Forest of Dean Central Railway decided that the sections from the South Wales Railway to New Fancy Colliery, and from Moseley Green to Foxes Bridge with the branch at Brimspill, should be built in two successive years. Plans were already being made for extending the line, and on 29 November 1856 an application was published for the "Forest of Dean Central, Lydbrook & Hereford, Ross & Gloucester Junction Railway". This would extend the Forest of Dean Central Railway to the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line near Mitcheldean Road station, with a later extension to Ledbury. This was presented to Parliament in the 1857 session,
Forest of Dean Coalfield feature of the Forest of Dean Coalfield is that its edges are almost entirely exposed at the surface. Mining in the coalfield has always been hampered by the excessive amount of water encountered underground - trapped by the basin-shaped strata. Water drains into the basin by general percolation and, more directly, via surface watercourses. For much of their length, streams in the area run over impervious clay deposits, but, where valleys cut through the rim of the basin, carboniferous limestone and sandstone are exposed, allowing water to penetrate underground via swallow holes, cracks, and fissures. Water also enters the basin