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Severn & Wye Timeline

 

The Severn & Wye Railway and Canal Company was formed primarily to transport coal and iron ore from the centre of the Forest of Dean to outlets such as Lydney. Starting life as a horse-drawn tramway, it was converted to a railway in the middle of the 19th Century. Passenger services were introduced fairly late in the railway's history, but were never overly successful and regular passenger services north of Lydney Town were discontinued in 1929.

Today, most of the line has been removed apart from the Lydney to Parkend section which is has been re-opened by the Dean Forest Railway. A lot of the remaining trackbed has been converted to cycleways.

Principle Collieries served by the Severn & Wye

Norchard
Princess Royal
Pillowell
New Fancy
Parkend
Speech House Hill
Cannop
Trafalgar
Arthur & Edward
Crump Meadow
Foxes Bridge

The Timeline

The timeline has been divided into five parts. Please note that the Forest of Dean Railway and the Dean Forest Railway are not the same line.

Abbreviations used : S&W - Severn & Wye, SBR - Severn Bridge Railway, GWR - Great Western Railway, MR - Midland Railway, DFR - Dean Forest Railway.

Part 1 : "The Tramway Years" (1799-1866)

Part 2: "The Conversion to Rail" (1867-1894)

Part 3 : "Under New Management" (1894-1923)

Part 4 : "The Decline of the Severn & Wye" (1924-1969)

Part 5 : "The Rise of the Dean Forest Railway" (1970-2000)

Part 6 : "Into the 21st Century" (2000-)

I don't consider this complete mainly because I find myself lacking information on the S&W after WWII; If anyone has any comments or contributions, please email me using the link below. I would welcome any contributions especially with regards to events from 1970 onwards. If anyone has any old photographs that I can use without copyright infringement, then I would extremely honoured to include them!

Email (remove "nospam" to use)

Backup links

Entry Page

RotFoD Home

Station List

Severn & Wye Diagram

Forest of Dean Branch

Wye Valley Line

Lines from Ross