The Leicester and Swannington Railway (L&S) was one of England's first railways, being opened in July 1832 to bring coal from pits in West Leicestershire to the City of Leicester.
Like many early railways, it featured quite heavy earthworks. The Leicester and Swannington included a one mile long tunnel at Glenfield, while the low power of contemporary steam engines meant that where the gradient was steepest, locomotive haulage gave way to other means.
- "There were two inclines on the line: one at Bagworth, rising at 1 in 29 towards Swannington and worked by gravity; and a much steepest though shorter one at the Swannington end, descending at 1 in 17 and worked by stationary engine ..." (1)
The latter was Stephenson-built and was "equipped with a very early example of a piston valve..." (1). The engineer for the railway was the famous Robert Stephenson, whose father, George Stephenson, raised much of the capital for the line from friends in Liverpool.
The L&S owned ten locomotives, all but one 0-4-2 types; the exception, named Liverpool was an 0-6-0. Small four-wheeled wagons and coaches, painted plain blue, comprised the rolling stock. (1)
Coal and quarry traffic made the line profitable, but in August 1845, the directors sold out to the Midland Railway, which lost no time in improving the line. The track was doubled, a new deviation was built to replace the Bagworth incline, while the line was extended westwards to Burton-upon-Trent, and eastwards to join the Midland line at Leicester, so transforming the isolated venture into a through route.
This left the Swannington Incline as a branch at one end, and the last few miles to the L&S terminal in Leicester as another.
Passenger trains on the stub to Leicester (West Bridge) ended in 1928, although coal traffic continued until 1966. The pits at the Swannington end were worked out by 1875, but the incline found a new lease of life lowering wagons of coal to a new pumping station at the foot which kept the old workings clear of water, so preventing flooding in the newer mines nearby. It closed in 1948, but the winding engine was dismantled and is now at the National Railway Museum at York. The site of the incline now belongs to the Swannington Heritage Trust .
Passenger trains on the line ceased in 1964, but the track is still intact despite the end of coal mining in West Leicestershire in the 1980s. There are sporadic plans to reopen it to passenger traffic
References
- Extracts marked are taken from from The Midland Railway, C Hamilton Ellis, Ian Allen Ltd 1953.
