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Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding villages are built on sand--thick seams of very pure sand laid down in prehistoric times, and since covered by layers of clay. This is a very valuable material, which is still quarried in large quantities.
Because of its purity, and its range of colours from white to dark brown, it is used in a variety of applications, from foundry moulds to golf-course bunkers, as well as in the construction industry.
The early quarries, in the 19th century, were mostly on the west side of the town, near the transport arteries of the Grand Union Canal and the London (Euston) to Birmingham railway. The coming of the Leighton Buzzard-Dunstable branch line, in 1848, opened up new areas for exploitation.
The thick seams of sand in the hills of the Greensand Ridge to the north, towards Heath & Reach village and what is now the A5 road, remained largely untouched. The cost of transport would have made them uncompetitive with cheap imports from Europe.
The outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, changed all that. Industrial demand soared, while supplies from the cheap overseas competitors were eliminated. Wartime regulations allowed sand to be transported by road--horse-drawn carts, and later steam lorries--from the new northern quarries to sidings on the Dunstable branch at Billington Road.
As a result, the roads in the area suffered enormously. Once the war was over, the quarry owners were told that they would be responsible for repairing any future damage, and this led quickly to the formation of Leighton Buzzard Light Railway Ltd.
Owned by the two main quarry operators in the area--Joseph Arnold & Sons Ltd and George Garside (Sand) Ltd--the railway company had its line built, from the Billington Road sidings to Double Arches, near Heath & Reach, and in service by the end of 1919.
Using mostly surplus materials and equipment from the War Department Light Railways (WDLR), which had operated the supply lines to the battle zones, it was built to 2 foot (610 mm) gauge, and was just over 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long. Additional to this was a network of quarry branches, plus sidings serving the industries which set up alongside the line.
The LBLR’s original steam locomotives lasted less than 2 years, being replaced in 1921 by ex-WDLR armoured “Simplex” petrol locomotives, built locally at Bedford. This almost certainly made it the first railway in Britain (or even the world?) to convert entirely to internal-combustion traction. It may also explain the line’s low public profile for much of its working life!
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