Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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| Yarlside Iron Mines tramroad | |||
| Parkhouse Mineral Railway | |||
| site name:- | Yarlside Iron Mines | ||
| locality:- | Roose | ||
| civil parish:- | Barrow-in-Furness (formerly Lancashire) | ||
| county:- | Cumbria | ||
| locality type:- | tramroad | ||
| locality type:- | narrow gauge railway | ||
| locality type:- | monorail | ||
| 1Km square:- | SD2270 (etc) | ||
| 10Km square:- | SD27 | ||
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| evidence:- | old map:- OS County Series |
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| source data:- | Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25
inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton,
Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948. "TRAMWAY" |
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| evidence:- | descriptive text:- Fell 1871 |
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| source data:- | Fell, John Barraclough: 1871: Patent Narrow Gauge Railways; Fell patents: Patent Narrow
Gauge Railway Co (London)Title page:- "PATENT / NARROW GAUGE RAILWAYS. / (Fell's Patents.) / ADAPTED FOR INEXPENSIVE / BRANCHES
TO MAIN LINES OF RAILWAY, / ALSO FOR THE / USE OF MINES, / ... / PATENT NARROW GAUGE
RAILWAY COMPANY, / 8, VICTORIA CHAMBERS, WESTMINSTER. / LONDON, S.W. / ..." The short text includes:- "THE object of the PATENT NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY COMPANY is to provide a method of constructing cheap railways for the carriage of passengers and goods between the main lines and local towns and villages in this country, and for the use of Mines. ..." "Narrow Gauge Railways on the system invented and patented by Mr. JOHN B. FELL, can be made and worked at a much less cost than any other form of railway, ... They have the advantage of occupying but little land, cause little or no severance, and can be carried through an undulating country, and over roads and rivers, without requiring earthworks or masonry. The gauge of these railways is from eight to eighteen inches. The rails are laid on a double beam of wood or iron, supported at intervals on a single row of pillars of either material. The carriages are suspended below the axles, by which arrangement the centre of gravity is brought very low, and they are furnished with horizontal wheels which run upon guide bars fixed on the beams below the level of the carrying rails, whereby the equilibrium of the carriage is maintained, and it is rendered almost impossible for it to leave the rails." "These lines may be worked either by locomotives specially designed for the purpose, or by stationary engines and endless wire ropes."  click to enlargePR0465.jpg courtesy the Institution of Civil Engineers "The Sketches annexed, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, are views of a mineral line of one mile in length from the Parkhouse Haematite Ore Mines to the Roose Station on the Furness Railway, in North Lancashire. The gauge is eight inches. It is worked by a stationary engine and endless wire rope, and is capable of carrying a traffic of 100,000 tons per annum. The waggons carry each one ton of iron ore, and small carriages with eight passengers are run with perfect steadiness and safety at a speed of 15 to 20 miles per hour." "..."  click to enlargePR0466.jpg courtesy the Institution of Civil Engineers  click to enlargePR0467.jpg courtesy the Institution of Civil Engineers |
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| hearsay:- |
A horse drawn monorail was built by John Barraclough Fell, from Yarlside Iron Mines
to an exchange wharf by the Furness railway, 1868. It was replaced by another experiment
by Mr Fell, an 8 inch gauge narrow gauge line also having a centre guide rail, 1870.
One of the main features of his patent system was the use of wooden trestles to cross
dips in undulating land, rather than the use of embankments and cuttings. The line
became a standard gauge railway in 1873. |
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| Captioned as the Parkhouse Tramway (in illustrations reproduced by R Garner). Parkhouse
Farm lies a distance to the west of the mines. |
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| Joy, David: 1990: Lake Counties, The &Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain,
vol.14: David and Charles (Newton Abbot, Devon):: ISBN 0 946537 56 9 Garner, Rod: 2006: Torrington and Marland Light Railway: Kestrel Railway Books (Southampton, Hampshire):: ISBN 0 9544859 7 1 Smithers, Mark K: 1993: Illustrated History of 18 Inch Gauge Steam Railways: Oxford Publishing Co (Sparkford, Somerset):: ISBN 0 86093 499 3 |
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| mapping:- |  Yarlside Iron Mines, Barrow-in-Furness[sidings, Barrow-in-Furness] |
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