Harrogate
Gas Works Railway
(The Barber Line)
There was a 2’ gauge light
railway which ran from Bilton at sidings adjacent to the main
railway immediately north of Bilton Lane and Harrogate’s
gas works by Ripon Road at New Park.
These railway siding preceded the
light railway as originally coal was hauled by steam road locomotives
from these sidings to the gas works. Strong opposition by the
public to the damage caused to the roads by these steam road
locomotives caused the directors of Harrogate Gas Company to
seek alternative methods of transport.
An attempt was made in 1897 to
persuade the North Eastern Railway to build a branch line from
Bilton to the gas works. Due to the cost of construction and
insufficient revenue the traffic would generate, the railway
company refused.
In 1904 the directors of the Gas
Company viewed a narrow gauge railway being constructed by Harrogate
Corporation for the construction of Roundhill Reservoir near
Masham. As a result the engineer, Mr E W Dixon, was asked to
draw up plans for a light railway and these were ultimately
accepted. On 26th March 1907 the board authorised raising share
capital up to £20,000 and also awarded the contract to
Messrs Holmes and King of Liverpool at £18,000.
The required land was purchased
and on 26th April 1907 work began on sinking the 53’ shaft
for the 800 yard tunnel under Skipton Road and what is now the
Knox Estate. The first sod was cut on 7th May. Construction
of what became known locally as the Barber Line was complete
by November 1908. The line terminated at the exchange sidings
with the main line, several feet below the main railway tracks
as the main line ran on an embankment.
However, one siding of the Barber
Line ascended steeply to cross the other sidings so that tar
and liquors could be discharged into the main railway’s
tank wagons. In 1921 a deviation east of the bridge over Knox
Lane was built to ease the steep gradient, and a passing loop
was added at the other side of Know Lane on the only level section
of the track between the lane and the tunnel.
The line was first operated by
an 0-6-2 saddle tank locomotive called Barber after one of the
Gas Company’s directors. Barber was built by Thomas Green
& Son of Leeds in 1908, works number 441. A second loco
was acquired in 1920, Spencer, again named after a director.
It was a 4-6-0 side tank loco built by the Hunslet Engine Company
of Leeds in 1919, modified and delivered in 1920, works number
1340.
Towards the end of World War II,
Spencer needed replacing and Barber was also nearing the end
of its life. In 1944 the company took delivery of an 0-6-0 saddle
tank built by Peckett & Company of Bristol, works number
2050. It does not appear to have received a name.
In September 1949 Barber was replaced
by a diesel loco, the order being placed in June 1947 with Drewry
& Company of London. The loco was manufactured under tender
by E E Baguley of Burton on Trent. It displayed Drewry works
plates and their works number 2262. The loco was powered by
a Gardner 6LW diesel engine. It lasted until the line closed.
It was the increased amount of
coal which outstripped the line’s capacity and the need
for a new coal handling plant at Bilton that forced the Barber
Line’s closure in 1956. It was found that road haulage
was 33% cheaper and more efficient than the railway. Events
had turned full circle. The last coal train ran in July and
the last load of tar and ammoniacal liquids in October.
The locomotive Barber is preserved
in Bradford Industrial Museum. Spencer was cut up for scrap
on site at the New Park terminus. The Peckett loco was restored
to working order at Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway near
Sittingbourne, Kent. The Drewry loco eventually found its way
to Natal and then Selukwe in Rhodesia.
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