The Light Railways Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c. 48) was an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

History

Before the act each new railway line built in the country required a specific act of Parliament to be obtained by the company that wished to construct it, which greatly added to the cost and time it took to construct new railways. The

economic downturn In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...

of the 1880s had hit agriculture and rural communities in the United Kingdom especially hard and the government wished to facilitate the construction of railways in rural areas, especially to facilitate the transport of goods. The 1896 act defined a class of railways which did not require specific legislation to construct – companies could simply plan a line under the auspices of the new act, and, having obtained a light railway order, build and operate it. By reducing the legal costs and allowing new railways to be built quickly the government hoped to encourage companies to build the new 'light railways' in areas of low population and industry that were previously of little interest to them. A light railway is not a tramway but a separate class of railway. The act was triggered by the complexity of creating the low-cost railways that were needed at the time in rural areas, and by the successful use of tramway rules to create the

Wisbech and Upwell Tramway The Wisbech and Upwell Tramway was a rural standard gauge tramway in East Anglia. It was built by the Great Eastern Railway between Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, and Upwell, now in Norfolk, to carry agricultural produce. Although calle ...

in 1882, which was in fact a light railway in all but name. The Regulation of Railways Act 1868 ( 31 & 32 Vict. c. 119) had permitted the construction of light railways subject to '...such conditions and regulations as the Board of Trade may from time to time impose or make'; for such railways it specified a maximum permitted axle weight and stated that '...the regulations respecting the speed of trains shall not authorize a speed exceeding at any time twenty-five miles an hour'. The Light Railways Act 1896 did not specify any exceptions or limitations that should apply to light railways; it did not even attempt to define a 'light railway'. However, it gave powers to a panel of three Light Railway Commissioners to include 'provisions for the safety of the public... as they think necessary for the proper construction and working of the railway' in any light railway order (LRO) granted under the act. These could limit vehicle axle weights and speeds: the maximum speed of 25 miles per hour (mph) often associated with the Light Railways Act 1896 is not specified in the act but was a product of the earlier Regulation of Railways Act 1868 ( 31 & 32 Vict. c. 119). However, limits were particularly needed when lightly laid track and relatively modest bridges were used in order to keep costs down. LROs could also exempt light railways from some of the requirements of a normal railway:

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

s did not have to be protected by gates, but only by

cattle grid A cattle grid – also known as a stock grid in Australia; cattle guard, or cattle grate in American English; vehicle pass, or stock gap in the Southeastern United States; Texas gate in western Canada and the northwestern United States; and a c ...

s, saving the cost of both the gates and a keeper to operate them. It did not exclude standard-gauge track, but narrow-gauge tracks were used for many railways built under its provisions. Many of the railways built under the auspices of the act were very basic, with little or no

signalling A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

(many ran under the 'one engine in steam' principle). A number of municipal and company-owned street tramways were built or extended by the act, 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). The procedure of the 1896 act was simpler, permission easier to obtain (local authorities had the right to veto lines under the 1870 legislation), and there was a 75% savings on rates payable as compared to a tramway. The act was never a great success. By the 1920s the use of road transport had killed the majority of these little railways, although some survived thanks to clever management and tight financial control. The act was repealed in 1993 for England and Wales by the

Transport and Works Act 1992 The Transport and Works Act 1992 (c. 42) (TWA) was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to provide a system by which the construction of rail transport, tramway, inland waterway and harbour infrastructure could proceed in the UK ...

and no new light railway orders were allowed to be issued for Scotland since 2007. Until the

introduced transport works orders,

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

s in the UK were operated under light railway orders.

Railways built under the act

Preserved

Kent and East Sussex Railway The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. The railway runs b ...

, opened in 1900, final section closed in 1970 but part reopened in stages from 1974. *

Vale of Rheidol Light Railway The Vale of Rheidol Railway () is a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge heritage railway in Ceredigion, Wales, between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion, Devil's Bridge; a journey of . It opened in 1902 and, from the Withdrawal of ste ...

, operated continuously since 1902 *

Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) () is a Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway in Powys, Wales. The line is around long and runs westwards from the town of Welshpool () via Castle Caereinion to the village of Ll ...

, opened in 1903, closed in 1956, reconstructed and reopened between 1963 and 1981 on the entire route except Welshpool town section *

Mid-Suffolk Light Railway The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (MSLR) was a standard gauge railway intended to open up an agricultural area of central Suffolk; it took advantage of the reduced construction cost enabled by the Light Railways Act 1896. It was launched with consi ...

, opened in 1905, closed in 1952, very short section opened over 40 years later *

Derwent Valley Light Railway The Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) (also known as The Blackberry Line) was a privately owned standard-gauge railway in North Yorkshire, England, and was unusual in that it was never nationalization, nationalised, remaining as a private ...

, opened in 1913, short section operating as heritage

Closed

Railways operated under the act

* Heart of Wales Line, since 1972 A number of railways have, over the years, been built on private land, with names that end in "Light Railway". These have not needed parliamentary powers or a light railway order. The name has only reflected the light nature of the railway. Many miniature railways are named in this way.

Railways authorised under the act, but not built

North Holderness Light Railway The North Holderness Light Railway was a proposed light railway, which was to have been constructed by the North Eastern Railway (UK), North Eastern Railway (NER) between Beverley and North Frodingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. ...

(1897) *

Wotton-under-Edge Wotton-under-Edge is a market town and civil parish in the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. Near the southern fringe of the Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills ...

Light Railway (1899) * Rosedale & Lastingham Light Railway (1900) * Headcorn and Maidstone Junction Light Railway (1906) * Trentham, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Silverdale Light Railway (1914) * Southern Heights Light Railway (1929)

History

Railways built under the act

Preserved

Closed

Railways operated under the act

Railways authorised under the act, but not built

Notes

References

Further reading