The nearest competitor, Benjamin Fayle at nearby Norden, had built Dorset's first railway – the Middlebere Plateway – to take his clay to the south shore of Poole Harbour in 1806.

[1] William Joseph Pike met with George Stephenson in Birmingham and became convinced that way forward lay in the excellent economics of steam railways.

In 1865 the Pike Brothers purchased the first steam locomotive (Primus) and by this date the gauge had been narrowed to 2 ft 8 in (813 mm).

Up to the Second World War, a well known sight was a single wagon train carrying clay pit workers back to their homes in Ridge in this way.

[1] The locomotives used by the railway include:[1][3][4] The line's engine shed at Ridge still exists, and is a listed building.