Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway The Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway was an independent railway company incorporated in 1871, to provide a northerly outlet for iron ore and coal products from the Cinderford and Whimsey area in the Forest of Dean, to the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line; mineral traffic to industrial centres in South Wales and the Midlands was foreseen. The company ran out of money during construction, and the Great Western Railway purchased it and completed the line about 1882. By then the intended mineral flows were being adequately handled on
Forest of Dean Central Railway on the Severn to Howbeach Slade and Foxes Bridge; this did not go ahead, and a further scheme was put forward in 1850. This too failed. The Commissioners of Woods were strongly in favour of these proposals, because they would promote improved railway facilities in the Forest. The Commissioners reported in 1852 that the existing railways were unsatisfactory and antiquated, and that the opening of the South Wales Railway and the conversion of the Severn and Wye Railway to an edge railway heralded a new era. The Forest of Dean Railway was mentioned, as was the necessity for a new