Abandoned: The 1:4 incline to the Brendon Hills

The impressive photograph below is of an amazing, hidden and little-known feat of railway engineering in Somerset, England called the Comberow Incline. We take a brief look at its past, how it came to be and why such a steep ascent was necessary when railways often look to avoid gradients altogether. This amazing photograph is on a postcard thought to be from around the 1860s. It shows a locomotive 'Pontypool', with passenger stock, at the foot of the Comberow Incline.

England’s Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park are known extensively for their far-reaching views across to the south Welsh coast, bleak landscapes and dramatic coastline. For railfans the area is inherently linked with the country’s longest heritage railway between Taunton and Minehead. However, a hidden, more peculiar railway once ran through the area, diverging from the main railway at Watchet and off up into the Brendon Hills. This railway, the West Somerset Mineral Line, was an industrial railway to support iron ore mining operations in the area and had to overcome some significant challenges in getting up to the hamlet of Gupworthy. Class 52 D1010 'Western Campaigner' crosses the Mineral line Bridge at Watchet. The abandoned line splits from the harbour town and heads under this bridge toward Washford, Roadwater and Comberow. Photo by Geof Sheppard. CC-BY-SA 3.0

Hills and railways very rarely go hand-in-hand and so the idea to build a line in the direction of a hill range from Watchet’s coastal location would normally have seemed totally counter-intuitive. Such was the profitability of mining in the 19th century, that industrialists sought any means of getting to mines and quarries by rail and with the mining operations at Gupworthy being an attractive target, the line began to take shape in 1856. What resulted was one of the most dramatic pieces of railway infrastructure in the area, and possibly the country: The Comberow Incline. The view from the summit of the incline reveals Exmoor to the west (left) and the Quantock Hills to the east (right). Photo by Joe Rogers.

In the small valley south of Roadwater, tucked far from the reaches of many, over 1km of track was laid at a gradient of 1:4 to ascend to a summit on the Brendon Hills, 380m above sea level. A clear and rather brutal streak in the landscape resulted, with a double track laid beneath the winding house that allowed trucks, laden with iron ore, up and down the incline via a gravity-assisted cable system. Locomotives would take the empty trucks to the base via the southern portion of the line from Watchet, then leave them to be winched up to the summit by the full trucks that descended from the top. Another locomotive would wait at the top, to continue the journey onto Gupworthy.

Official passenger services to Comberow were accommodated with a small station and ticket office. Passengers would sometimes fill any empty trucks in what was a very dangerous way of being transported to the top, though the view and experience would certainly have been one to remember. By the early 1900s, the mining operations waned, were deemed unviable and eventually, the rails were taken up to assist the war effort for the First World War. Over decades, nature began to reclaim the track bed and though the cottages at Comberow remained occupied, the winding house at the summit was damaged and ruined, with only some of its walls remaining. Building the incline meant cutting through the hill as much as it did laying rails up it. This photo is taken from approximately half way up. Photo by Joe Rogers

Fortunately however, much of this unique and once-important infrastructure can still be admired by the public in the form of accessible footpaths, one of which allows fit and adventurous walkers to climb up the incline themselves. Like the daring passengers that took to the hills in the late 1800s, hikers are rewarded with a magnificent view atop the summit’s winding house, across Exmoor and down to the coast, where Wales and the Bristol Channel can be seen on a clear day. Despite this, the landmark remains relatively hidden, even to Somerset locals and for those stumbling on it without prior knowledge of its past, it can be quite an eerie feature in what is otherwise a quiet and peaceful area of West Somerset’s natural landscape. Footpath markers at the bottom guide walkers onto the incline, which starts by crossing the bridge over the lane through the hamlet of Comberow. Photo by Joe Rogers.

You can read more about the history of the West Somerset Mineral Line over at the WSMLA website: http://www.westsomersetmineralrailway.org.uk/