LEIGHTON BUZZARD .....

..... The Railway

Built in 1919 to transport sand, the Leighton Buzzard Railway has carried a steam-hauled passenger train service since 1968 and today houses one of the largest collections of narrow gauge locomotives in the United kingdom.  The railway was originally built after the First World War to transport sand from the two main quarries in the area to the Dunstable Branch line at Billington Road.  

Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding villages are built on thick seams of very pure sand.  This is a valuable material which is still quarried in large quantities today and used in a variety of ways from golf-course bunkers to the construction industry.  

The early quarries in the 19th century were mostly on the south side of the town, near to the Grand Union Canal and the main London (Euston) to Birmingham Railway.  The thick seams of sand to the  north of Leighton Buzzard towards Heath and Reach village were largely untouched because the cost of transport would have made them uncompetitive with cheap European imports.

The outbreak of WWI changed all of that. Industrial demand soared while supplies from the cheap competitors were eliminated.

Wartime regulations allowed the sand to be transported by road from the new northern quarries using horse-drawn carts and steam lorries. The damage to the roads was immense and when the war was over the quarry owners were told that they would be responsible for repairing any future damage.  This led to the formation of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway Ltd.

The two main quarry operators, Joseph Arnold and Sons Ltd and George Garside Ltd, owned the railway and had its line built from the Billington Road sidings to the Double Arches near Heath and Reach.  It was in service by the end of 1919.

Using mostly surplus materials and equipment from the War Department Light Railway which had operated the supply lines to the battle zones, it was built to 2ft (610mm) gauge and was just over 3.5 miles (5.6km) long.  In addition a network of quarry branches and sidings served the industries which set up alongside the line.  

The original locomotives were replaced in 1921 by ‘Simplex’ petrol locomotives built locally at Bedford.  The peak period for traffic on the LBLR was in the 1940s and 1950s when 20 train loads of sand were regularly dispatched each day.  

Road and main line rail competition took away much of the traffic and through trains to Billington Road ended in 1969.  The last quarry railway, feeding the sand processing plant at Double Arches, closed in 1981.

Fortunately a group of railways enthusiasts received permission to take over the line and in 1968 the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society was born. The railway is still managed and operated by its volunteers who preserve this unique piece of industrial history.  Today's Leighton Buzzard Railway offers a 65-minute round trip from the station at Page's Park to Stonehenge Works to the north of the town.  The trains run every Sunday and Bank Holiday weekend until October 27.  Extra trains run during school holidays and half terms.

From "Bedfordshire 2002"
By kind permission of Bedfordshire County Council, acknowledging the Editor Michele Smith.