Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway Dean Railway branch at Whimsey. The capital was £30,000 in £10 shares, and there were borrowing powers for £10,000. The GWR was authorised to subscribe up to half the capital. Five years were allowed for completion of the line; there was no mention of carrying passengers. The engineer's estimate for construction was £28,268, no stations being envisaged. The company was authorised to enter into agreements with the GWR for working and maintaining the line. By the time of the Act, the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line was standard gauge but the Forest of Dean Railway branch was still broad
Forest of Dean Railway tramways were built in the Forest, but the road network was extremely difficult and transportation of mineral products to market was expensive and uncompetitive. Timber in the Forest was used for the construction of ships for the Royal Navy, and Crown Commissioners protected the forestry in a way that also impeded industrialisation of the mining. The first railways—in fact plateways—in the Forest of Dean were designed to connect the rivers Severn and Wye, and it was not until 1806 that a serious proposal came forward to take minerals down the eastern area, southward along the Cinderford valley. That idea failed