page_title: Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway / History
caption_attribution_description: The Manifold Way near Wetton, looking south. Photo by me, released to Public Domain.
context_page_description: The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Staffordshire, England that operated between 1904 and 1934. The line mainly carried milk from dairies in the region, acting as a feeder to the 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in standard gauge system. It also provided passenger services to the small villages and beauty spots along its route. The line was built to a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge and to the light rail standards provided by the Light Railways Act 1896 to reduce construction costs.
  The route of the line is now a foot- and cycle- path.
context_section_description: Authorised in 1898, this was the narrow gauge section of the Leek Light Railways. The railway ran for 30 years, from 1904 to 1934. Its engineer was Everard Calthrop, a leading advocate of narrow gauge railways and builder of the Barsi Light Railway in India; the chairman of the company was Charles Bill, MP for Leek. A private concern, it was run by the North Staffordshire Railway on a percentage basis, but it later came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.
  The line was constructed to a high standard, Calthrop applying lessons learned on his other railways. Rail used was 35 lb/yard (17.28 kg/m), and the quality of trackwork is reflected in the fact that no re-laying was ever necessary.
  The line was a single track, and most services (which began from Hulme End, where the locomotive sheds were) only involved the use of one engine in steam. There was passing loop at Wetton Mill, but it was never used as such.
  At Waterhouses the timetable allowed for connections from Leek.
  Trains ran at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour (24.1 km/h), and most halts were run on a request basis.  More than this, the train would also often stop to pick up passengers at other places on the lineside footpath, if requested. Timetables mostly show single journey times of 50 minutes (with some showing an hour).
  Most outbound freight consisted of milk, in both churns and bulk tankers, and the products of the dairy goods factory at Ecton. In all, some 300 milk churns were handled daily at Waterhouses, and from 1919 a daily milk train ran from Waterhouses to London specifically for this traffic. Latterly milk tanks were used, carried on the transporter wagons. Passenger traffic was minimal – the settlements were mostly some distance from the line – except on Bank Holidays when all the line's rolling stock was used to run frequent services to handle the crowds.
  There was some talk of extending the line northwards, whereby Hulme End (and its engine shed) would become the half-way point of the line, but this never materialised.
  The railway was filmed in operation for Pathé News in 1930 under the title "A quaint little Railway".
caption: A typical view - looking south along the route today, near Wetton
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