The Museum – A Brief Site Guide

The Museum sets out to portray a typical quarry system, as it would have operated in the area during the period from around 1950 to the late 1970’s when the industry closed. We have chosen this time period because our collection includes equipment from earlier eras as well as that seen in quarries just before closure.

When you enter the Museum you will be directed to park in an area of restored land that was previously used as the sidings for the Exton Park group of quarries. Here quarry locomotives brought wagons from quarries on the top of the hill and from up to five miles away! Although it takes some imagination, these sidings joined the mineral branch close to the entrance gate.

You enter the Museum close to the hub of our quarry system. Please remember that safety is paramount and that although we have taken measures to ensure your safety, you should at all times act responsibly and in a considered manner. We are accommodating to all visitors and if you have special requirements please ask one of our volunteers who will be pleased to assist.

To your left are the main wagon sidings. Here the empty wagons have been stored ready for a locomotive to take them to the quarry for loading.

On operating days trains of wagons are brought up the mineral railway to these sidings on a regular basis. This is often performed by one of the larger locomotives as the branch line from Ashwell has a ruling gradient of 1 in 60 for most of its length. Our locomotives handle trains of up to 10 empty wagons at a time although this can be reduced in poor weather.

To the right is the main yard area in which most of the permanent buildings and features are located.

Locomotive Shed (RRM 123)

This building is an authentic locomotive shed from the Woolsthorpe ironstone quarry system, which was situated in the picturesque Vale of Belvoir. It has been carefully re-built at the museum site. It was originally erected in 1947 and once accommodated up to four quarry locomotives. The building is still used for storage and conservation work on locomotives and wagons.

We are in the process of creating a three-road locomotive preparation area. Here locomotives are made ready for work as their crews oil, coal and water them. Only when these duties are completed and the drivers satisfied that all is in order will the locomotives leave for their rostered task.

We are shortly to build an authentic coaling stage and water tower in this location based on examples from quarry systems in the area. You will often find that locomotives (and drivers) have to return during the operating day to refuel and this can be a good time to take a good look at them.

An interesting feature, which will be included, is the dryer in which sand was prepared for use by the locomotive crews to avoid wheel slipping on wet rails when handling heavy loads.

As part of our development plan we intend to construct a large covered space to allow the majority of the collection to be displayed, conserved and in certain cases restored. Our Trustees have developed these proposals over a long period of time and after much consultation we are actively pursuing their implementation. We are currently fund raising in order to allow this dedicated conservation building to be constructed behind the Locomotive Preparation Area. Plans are displayed at the Museum although these are being refined to suit requirements through the development phase.

The building will include maintenance facilities and engineering workshops where it is intended that visitors will be able to view the work being carried out. It will be constructed in an authentic quarry style based on actual facilities from some of the larger quarry systems. Our exhibit displays and café facilities will be incorporated as well as a revised platform arrangement for joining train rides around the site.

In the meantime, the area is used to display our non-operational locomotive collection. As you will see, some of these locomotives are undergoing thorough restoration and will eventually become operational exhibits. Others await conservation work to take place but are available for display. Further details of these locomotives are included in this guide.

Also displayed in this area is:

Excavator Cab From “Sundew” (RRM 122)

This is the left hand driving cab saved from the giant W1400 electric dragline excavator named SUNDEW that worked in Exton Park quarries from 1957 until their closure in 1974. It was named after the winner of the Grand National in the year in which it was built. Remarkably, rather than take the 1,400 ton machine apart when the Exton Park quarry closed, it was considered easier for the machine to walk the 13 miles to the northernmost quarry in Corby for further work, under its own power. Full details of this amazing feat can be found in the museum publication – “The Sundew Story”. As a sad end to the story, the excavator was finally broken up in 1984 after closure of the industry as no further work could be found for it.

Continuing our journey through the Museum we find;

Visitor Amenity Building - Opposite the platform is our “works canteen” building in which we house our café and shop. Please feel free to break your journey and enjoy our catering in a friendly environment.

Exhibition Display Building – This small structure houses temporary exhibitions largely focussed on Rutland quarry history and related topics. An interesting and detailed account of quarrying in the Cottesmore, Burley and Exton Park areas as well as a display focussing on “Sundew” is worthwhile for all visitors.

The Museum was able to complete the first phase of a quarry recreation at the site during 2007. We hope that you will join one of our “Quarry Experience Tours” during your visit.

Leaving the yard area, we follow the railway line to the quarry. Immediately beyond the level crossing gates is a set of “catch points” installed to protect the line in the case of runaways. These points are usually left in the open position and only closed to allow trains to enter or leave the quarry section.

Located immediately next to this is a steel wagon inspection structure. This was used to allow visual inspection of empty rail wagons prior to loading. If foreign objects (such as steel) were present, they could cause damage to the ore crusher machinery when the wagon was unloaded at the end of its journey at the steelworks. Any foreign material was removed before loading took place.

An ore tipping dock (RRM 137) was built at the site in 1957 when road haulage replaced the Victorian narrow gauge tramway and incline. At the ore tipping dock a historic Euclid dumptruck is often positioned to show how the loading of wagons was undertaken. Beyond, although not part of the Museum itself, we can see the lorry garages that were built at the same time and the concrete roadway running diagonally up the hill to quarries close to Barrow village.

If you look closely next to the dock you can see some of the remaining supports for the earlier tippler. In the grassed area next to the road is one of the base feet for the main metal uprights.

At this point guided tours of the quarry area begin. Often one of our staff will show you around either “in character” or as an informative tour.

The quarry has been created to show the local two-strata geology of limestone above the ironstone.

The track is extended up to the working face of the quarry where our historic quarry excavators, a dragline and a face shovel both built by the famous Lincoln firm Ruston Bucyrus (RRM 166 & 191) operate. A rare American Lima dragline crane dating from the 1940’s and which spent its entire working life in the local quarry industry is on long-term loan to the Museum.

The quarry is laid out in the form of a fresh quarry working where the “first cut” is being driven. In due course, the working face would be extended toward the road and the overburden transferred over to the right hand side. The quarrying face would then “sweep” across to the left over a period of full production. At the same time the land already quarried would be covered with fresh overburden from above the working face, restored and probably handed back to agriculture quite quickly afterwards.

After your visit to the quarry, you may want to follow the route which the ore would have taken as it began its journey to the steelworks. You can follow the trains on the branch line for most of their run from quarry to exchange sidings through the Museum, as we have developed a nature trail. You will see the rural character of the area once you are out of the quarry and yard as you walk through agricultural fields with the villages of Barrow and Market Overton visible on the top of the escarpment above the railway.

On the existing trail, the railway crosses the historic Oakham Canal. Although this closed for canal traffic from Melton Mowbray in the late 1700’s, its remains were eventually bought by the Midland Railway Company who used some of its route when building the railway to Oakham. The Cottesmore Mineral Branch crossed the long closed canal by the simple expedient of an infill embankment although stretches of water can be seen on both sides of our line even today.

We do not yet operate the whole branch line to Ashwell Junction and in fact we do not think that this is likely in the near future. We would however like to extend our running line to the site of a run round loop and river bridge crossing in the next period of development.