page_title: Coleford Railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Coleford Railway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: System map of the Coleford Railway, Gloucestershire, UK in 1883
context_page_description: The Coleford Railway was a railway company that constructed a short railway from near Monmouth to Coleford, close to the Forest of Dean. The company was sponsored by the Great Western Railway. It was built on part of the course of the Monmouth Railway, a horse-operated plateway, and it was intended that its primary business would be the conveyance of minerals and forest products from the Forest of Dean.
  The line was built on the standard gauge and was 5 miles 20 chains in length. It opened on 1 September 1883, and was worked by the GWR, which soon absorbed it.
  It was never commercially successful, and it closed on 1 January 1917.
context_section_description: The Forest of Dean was rich in minerals, in particular coal and iron, and some tin and stone. Mineral extraction had been practised for centuries, and the Free Miners had certain exclusive rights. However this militated against the involvement of larger external companies and modernisation and industrialisation were discouraged. Coupled with the poor communications in the Forest before the advent of modern railways, this led to high costs and poor competitiveness.
  Coleford was an important location as a focal point for western access to the minerals of the Forest of Dean. However the construction of the Coleford Railway, from Monmouth, came late after a series of other initiatives.
caption: The Coleford Railway system
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