Christmas Reading, Viewing and in the workshop
LEIGHTON BUZZARD SAND & SIMPLEX
By Rod Dingwall
Between 1919 and 1982 the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway hauled sand from quarries near the town to main line sidings and canal wharves for onward shipment, the predominant motive power both on the main line and in the quarries being Motor Rail Simplex locomotives. Longtime Leighton Buzzard Railway supporter Rod Dingwall has utilised some 450 images from his collection of photographs to self-publish this substantial album illustrating the pre-preservation era of the railway.
Starting with old postcards of Leighton Buzzard itself, the pictorial story progresses to Billington Road where the sand trains arrived close to today’s heritage railway station at Page’s Park. The reader is then taken up the line and into the sand quarries along the way until reaching the original terminus at Double Arches.
Naturally, pictures of
