Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale

We recently explored this fascinating World Heritage Site, with its numerous connections to the development of the railways. At Blists Hill Victorian Village, a family-oriented visitor attraction where 19^th century-style shops have been added to an authentic industrial location, there is a working replica of Trevithick’s 1802 steam locomotive, which was the first one in the world and built at Coalbrookdale. Also on display is Andrew Barclay 0-6-0 saddle tank [works number 782] of 1896, which operated at Kinlet colliery near Highley.

The Hay Incline operated between 1793 and 1894 to transfer goods between the Shropshire Canal at Blists Hill and the River Severn at Coalport. The tub boats were carried on wheeled cradles and operated mostly by gravity, though a small stationary steam engine was also available to pull tubs back up to the top by a rope attached to a winding drum. 

At the Enginuity Museum in Coalbrookdale, locomotive No. 5 is preserved. It was one of 6 standard gauge 0-4-0s built by the Coalbrookdale Company in the 1860s. Outside the Museum of Iron, and within sight of Abraham Darby’s Old Furnace, where in 1709 coke was first used instead of charcoal to make cast iron, there is a section of original flanged rail used by horse-drawn wagons before the retaining flanges were switched to the wheels themselves.