Rail Album - Belvoir Castle Railway

Rail Album for steam engines, diesel locos and railway wagons

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Belvoir Castle Railway

Rail Album for railway and other photographs

The Belvoir Castle Railway in Leicestershire was otherwise known as the Grantham Canal Railway, as it joined the castle to the nearby canal. The principal traffic was coal.

The Butterley Company supplied rails of "I" cross-section between 1813 and 1815. Several are now in the Science Museum and are 3' long, weighing 40lbs, with a bearing surface 1" wide. Two German mining engineers visiting Britain in the 1820s noted the track gauge as 4' 4.5".

Rail Album for railway and other photographs

Belvoir Castle Railway Wagon at the National Railway Museum in York in 1986.

Rail Album for railway and other photographs

Belvoir Castle Railway Wagon in use. The wooden beam hanging from the end of the wagon only allowed forward motion and would jam if the wagon moved backwards, thus preventing the wagon from rolling backwards down the incline.

Rail Album for railway and other photographs

End view of the Belvoir Castle Railway Wagon at the NRM in 1986.

Rail Album for railway and other photographs
A view of Belvoir Castle. The railway went around the west side of the castle and then entered a tunnel beneath it.

A final view of the remains of the Belvoir Castle Railway Wagon at the National Railway Museum in York in 1986.

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