The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway

The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway

The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway ran for just over eight miles through one of the most beautiful valleys in Staffordshire. it was opened on 27th June 1904, the first English narrow gauge railway engendered by The Light Railways Act of 1896. The aim of this vaguely worded , but well -intentioned piece of legislation, were clear-to encourage the construction of railways in those parts of the country which could not hope to sustain a main line railway. the Staffordshire Moorlands was just such an area. It was a poor district-a little quarrying was carried on but this had been in decline for many years and the land could only support livestock rearing and dairy farming. Railways, where they existed, were several miles distant and roads were few. It was for these reasons, and to further Leek's prominence as a market town, that a number of local people came together to give their moral and financial support to a railway. The railway was engineered by Everard Calthrop who had spent several years constructing railways in India. His designs owed much to that country's practice, giving the railway a colonial appearance and bringing some of the grandeur of the British Raj to that part of North Staffordshire. Narrow gauge railways are fascinating because, while other railways continuously developed, on the narrow gauge progress effectively stopped at the turn of the Twentieth century and so represent steam railways of that period. Closure of the L&MVLR came prematurely, in 1934, only thirty years after opening. This book tells the story of this railway and is generally regarded as one of the finest railway histories ever written.
Hardcover, 368 pages, 404 photographs, 58 maps and diagrams, 36 scale drawing.

Although this is a second hand copy, the book is in nice condition. As with all RCL Publications once they have gone out of print, they become very difficult to obtain.