The Kinver Light Railway operated a passenger and freight tramway service between

Amblecote Amblecote is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Histori ...

and

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

, in

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Codsall. Other notable settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Coven, Essington, Featherstone, Four Ashes, Great Wyrley, Huntington, ...

, between 1901 and 1930.

History

The Kinver Light Railway was a subsidiary of

British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Ren ...

. They acquired the Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company in April 1898 and applied to the Light Railway Commissioners (in preference to the

Tramways Act 1870 The Tramways Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 78) was an important step in the development of urban transport in United Kingdom. Street tramways had originated in the United States, and were introduced to UK by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the ...

( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 78)) for permission to build a tramway from

. The proposal was given the go ahead on 7 March 1899. The tramway was a single track of gauge with passing places. The route ran hourly and half-hourly from outside the Fish Inn at Amblecote where it had a connection with the

Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company The Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Tramways Company operated an electric tramway service between Dudley and Stourbridge and also other lines in the neighbourhood between 1899 and 1930. History On 2 April 1898 the Dudley and Stourbr ...

tracks. After passing through Wollaston and Stourton, it arrived in Kinver. From Amblecote to Wollaston Ridge it ran on the streets using conventional

grooved rail The rail profile is the cross-sectional shape of a rail as installed on a railway or railroad, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron. All modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross sectio ...

. From there the line used

Vignoles rail The rail profile is the cross-sectional shape of a rail as installed on a railway or railroad, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron. All modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross sectio ...

(non-grooved bullhead rail). The use of Vignoles rail in conjunction with the tramway's tight curves led to the Board of Trade Inspector imposing a 10 mph speed limit and recommending the use of single-deck tram cars only, while the lack of signalling at passing loops prevented operation at night.Paul Collins, ''Kinver Light Railway''
The Quinton Oracle
Passenger services started on 4 April 1901. The fare was one penny for each of its four stages and a whole line fare of three pence. The company was taken over by the

in 1902 for the sum of £60,000 (). On 13 December 1902 a single track branch line was laid along Enville street to connect Wollaston to Stourbridge. A shuttle service was operated to the original line at Wollaston Junction, and by 1904 some cars ran through to The Ridge at the western end of the village. Although parcels had been carried on passenger services from the outset, goods trailer vehicles were attached behind service cars for freight from September 1903. The company made significant money from this operation. Substantial quantities of milk were carried, such that occasionally passenger vehicles were commandeered for freight use. The Sheffield Photo Company produced a film in 1904 entitled ''A Ride on the Kinver Light Railway''.John Huntley, Railways in the Cinema, Allan 1969, p.151 It was directed by

Frank Mottershaw Frank Mottershaw (1850–1932) (often confused with his second son, Frank Storm Mottershaw) was an early English film, cinema director based in Sheffield, Yorkshire. His films, ''A Daring Daylight Burglary'' and ''The Robbery of the Mail Coach'' ...

, a pioneer film maker. Passenger numbers began to decline in the mid-1920s as other connecting tramlines originating in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

closed. The Enville Street line between Stourbridge and Wollaston closed on 16 November 1926 and service frequency on the original line was much reduced. Services finished on 8 February 1930, a victim of competition from motorbus traffic, and the final closure took place on 1 March 1930. Almost nothing remains of the tramlines except an outline of where the line was from bird's-eye view, and a few pieces of discarded rail in the more wooded areas of the line.

References

{{Historic UK Trams Tram transport in England 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in England

History

See also

References