Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway
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Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway was constructed in order to link his coal interests, to the south east of his Wentworth estate, with the Greasbrough Canal, also owned by his estate, which gave an outlet to the River Dun (Don) Navigation.
This was not the first connection between the coal pits, at that time owned by the Marquess of Rockingham, and the canal for in the middle years of the 18th century a wagonway had been built to link the Bassingthorpe pits to the newly opened "Rotherham Cut" of the River Dun Navigation. The Greasbrough Canal, connecting to the navigation on the boundaries of Rotherham and Parkgate, was opened in 1780 to serve the Marquess's interests and the wagonways from his coal pits at Bassingthorpe were diverted to the canal head. Two years later the Marquess died and the estate passed to his nephew, Earl Fitzwilliam.
The Earl owned coal pits at High Stubbin and Swallow Wood and these pits were, from the early 19th century, joined by a wagonway to the Greasbrough Canal. In 1839 the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway opened a branch from its main line at Holmes, opened the previous year, to join with the Earl's railway at Parkgate. This line ran alongside the construction works of the North Midland Railway before joining the canal bank. This connection broke the near monopoly of the Duke of Norfolk 's estate in supplying coal to the developing industries of the city and gave the Earl's coal a competitive edge in the market place. In 1840 the estate bought a six-coupled steam locomotive for use on the line and to accommodate this the wagonway was rebuilt.
A connection was made from the North Midland Railway to the Earl's line which rendered the branch from Holmes redundant. This connection was closed in 1977, a year before New Stubbin Colliery itself. The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway constructed a line from Rotherham Road, alongside the canal and below the North Midland line, to reach the canal head. The line opened in 1873 and the agreement between the Earl's Colliery Company and the M.S.& L. terminated on 31st December 1978 when the line closed.
The line can be divided into two sections, both originally rope worked. The lower section which served New Stubbin Colliery, sunk between 1913 and 1915, changed to locomotive working.
Its last steam locomotives were two examples built by Hudswell Clarke and Co. of Leeds; No. 34 was an outside cylinder, six-coupled side tank locomotive, works No.1523, built in 1925, and delivered new to Appleby-Frodingham Steel Co. in Scunthorpe, which came to the line in the 1950's; and No. 37, an outside cylinder, six-coupled saddle tank. They worked until the mid-1960's when the line became fully dieselised, Hudswell Clarke again supplying the power.
