Light Railway - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom 'light railway' refers to a railway built or operated in the United Kingdom under the 1896 Light Railways Act although the term is used more generally of any lightly built railway with limited traffic, often controlled locally and running unusual and/or older rolling stock. A light railway is properly distinct from a tramway which operates under differing rules and may share a road.

The term 'light railway' is generally used in a positive manner. Perhaps the most well known caricature of a light railway is the film The Titfield Thunderbolt, made in 1953 as many of the light railways and other small branch lines were being closed. Despite the great public affection for these railways very few were successful. H.F. Stephens was pivotal in the light railway world and tried many techniques to make light railways pay, introducing some of the earliest railcars and also experimenting with a rail lorry built out of an old Model T Ford. Nevertheless most light railways never made much money and by the 1930s were being driven out of business by the motor car. Although World War II provided a brief increase in the importance of these railways very few lasted beyond the early 1950s. Those that survive today are generally heritage railways.