The Coleorton Railway in Leicestershire was one of the latest, if not the last, of the old tramroads being constructed eight years after the locomotive era had commenced. Indeed, it owed its origin to the Leicester and Swannington Railway that had been opened the previous year. Advantage was taken to make a connection with the Ashby Canal system by means of the Cloud Hill Tramroad, which the Coleorton Railway joined at Lount. A connection between the Ashby Canal and the Leicester Navigation, by means of a tramroad belonging to the latter company from the termination of the Charnwood Forest level at Barrow Hill to Cloud Hill, had existed previously but this had been abandoned consequent to the abandonment of the canal.
The railway ran for 2¼ miles, from the Cloud Hill branch of the Ticknall Tramroad east of Lount, south-east in an almost straight line to connect with the Leicester and Swannington Railway at Swannington Common.