The Blackwood Valley Railway Company

The Stiperstones hills in South Shropshire have been mined for minerals since Roman times as they are rich in ore. From 1873, the northern end of the Stiperstones where home to the Snailbeach District Railways, but they were the host of a myriad of small, productive mines, that would benefit from easy transport solutions.

In 1890 a plan was drawn up to build The Shropshire Minerals Light Railways which would have continued from the end of the Snailbeach District Railways, heading through Myttonsbeach, Perkins Beach, passing Pennerly and round The Rock at the end of the Stiperstones before turning north up to Gatten Lodge. This line would have required extensive engineering and the resultant 11 mile line would have been very expensive to build. As such it never got any further than paperwork. Then in 1895 a proposal was brought forward, by a new consortium, The Blackwood Valley Railway, to build a line from the Cambrian main line at Montgomery, heading east to the lead mines at Whitegrit, Shelve and The Bog, serving a few villages in the valleys on the way, where it would then head north up to Pennerly, and the possible eventual link up with the SDR at Perkins Beach if they would build south to that point. However the BVR never progressed beyond The Bog, and the SDR never extended south.

The Company was formed in 1896 and the line was built and opened by 1899 and was loco worked from the start, by a single engine. This was replaced by a new Bagnall in 1916, and a second Bagnall arrived in 1919, then around 1944 a Motor Rail Simplex was also purchased for shunting up the mine areas. These locos worked the line until its closure in 1963, with only occasional assistance from other locos. The stock was supplied both by the Midland Wagon and Carriage Works from Shrewsbury, who supplied copies of their GVT stock, and was purchased from the SDR.

The company was purchased in 1974 in its entirety by a preservation society who started reopening the track bed in 1976 and had completely reopened the line by 1984, in time for the 85th anniversary. They purchase a new diesel and started operating the whole line as a working museum producing limited amounts of lead from 1992. They used the original stock and it wasn’t until 1988 that any new stock (apart from the diesel in ’81) was brought in to be preserved.