User:Steepleman/sandbox/East Wealds Line

'''NOTICE: This is a testing or practice page for my writing of railway related articles. This is purely fictional and is only a means for me to test my layout and formatting of railway articles.'''

The East Wealds Line is a local railway line linking the port town of Narquay with the Loweshire county town of Lowesk. It is mostly double tracked with some stations with single tracks. It is part of the Northern Main Line from Limmes to Frepool. It is often regarded as rather picturesque as the line winds its way through the forested Loweshire Wealds and plains. The market town of Goodsmarket is an important junction on the line as is Ashwood where services to Heaston, Norhale and Cadell run.

Route
The line starts in Lowest, winding around the hills. It reaches Queens Hall where it takes a sharp right hand turn into the Loweshire Wealds. It crosses the Hale Cayt and reaches the village of Arsby. After, it emerges from the forest and reaches Goodsmarket. A spur to Market College is here. The line gently curves keft before it crosses the Wandsbourne Plains and enters Wandsbourne village. There, there is a relatively straight line bordering the weald to Olgier Road Halt where it turns right sharply to Cor, winding its way to the right alongside the Cliffs of Narquay and Cor. It goes through the small village of Narquay Cliffs before finally entering Narquay station.

History
The line was built in 1852 by the Narquay, Goodsmarket and Lowesk Railway and opened in 1854. Patronage was low however as the decade went on, the popularity of the ships to the Isle of Rerd from Narquay drove passenger numbers up.

The line originally had another station planned to serve the two tiny hamlets of Treburn and Howes however they were so small it was deemed too costly to build even a halt there. However, a signal box was built there and for many years, drivers would slow down at the box allowing passengers to board as 'Messengers' from the Howes Signalbox.

In 1862, a short spur was built to serve the Market College. This shuttle took students and staff from the Market College, a famous Goodsmarket university, to Goodsmarket station where they could change trains to their respective destinations.

Quarry on Sea
It was around the 1880s when the population of Quarry on Sea, then a little town, exploded with the discovery of coal. Miners arrived from around the country to mine the rich coalfields around the area. A single tracked branch was built to take the miners from Goodsmarket to Quarry, with special Miner Runs every month. Three new stations were built on the line; Treadsvole, Devil Hill Halt and Parhill.

Nationalisation
During the nationalisation in 1900, Nortain Railway logos (then RNR logos after royal assent) were fitted alongside the existing NG&LR intitials. A prominent example can be found at Blackwhite Rye station where large brass letters were fitted in the gables.

Ashwood and Merger
A larger Ashwood station was built to facilitate transfer between the GNR express services and the local NG&LR. The two companies later merged to form the Great Northern Railway Group which later also included the Haley and Breckchester Railway and the Lornbridge Railway.

Station Designs
Most of the stations on the line, bar Lowesk, Arsby and Ashwood, were built to a master design by Richard Coome. They had redbrick buildings fitted with a booking office. Some stations had waiting rooms, porter rooms, workrooms as well as station master offices as well as refreshment stands.

They had a small canopy with white valance, held up by cast iron arches bearing the railway logo. There were two fireplaces in some stations; in the station master office as well as the waiting room. Some stations had no fireplaces.

In Popular Culture

 * The line featured in the sit-com, Hoole Tales.
 * A painting of Arsby station is located in the Royal Gallery.

Today
The line continues to be operated by the GNRG today, with all original stations intact. Indeed, proposed demolition of Arsby station to replace it with a newer concrete structure was met by large public outcry that it was shelved.