kingdom
* East Ruston, Norfolk, England
* Ruston, North Yorkshire, England
* Ruston Parva, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Companies
* Ruston (eng ...
179880 of 1936 Brunel came from L.W. Vass Ltd, Dealer, Ampthill
Ampthill () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It lies between Bedford, Bedfordshire, Bedford and Luton. At the 2021 census it had a population of 8,825.
Histor ...
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
, December 1969 and went to Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) was a single track (rail), single track, narrow gauge railway. It opened in May 1898 and ran for slightly more than through the area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, England. Although it opened afte ...
c1978.
*No.4. Motor Rail 8644 of 1941, a runner named ''Druid''[ came from Pollock & Brown, ]Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
. May 1971 and went to Hemingbrough tile works, near Selby, where it was pictured working in 1979. It then went to the Abbey Light Railway
The Abbey Light Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
Built by enthusiasts, the Railway ran from the nearby Bridge Road commercial area into the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey, operating most Sundays.
H ...
, Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, it was totally rebuilt in a different guise in 1999 and continues working to this day.
Operation
The line was operated for five years, usually late afternoon until after dusk. Fridays, Saturdays and access often extended on Sundays with occasional visits from members of the local Railway Club.
Turning the coach into the engine shed road was a curiosity. The main track ran down over a ditch to a short stub of only eight feet, the passenger coach being fourteen, firstly had its bogie run onto the stub, Right hand point crossed over, coach pushed over, the new set route, which, with the coach length swinging in an arc, would position it on the turntable. Then 2nd bogie over the point, reset, and pushed up on the outer line alongside the locos in the shed.[
]
Decline and closure
In 1973 a new housing estate was planned covering the whole of the smallholdings area[ which forced the railway to move down to Crockway Farm, ]Maiden Newton
Maiden Newton is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county, county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies within the Dorset (unitary authority), Dorset Council administrative area, about north-west of the cou ...
, Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
.
A three-road shed with a pit was built, locomotives put inside and wagons pushed a few hundred yards over temporary welded track to a couple of sidings. But with the distance down to Crockway, , interest in restarting slowly waned. By 1978 all stock and signs were sold off in auctions arranged with the Narrow Gauge Railway Society.
Some of the enthusiasts who had worked on the project went on to work for Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
, while others became the nucleus of the newly formed Swanage Railway
The Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham, Dorset to Swanage, Dorset, England, opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway.
The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and Sout ...
Society.
References
{{coord, 50.7465, -2.0000, dim:1600_region:GB-DOR, display=title
2 ft gauge railways in England
Rail transport in Dorset
Closed railway lines in South West England
Railway lines opened in 1968
Railway lines closed in 1973