Fayles Tramway 

In about 1907 the Middlebere tramway fell out of use and a link to Newton was constructed to a gauge of 3ft 9in, rails were laid from a point just south­east of the Slepe Road bridge at Norden across the Heath (Rempstone Forest was not planted until 1950's) to join the Newton tramway, giving an outlet to Goathorn Pier. The line was 5³/₄ miles in length  

The line was constructed using flat-bottomed rail spiked to wooden sleepers with earth ballast in a conventional way. There was a locomotive shed at Norden and trackwork included a short branch at Bushey. Other features included a bridge over the Corfe river.

Tiny crossing the Corfe River Viaduct (Photograph supplied by Jubb Family - William Jubb lived at Goathorn pier) 

The layout at Norden was constantly changing, with wooden buildings being put up or moved; after World War 2 a large building was put up where the Newton line had diverged, to process the ball clay. Basically in the 1930 to 1970 period there was a large depot with Mines and pits west of the main road; the line crossed the main Corfe to Wareham road (guarded by a stub catch point) passing some sidings to cross the Swanage branch to a dead end which had once been the head of an incline down to lower pits.

Trains reversed out of here and ran down via weathering beds alongside the S R branch to a long loop having a weighbridge on its north track, and on to pass under Slepe road to the loading platform of Eldon's sidings (renamed Norden siding by British Rail). The track to the locomotive shed and Newton ran down from the north end of the weighbridge loop. Eldon's siding was not used after the late 1960's, and clay was loaded into lorries at a chute located at a track underpass near the northern end of the present Norden station.

Norden Works 1965 from Slepe Road © Mike Day   

In the photograph above it is possible to see the lorry drop between the Skew Arch Bridge and the Processing Shed. To the left of the photo can be seen V-Skips on their way to Eldon's Sidings

Fayle's tramway used normal railway track, to gauge of 3 ft 9 inches, and had two steam locomotives. One was a very small 0-4-0T built by Stephen Lewin of Poole about 1870, named Corfe and later Tiny.  

Tiny  © R.W.Kidner 

The engine Tiny like all Lewin engines seems to have been unique, her principal dimensions were:  

Cylinders                                    5 in. x 9 in.
Boiler pressure                            120lbs (later 1601bs)
Wheels                                       1 ft 9 in. diameter or (later 1 ft 7 in.) 
Wheelbase                                  3 ft 10 in
Boiler diameter                             2 ft 4 in.
Water tank capacity                     30 gallons
Coal                                            4cwt
Weight in working order                 7 tons  

^{She was certainly rebuilt at various times, she had new cylinders in 1916, these being stamped 'Dorset Iron Foundry', a firm with some connections with Lewin. In about 1930 she had a stovepipe chimney, large brass dome, boiler ring and polished bands around the cylinders. This engine had the top of its cab back plate, with two square windows, able to hinge down presumably to pass through the narrow bridge over the line just short of Eldon's siding. The buffers were wood-faced, and the brake blocks were also of wood and the cylinder lubricator was mounted in front of the chimney.}  

^{In 1938 Tiny got her last new boiler, from Bagnalls, and this was the one which later was remounted on one of the Pikes engines Tertius, at about the same time she was fitted with a proper cab.}

^{The second engine was a larger Manning, Wardle 0-4-0 ST (its works number 1552 built 1902) purchased in 1909 from the Northern Outfall Sewerage line of the London County Council at Barking, and converted from 3 ft 6 inch gauge. This must have been purchased for the long haul to Goathorn, as it was too high to pass under the road bridge between Norden depot and the exchange sidings. (In 1938 the track was lowered under the bridge to enable it to do so) This engine retained its name Thames on cast plates on the saddle tanks and No. 48 on cab-side.}

^{This was the engine used to run the Line's 'passenger service' from 1921 to end of 1936. Thames and a converted clay wagon with a corrugated iron roof (nicknamed - "The Hen House") used to take residents of Newton to Corfe on Saturdays for shopping and the nearest pub. The Newton school (which was used as a chapel on Sundays) had been closed for some time when on 27th June 1934, the Hen House conveyed schoolchildren daily from Newton to Corte for a return fare of 7s.6d per week. This was to encourage attendance at school for the children who should have gone to Studland school ( a very long walk) and had not attended school for a year. The school children alighted from the train at Arfleet and walked into Corfe to the Junior and Senior schools in East Street. An extra shed was built opposite the locomotive shed where the Newton link line met the Norden workings, to accommodate the coach. When the train stopped in January 1937, the children returned to Studland school but by taxi instead of walking.}

Chapel at Goathorn/Newton © Elsie Tombs (nee Surface)                     School/Chapel building moved to Swanage © Mike Day 

By 1937 the Newton line seems to be little used. The pier at Goathorn ceased to be worked with the Second War requiring the peninsula as part of a bombing range. Much of the line that crossed Newton Heath was taken up in 1940 and there was no working north of the engine shed at Norden

^{In 1948 it was decided to re-gauge the remaining part of the line in the Norden area to 1ft 111/}2^in.

^{To work the narrow-gauge line one steam-engine and several internal combustion engined rail tractors were purchased. The steam-engine was "Russell" a 2-6-2T Hunslet (1906) with a chequered history. She had been built for the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway, which never got as far as opening, and she went to work for the associated North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway. When this railway became part of the Welsh Highland Railway she was a rather severely butchered to reduce her vertical clearance enough to go through the notorious Moelwyn tunnel on the Festiniog Railway, it being intended to haul through trains from Dinas Junction to Festiniog. She got through the tunnel just once!!}

^{In 1936 when the line was closed she spent a spell of five years in the Dinas shed and was followed by six years working for the Ministry of Supply at Hook Norton Mines in Oxfordshire, in 1948 Russell came south to Norden.}

 
Russell  © George Moon 

^{The leading axle gave trouble (due to the poor quality of the track) and she latterly worked as a 0-6-2 T. But in 1953 a further boiler certificate was refused, and she was purchased by the Birmingham Locomotive Club for exhibition at the narrow-gauge Museum at Towyn in North Wales, being moved in August 1955. In April 1965 she was moved yet again to the Welsh Highland Railway Society, where she was fully restored to working order, taking her first WHR passenger train on Easter Saturday 1987. Russell was 100 years old in 2006 and is subject of an appeal to carry out boiler repairs. (Click here to see the appeal) Also there is an auction to help raise the £75,000 required to finish the rebuild ( http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZrestore_russell_2009QQhtZ-1)    If you are interested in following the restoration of Russell, a new website is being developed at www.russell2009.com}

^{In the final years of the Norden system a number of internal combustion engines operated on the line.}

 Ruston 392117 © Mike Day

392117 was built at the Ruston & Hornsby works at Lincoln in 1956 and it is a 48DL class, which is a 48hp 0-4-0 compression ignition engined loco, with a four cylinder Ruston engine, driving both axles by a chain drive via a three-speed gearbox. Upon completion, the locomotive was sent- with several others – to work on the building of the new tunnels at Hadley Wood on the ECML, when the line was being quadrupled. At the end of this contract, 392117 was moved to the Ball clay works at Norden, where it worked until it was preserved in the early 1970’s, along with Orenstein & Kopple 20777, at the then Hampshire Narrow Gauge Society’s base at Durley near Bishop’s Waltham. At some point in the locomotive’s career at Norden, the exhaust arrangement was altered. The four exhaust pipes originally combined together into a manifold before existing through the side of the engine compartment to a vertical silencer. However the exhaust pipes were modified, with the use of some brass tubes from one of the steam locos at Norden, to extend through the top of the engine compartment to give this Ruston a unique appearance. The loco was purchased by a Swanage Railway Fireman (Dave Knott) in 1992 and was moved to the Old Kiln Light Railway, near Farnham. Richard Bentley purchased it from Dave Knott in 1999 and it still remains at the Old Kiln Light Railway.

Early Lister engined Ruston © Mike Jackson 

2 older Rustons 175413, 179889 with Lister engines were used:- 

RH 175413 A 18/20 hp loco, was sold to  to Alan Keef Limited August 1972. Exported to BHH Pty Ltd Singapore around October 1972

RH 179889 A 20 hp loco, was sold to Alan Keef Limited August 1972. Then to Sheppey Light Railway on 15 May 1973. Returned to Alan Keef Limited on 16.10.73 and returned to Sheppey towards end 1973. Alan Keef Limited was then involved in exporting the loco to Singapore in March 1978.

 Also used for a while was a Motorail simplex c/n 5252)

2 Orenstein & Koppel Diesels at Norden  © George Moon 

Orenstein & Koppel 20777(above left) was a type RL3 and was built in 1936 and delivered to "Marine Sperrzeugamt Kiel". It was then "imported" via George W Bungey Ltd. at Hayes Middlesex and sold to ECC Ball clay Mines at Norden. In November 1972, it was purchased by Hampshire Lt. Rly. Soc. & Museum, Durley, Hants.. It is now privately owned by Barry Curl at Durley, Hants. Rumour has it that it was used to pull V2s during the War, but no record or proof of this has been found. Looking at the photograph below, the gauge of the trackwork looks larger that 600mm (1ft 11 1/2ins) but if anyone has knowledge of what gauge was used and any other information please contact the editor.

 
V2 production line

Orenstein & Koppel 21159(above right) was a type RL3 and was built in 1938. It was delivered to "F.Dannhauser". It was then "imported" via George W Bungey Ltd. at Hayes Middlesex and sold to ECC Ball clay Mines at Norden. In November 1972, it was purchased by Hampshire Lt. Rly. Soc. & Museum, Durley, Hants. In 2003 this diesel was "converted" into the steam engine "Emmet" by Jim Haylock and resides at present at the Moors Valley Railway Complex.

Emmet

Eldon's Sidings  © George Moon

After the closure of Eldon sidings all clay exports were via lorry. For several years the clay was carried from the mines across the A351 by trains to the "Lorry Drop". It was realised that the lorries could take the clay directly from the mines and the cost of maintaining a railway system avoided. The transhipment buildings were raised to accommodate the lorries beneath them and in the early 1970s the railway system sold partly into preservation and the rest scrapped.  

Lorry Drop  © George Moon

^{Use of narrow gauge railways continued underground at Norden No 6 & 7 mines until all mining operations ceased in 1999. The sites around Norden are now reverting to nature and support a wealth of wildlife.}