2020
SO6210 : Forest track from Central Bridge
taken 4 years ago, near to Ruspidge, Gloucestershire, England
Forest track from Central Bridge
Until yesterday, I believed this to be the prepared (but never used) route of the Forest of Dean Central Railway (FoDCR), a doomed project to build a railway into the Forest for the purposes of grabbing some of the lucrative coal traffic. The line was never a success, partly because a miners' strike in 1921 forced Howbeach Colliery, one of the main potential sources of traffic for the line, to close, and partly because the Severn & Wye Railway (S&W) opened their Mineral Loop which effectively hoovered up any traffic which would otherwise have been taken by the FoDCR. The S&W were still obliged to provide a bridge over what was intended as the FoDCR's route (even though it was apparent to everyone that the opening of the S&W's new line would kill off the FoDCR for ever), and as I say, until recently I thought this was the view from that bridge. However, it turns out that the actual bridge provided was a girder bridge about fifty yards along the track, which was demolished upon closure of the mineral loop in the early 1950s and has been replaced with a wooden footbridge to which barely gave a glance as I passed over it on my bike. If you've read this far, you deserve to know that this is no more than a forest track, spanned by a handsome stone bridge - see
SO6210 : Central Bridge, Forest of Dean - built in typical S&W style and now misnamed "Central Bridge". See
Link for the full story.
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