Michael Messenger, HB, 120pp

The rich deposits of ball clay in north Devon have been known for many centuries but were too out of the way to be exploited until the coming of the railway age. In 1881 the owner of the Marland clay works had a private railway built, of three foot gauge, to reach the main line system. Remarkably, he employed the internationally known J. B. Fell as engineer and Fell used it to demonstrate his patented ideas on light railway construction, resulting in spectacular timber viaducts spanning the Devon valleys. An eclectic collection of locomotives worked this six mile line, the Torrington & Marland Railway, for over forty years, and within the works until 1971.