the tales of the Coaldai railway

the history of coaldai

1908-1921:

Opened in 1908 and owned by the coadai railway company to service the towns of : coaldai, coalden, lakeside and the seaside town of glan y mor as well as the coaldai colliery and glan y mor harbour. During this time only one engine worked the line: a Caledonian pug number 314 ,named colin. In 1913 an extension began to connect with main rail network of Britain to improve the efficiency of the coal exports to other railways. but the next year ww1 began so the extension work had to be halted only being extended 3 miles closer  to the 7 mile goal to reach the other railway. during this time number 314 was used to run almost exclusively coal trains. This wore the engine out to the point it was in need of an over haul but that was not affordable until  after the railway act of 1921 where the lms took control of the line. 

 1921-1938:

During the days of the lms the extension restarted in 1922 and was finished in 1924 making the stretch of line go from glan y mor - lakeside - coalden -coaldai - gallen  - coytan and its factory - sledon junction. number 314 was sent for overhaul and a 4f (number 2136) was sent to run the line. In 1925 number 314 returned after overhaul and ran passenger trains only whereas number 2136 ran only freight trains. 

In 1929 a loop line began construction; the plan being to connect lakeside with gallen via the more steep inland section. with goal to reach the towns of hillside, pennyoge and glendon as well as the steelworks at hill side. to help the construction and running of the loop a 3f ,number 1045, was brought on.

In 1934 number 2136 was involved in a crash and was not economically viable to fix so was scraped. number 1045 was relocated to the former sadjr. after this number 4767 (a black five) was brought on to help out with the work load .

in 1937 a military base was built at hill side 

 1939-1945:

during ww2 not much happened on the line (apart from running more coal trains and servicing the military base)

1946-1958:

in 1946 the military base at hillside closed. in 19 48 the hillside loop was closed for economic reasons. in 1950number 4767 was relocated to Scotland. in 1951 the line withdrew passenger services running only coal trains. in 1955 the harbour at glan y mor expanded from 2 piers to 6.

in 1958 the line was closed and number 314 was withdrawn from service leaving the coalmine with only the road for service.

1959 onwards:

lord  Jonathan decal purchased the land of the old line as well as number 314 and majority of the line's rolling stock  and formed the the coaldai railway company.

the company began to restore the line from glan y mor to seldon junction and finished 1960. The month after the construction was finished lord decal began looking for an engine to run freight trains.

this is where the tales of the coldai railway begins.