Since 1927
The 1927 story
Built for mutton, saved by the view, loved continuously since.
It began with eleven sheep
The first official consignment across the span, on 14 April 1927, was eleven sheep and a crate of cheese. The trip took nine minutes; the cart route it replaced took a day and a half and one broken axle per spring. The farms signed on within a month, and the company's oldest ledger opens with a column headed simply mutton.
The mutton left in 1961 and the company very nearly left with it. What saved the tramway was the passenger ledger's smallest line, Mrs Aldous of 1931, who 'said nothing, looked a great deal'. There turned out to be a great many Mrs Aldouses. The company rebuilt its timetable around them, painted the freight cabin red, and has carried people ever since.
"We are not in the transport business. We are in the looking business."Company minutes, 1963, carried forward every year since
The company, decade by decade
A mutton problem
The Vale farms lose a full day to the switchback track each market week. Farmer's meetings begin. Someone sketches a cable on a napkin that survives in the company archive, coffee stain included.
The span goes up
The German-built haulage engine arrives by rail and ox cart. First load: eleven sheep, visibly unimpressed, delivered in nine minutes.
Passengers allowed
Two bench seats are bolted into the freight cabin. The company's first passenger record reads: 'Mrs Aldous, return, 2d, said nothing, looked a great deal.'
The quiet years
Fuel rationing slows the engine; the line runs weekends only. The tower keepers keep it greased through the war on a ration of tallow and stubbornness.
Freight retires
The road lorry arrives in the Vale. The farms switch. The company, facing extinction, does the arithmetic and finds the view now out-earns the mutton.
The cabins
Two proper passenger cabins are fitted: red 'Vale' and brass 'Whitethorn'. The freight hook survives in the shed, greased, waiting for a principle to need proving.
The fog clause is born
A timetable clerk, tired of apologies, prints 'fog until eleven, views after' at the bottom of the card. It becomes company doctrine within a season.
The storm year
The Great Glenford Storm fells three beeches across the span. The cable holds; the trees lose. Closing time: nine days.
The brake
A modern hydraulic emergency brake is fitted beside the 1927 drum. The old crew protest; the new crew insist; both are right and the morning test covers them both.
Today
Eighty-four crossings a day, two cabins, one engine, and a queue that behaves itself because the view is patient.