Totternhoe 23.2.16
Appearances can be deceptive, but 50 years ago this peaceful countryside echoed to the sounds of run-down steam locomotives battling with the fierce 1:40 gradient known as Sewell Bank! The location is on the L&NWR Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable branch which opened on 1 June 1848 and carried passenger and goods traffic, particularly chalk trains from the Totternhoe Quarries. Because of the proximity of the Chiltern escarpment, there was no alternative but to build a long embankment and deep cutting near Sewell, but even then the ruling gradient was a severe 1:40! One can well imagine a 'Super D' with a full load of chalk wagons struggling up the bank from Totternhoe, as shown here. The line's fortunes declined somewhat in the 1950s but the final nail in the coffin was when the chalk traffic was taken away and put on the roads. Closure followed inevitably on 1 January 1966, and today the line at Sewell Bank is a SUSTRANS cycle route which must be a far better usage than total abandonment.
Totternhoe 23.2.16
Appearances can be deceptive, but 50 years ago this peaceful countryside echoed to the sounds of run-down steam locomotives battling with the fierce 1:40 gradient known as Sewell Bank! The location is on the L&NWR Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable branch which opened on 1 June 1848 and carried passenger and goods traffic, particularly chalk trains from the Totternhoe Quarries. Because of the proximity of the Chiltern escarpment, there was no alternative but to build a long embankment and deep cutting near Sewell, but even then the ruling gradient was a severe 1:40! One can well imagine a 'Super D' with a full load of chalk wagons struggling up the bank from Totternhoe, as shown here. The line's fortunes declined somewhat in the 1950s but the final nail in the coffin was when the chalk traffic was taken away and put on the roads. Closure followed inevitably on 1 January 1966, and today the line at Sewell Bank is a SUSTRANS cycle route which must be a far better usage than total abandonment.