The Hook Colliery Railway
Hook Colliery Railway operated as a standard gauge mineral line and ran from Johnston station on the G. W. R. to Hook Colliery some 4 miles away.
During the late 1920s the Pembrokeshire coal industry appeared to be on the verge of collapse with only the collieries at Hook and Bonvilles Court (closed in 1930) still in operation.
It was clear that if Hook Colliery was to survive then new investment was necessary especially in moving coal to its markets. During that period coal from Hook was loaded into barges on the Cleddau river. These then proceeded down stream to deep water at Llangwm Pool where the coal would be transfered to larger sea going vessels. This process was very slow and often damaged the coal as it was transfered. As a result it was decided in 1929 to build a railway line to move the coal instead.
The railway was built in 1930 and was completed by November of that year. It ran for part of its length along the route of a disused railway line to Freystrop Colliery which saved considerable engineering.
Once completed this railway enabled easy export of coal and production then rose until it peaked in 1934 when 40 000 tons were produced, the largest ever annual total from a Pembrokeshire colliery and some 35000 tons were moved by the railway. From that point on, however, output declined and in 1945 only 20 000 tons were produced. The colliery and its railway were nationalised in January 1947 (Hook was the only Pembrokeshire colliery to be nationalised) but the pit flooded in that year and it was considered uneconomic to put it back into operation. In early 1948 the railway closed after moving the last of the stored coal.
The railway operated two of its own 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotives, neither of which appear to have carried names. It also had its own private owner wagons which moved the coal on the railway and then via the G. W. R. to its markets. At Johnston station exchange sidings were built from where Hook wagons would be collected and deposited by G. W. R. freight trains.
|
