|
Meldon Quarry is a stone quarry in Dartmoor in Devon, England. It was developed from 1897 to supply track ballast and other stone products for the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). It was privatised in 1994. ==Track ballast== A small quarry was started to supply local railway requirements in 1874, concurrent with the opening of the Devon and Cornwall Junction Railway. The railway is described in Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR. The quarry was considerably developed in 1897 to provide the majority of the track ballast requirements of the LSWR, which at the time amounted to about 100,000 tons per annum. The geology is such that the ballast is harder, and therefore more long-lasting, than stone available in the more easterly parts of the system. It was further extended in 1902, eventually reaching 200 acres. Further developed over the years, by 1953 it was producing 340,000 tons annually. An internal tramway of short and movable 2-feet gauge tramways was provided. After nationalisation, the ballast quality was considered to be superior to the more conveniently available limestones, but haulage cost from the westerly location counted against it and in the 1980s it proved commercially viable to bring good quality stone from Scotland by coastal shipping to Tilbury, substituting for some of the Meldon output. As part of the process or privatising British Rail, the quarry operation was sold to ECC Quarries Ltd on 4 March 1994; at that time the railway from Coleford Junction only served the quarry, and it was sold too.〔Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, ''Branch Line to Bude'', Middleton Press, Midhurst, 1994, ISBN 1 873793 29 4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Meldon Quarry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|