The Lake Lock Rail Road was an early narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield

Wakefield

Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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The Company

The Lake Lock Rail Road Company was formed in 1796 with the capital being raised from 128 shares. These were purchased by a broad range of people including a lawyer, banker, doctor, clergyman, merchant and widow. The initial route opened to traffic in 1798 (predating the Surrey Iron Railway

Surrey Iron Railway

The Surrey Iron Railway was a horse drawn plateway whose width approximated to a standard gauge railway that linked the former Surrey towns of Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham...

), and commenced at Lake Lock, near Stanley

Stanley, West Yorkshire

Stanley is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is about north-east of Wakefield city centre.Stanley was an Urban District in the West Riding of Yorkshire prior to 1974, being made up the four electoral wards of Lake Lock, Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe...

, Wakefield on the Aire & Calder Navigation and ran broadly in a westerly direction to Outwood

Outwood, West Yorkshire

Outwood is a district to the north of Wakefield, a city in West Yorkshire, England. The district is centred on the A61 Leeds Road south of Lofthouse. It was originally a small pit village, but there has been so much new housing in the last twenty years that the old village is now only a minority of...

, a distance of approximately 3 miles. In 1804 the route was changed to avoid a steep incline

Cable railway

A cable railway is a steeply graded railway that uses a cable or rope to haul trains.-Introduction:...

 and this resulted in the terminus relocating from Lake Lock to nearby Bottomboat. There were also a number of branches to collieries and a stone quarry. Extensions were constructed to East Ardsley

East Ardsley

East Ardsley is a village within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Leeds city centre...

 and Kirkhamgate

Kirkhamgate

Kirkhamgate is a village, north-west of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England.It originated as a hamlet in the Alverthorpe township in the parish of Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire.-Geography:...

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Operation

The primary purpose of the line was the carriage of coal from the various coal pits surrounding the line to the Aire & Calder Navigation for shipment elsewhere. Other goods carried include roadstone, timber and burnt lime. The load of three waggons was hauled by one horse with an average gradient of 1 in 70 (1.43%) down to the navigation. The track used edge rails to a gauge of . Goods were charged by toll, initially at 6d per ton, subsequently increasing to 10 ½ d per ton. In 1807 110,000 tons were being carried each year, however this had reduced to 81,000 tons by 1819 with a further reduction to 76,000 tons in 1823. The line gradually declined and was closed in 1836 when the major colliery owner J & J Charlesworth built an alternative railway.