West Somerset Mineral Railway - Decline and Closure

Decline and Closure

The profitability of the mineral extraction operation was never as large as was hoped, and there was a decline in the industry from 1883. The railway continued in operation, although it had lost its primary traffic. A second-hand Robey 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. For many years the line also was operating at a loss, and on 7 November 1898 traffic was suspended by agreement with the Ebbw Vale Company, who paid £5,000 per annum in compensation.

In 1907 another venture, the Somerset Mineral Syndicate, leased the railway and worked the mines again, re-opening the railway on 4 July 1907. The incline reverted to gravity operation in this period. Both the lower section of the line and the incline were brought back into use; £1,500 was expended on a new jetty at Watchet; a kiln costing £2,000 was built at Washford. More specifically a new 2 feet gauge tramway was built to Colton Iron Mine from Brendon Hill. Colton was at a much lower altitude than Brendon Hill, and the tramway had to ascend from the mine on a new incline. From the West Colton Adit, the tramway ascended a 250 feet vertical interval, over a length of 1,800 feet. The inclined plane was double track, and was worked by a stationary steam engine: it was a two-cylinder winch with twin drums. The tramway then ran nearly 2 miles to Brendon Hill, where the ore then descended to Watchet.

The Gupworthy extension from Brendon Hill remained closed. However, the venture was unsuccessful—the ore tended to cake in the furnace—and the mines closed in March 1910. The jetty was sold for £70 and the kiln for £5.

In 1911 an Australian inventor A.R. Angus used the lower section of the line to test and demonstrate an automatic signal warning device, but that was the last time the line was used.

The UK Ministry for War requisitioned the rails during the First World War and they were lifted for scrap in 1917. A majority of the railway company board proposed seeking an abandonment order at once, but a rival Board was established; they continued to receive the Ebbw Vale Company’s contracted lease payments until the lease expired in 1919. In 1923 an Act of Parliament was passed authorising abandonment of the railway activity.