Ingleby Incline
The ingleby Incline was 1:5 gradient, track gauge 1435mm. It closed in 1929.
The Ingleby Incline hauled wagons (usually three) were hauled up by steel ropes, 1650 yards long, which passed around 14ft brake drums at the top, descending wagons with their loads of iron ore, drawing up a set of empty ones. The journey normally took three minutes at a speed of about 20 mph. There were catch-points installed near the top and bottom to direct runaway wagons - accidents were not infrequent despite extensive care in operation and photographs of some of the incidents can be seen at Railways Around Ingleby
This incredible inclined tramway was the only rail link between the moorland Rosedale branch and the marshalling yards at Battersby Junction below. Built by the North Eastern Railway it replaced the Ingleby Ironstone Mining Company's previous narrow gauge railway and incline which terminated at 1200ft and served mines below Burton Head. The escarpment to the southwest of Ingleby Manor still bears the scars of at least two other inclined tramways built by the Ingleby Ironstone & Freestone Mining Company to serve mining or quarrying operations in the area.
The incline worked on the principle of descending wagons, full of iron-ore, hauling empties up the 1430yd, steep 1 in 5 gradient, attached to long steel ropes revolving in opposite directions around a huge drum and controlled by a brake. Accidents were common, so railway workers were not permitted to ride on either ascending or descending wagons.
After more than sixty years, following the closure of ironstone mining and the subsequent trade in calcine dust from Rosedale in 1929, Ingleby Incline closed. Today all that remains is a pile of rubble at Incline Top and the remote cottages now in private use below. The deep scar that was once the incline still stands proud on the escarpment side as a lasting reminder of this most innovative and industrious period of Ingleby's history.
Old Postcards
