The West Somerset Mineral Railway was a standard gauge line in Somerset, England. Originally expected to be long its length as built was , with a branch to Raleigh's Cross Mine. The line's core purpose was to carry iron ore northwards from mines on the Brendon Hills to Watchet harbour on the Bristol Channel. From there the ore was shipped northwards to Newport where it was unloaded onto railway wagons and hauled to ironworks at Ebbw Vale. The line opened as intended in 1861. Passenger services commenced in 1865. The mines' and line's "period of prosperity" ended in 1875 and by 1883 all mining had ceased. The line lingered on for passengers and small goods until 1898, when it closed.
A new mineral venture was attempted in 1907, for which much of the line was re-opened and a -gauge extension was added, but this failed and the line closed again in 1910. A section of the track was used to test and demonstrate an automatic signal warning device in 1911 and occasionally used in that connection up to 1914. The tracks were lifted for scrap in 1917, after which a light railway was laid on part of the trackbed in 1918 to carry timber. This ended in 1920 and the company was wound up in 1925.
The line included a massive rope-worked inclined plane long to bring the ore down a vertical interval on a 1-in-4 (25%) gradient. There were stations on the sections of the line below the inclined plane at Watchet, Washford, and ; trains also called by request at stopping places at Torre and . Three stations were built above the incline but they never carried fare-paying passengers. Further extensions were proposed but not built. Several different locomotives were used during the operation of the line, including 0-4-0ST "Box" tanks built by Neilson and Company and larger Sharp, Stewart 0-6-0STs. A section of the inclined plane has been scheduled as an ancient monument. It can still be seen, along with the remains of some of the buildings and other structures.
Origins In the mid-nineteenth century, the proprietors of the Ebbw Vale Iron Works acquired an interest in iron ore deposits in the Brendon Hills on the north side of Exmoor. Iron ore had been known there for centuries but not exploited industrially until the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company was formed in 1853. At an altitude of over and remote from usable roads, the deposits needed a form of transport to get the ore to South Wales. Thomas Brown (1803–1884), managing partner of the Ebbw Vale company, realised that a railway to the quay at Watchet was the solution. The line was designed by Rice Hopkins.
The Ebbw Vale proprietors formed the West Somerset Mineral Railway for the purpose, and obtained the (18 & 19 Vict. c. cl) on 16 July 1855, giving authority for a standard gauge line from Watchet Quay to Heath Poult (or "Exton"). The authorised capital was £50,000. The first sod was cut at Roughmoor on 29 May 1856 and a locomotive was obtained in the following November; however it was put out of action in January 1857 by serious damage to the boiler.
The line was ready for traffic from Watchet to by April 1857, and for the time being that acted as the railhead for the minerals; the line was extended to Comberow ( from the harbour) by December 1857. In the interim, however, another accident occurred when two locomotives collided, killing three men.
Although the line was continuous, it was effectively split into three sections from the south: to along the top of the Brendon Hills, which included a little over a mile where significant gradients were against ore trains the Comberow incline, where the gradient favoured ore trains, and to Watchet harbour where gradients favoured ore trains throughout, with a ruling gradient of 1 in 40.
The (20 & 21 Vict. c. lxvi) was obtained on 27 July 1857 to extend the line to Minehead, with a branch to Cleeve; an additional £35,000 capital was authorised, but this work never started.
Comberow incline
The incline is sometimes referred to as the Brendon Hill Incline and occasionally as the Brendon Hills Incline.
A rise in altitude of to reach the mines was accomplished by a gravity worked incline, long, on a gradient of 1 in 4 (25%). To achieve the constant gradient, formidable earthworks were necessary, and construction took four years with a Mr Gunn as the contractor. While this was going on mining had been proceeding apace and large stocks of ore were waiting at the incline head to be conveyed to the harbour. Ore was brought down the incline while it was being completed, from 31 May 1858, and it was not fully finished until March 1861, when two diameter winding drums were installed on a single axle, located below the track, at Brendon Hill. Public goods traffic was accepted from 28 September 1859.
A single wagon containing five tons of ore could be lowered down the plane in twelve minutes. Railway-type signals were used to indicate that an ascending wagon had been attached to the rope; the brakesman at the upper level then levered the descending, loaded wagon to the brow of the hill, and the descent and ascent began. The descent was controlled by braking. The WSMR line was leased to the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company for seven years from 1859, and the latter was to work the line. The lease was extended and transferred to the Ebbw Vale Iron Company on 24 June 1864. In the same year an advertisement was placed in the Somerset County Gazette announcing that "coal, culm, lime corn, flour, manure, building materials and other goods" would be carried on the railway at reduced rates.
Watchet Harbour
Although the outward terminal of the line was to be the quay at Watchet, the west pier had been practically unusable for some considerable time, and boats were beached and loaded direct from carts brought on to the foreshore. After considerable public pressure, the Watchet Harbour Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. cxli) was passed, placing the harbour under the control of commissioners; they built a new east pier and rebuilt the west pier; the work was finished in 1862, and 500 ton vessels could enter the harbour. The WSMR used the west pier, and the newly arrived, broad gauge West Somerset Railway, a branch from the Bristol and Exeter Railway, used the east pier.
The West Somerset Railway opened as far as Watchet on 3 March 1862. Although a connection with the WSMR was suggested, involving laying of mixed gauge on the Mineral line, this never happened.
Extensions beyond the head of the incline Construction as far as Raleigh's Cross, at the head of the incline, had cost £82,000 compared with the estimate of £65,000 for construction of the entire line. Further construction was delayed, therefore, but it resumed in 1863 and reached in September 1864. The goal of reaching Heath Poult, the originally intended western terminal of the line, was abandoned. By now the Ebbw Vale Company Ltd had taken over the Iron Works company, and also the mines, and a new lease of the line was made to them lasting 55 years and three months. The terms of this lease meant that "the railway company was to receive a net sum of £5,575 every year until Michaelmas 1919", an agreement which was to prove much to its advantage as it meant that after mining ceased around 1880 the Ebbw Vale company had to continue paying the sum every year for 39 more years, whether the line ran a service or not.
In 1864 the Board decided to seek powers to extend the railway beyond Gupworthy to workings in Joyce's Cleeve in the Quarme Valley. Preliminary notices to this effect were published, but no application was made. Had the line been built it would have entailed another incline, which ore would have had to ascend before travelling eastwards to Brendon Hill where it would travel down again.
Passenger operation
At the top of the incline the line ran along the Brendon ridge in both directions, eastward to Raleigh's Cross and westward to a heathland terminus named after the nearby village of Gupworthy. Considerable numbers of miners lived in these remote areas. For some time the Company had permitted them and their families to travel on the line free of charge and at their own risk. It was decided to operate a formal passenger service between Comberow and Watchet, which started with great celebration on 4 September 1865. In the full year 1866 13,000 passengers were carried; by 1872 this had risen to 19,000 and peaked at 19,680 in 1874. Four passenger trains ran each way daily at first, but this was later reduced to two, and then to one. Passenger trains took half an hour to travel from Comberow to Watchet. Proper stations were provided at Watchet, Washford, and . , at the top of the incline, sometimes referred to as Raleigh's Cross and referred to internally by the railway as "Top of Incline", was also considered to be a station, but the Board decided against spending the monies needed to bring the incline, track and station up to the standard required for fare paying passengers.
Passengers were conveyed on trucks up the incline free and without the company assuming any responsibility for their safety. When doing so passengers climbed on and off wagons using a ladder and sat on planks laid crosswise. Trains conveying passengers on the upper level ran with the locomotive pushing the wagon. Mitchell and Smith point out that the Ordnance Survey map shows "Station" at : the Company's building there evidently seemed to be a station to the surveyors. The line also had stopping places at and where passengers could be picked up or set down on request. The line was used on occasions for special passenger trains, the commonest being organised by religious and temperance groups. Conventional cardboard tickets were issued, colour coded by class, for journeys below the incline.
The line operated successfully and settlements of people attracted to the area by the prospect of employment in the mines grew around the Brendon ridge. However changes in the availability of imported ore made the mines a less attractive proposition and by 1883 the mines were closed and mineral traffic on the railway ceased. In 1879 the railway announced that the wages of all staff would be reduced. The passenger service continued until 7 November 1898; a brief resumption took place from 1907 (but not west of Brendon Hill) until final closure to passengers in 1910. The 1895 Bradshaw Railway Guide shows two return trips every day, at 09:15 and 15:10 from Watchet, calling at Washford, Roadwater and Comberow, taking 30 minutes; return trains were at 10:45 and 16:15, also taking 30 minutes.
As well as the use of planks on wagons on and south of the incline the railway appears to have had six coaches, though not all at the same time. None was bought new. Three carriages appeared in the press in 1865, with a fourth appearing in the Board of Trade Returns of 1874-5. The company bought two vacuum-braked coaches in 1894, completing their fleet. All vehicles had four wheels. Details of five are unclear, but the sixth had three compartments, one each for 1st, 3rd and 2nd Class passengers. This vehicle was withdrawn in 1894 and used as a store at Watchet. Research continues as to the fate of the others. No photograph has been published showing a train with more than two carriages.
Decline and closure
Though sometimes productive, no nineteenth century iron mine on the Brendon Hills was profitable and the venture as a whole was financially ruinous. Furthermore, the industry as a whole was prone to boom and bust, with a sharp decline from the early 1880s. The railway continued in operation after the end of mining, although it had lost its primary traffic. A second-hand Robey semi-portable steam engine was installed at the head of the incline to power the drums, hauling wagons up in the absence of a regular downhill flow.