The forgotten branch line to Ridgeway

The Ridgeway Rail Heritage Society studies a short branch line that carried timber and passengers to the hill town of Ridgeway between 1889 and 1952. Almost nothing of the line survives above ground, so the society works mostly from maps, timetables and old photographs.

The line was single track and climbed steadily for eleven miles. Trains stopped at four small halts, and at the steepest section a second engine was attached at the rear to push. Timetables show three passenger trains a day in summer and two in winter.

Timber was the reason the line existed. When the last sawmill closed after the war, freight fell away quickly, and passenger numbers alone could not keep the line open. The final train ran on a wet Saturday in March 1952.