| Cromford And High Peak Railway |
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Information AboutCromford And High Peak Railway |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CROMFORD AND HIGH PEAK RAILWAY | |
| early british railway companies | |
| london and north western railway | |
| cable railways | |
| peak district | |
| transport in derbyshire | |
| cycleways in england | |
| closed british railway lines | |
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Authorised by Parliament in 1825 , its engineer Josias Jessop ( William Jessop 's son), estimated a cost of £164,000, which proved to be a serious underestimate. Its function was to provide a shorter route for Derbyshire coal than the Trent And Mersey Canal , but it figured largely in Early East Midlands Railway Schemes because it was seen as offering a path into Manchester for proposed lines from London. The line was isolated until 1853 when a connection was made with the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock And Midlands Junction Railway . It was leased by the London And North Western Railway in 1862 , being taken over fully in 1887 . By 1890 permission had been obtained to connect the line directly to Buxton by building a new line from Harpur Hill the two or three miles into the town centre. The old north end of the line from Ladmanlow (a short distance from Harpur Hill) to Whaley Bridge via the Goyt Valley was largely abandoned in 1892 , though the track bed is still visible in many places and one incline forms part of a public road. In 1833 Steam Locomotive s were introduced on all but the very steepest of sections, but horses were still used for another 30 years. A passenger service was operated on the line between 1874 and 1877 with one through train in each direction per day. Traffic - mainly from local quarries - was slowly decreasing during the Beeching Era , the first section of the line being closed in 1963 . This was the rope worked 1 in 8 Middleton Incline. The rest of the line was fully closed in spring 1967 , including the 1 in 8 Sheep Pasture Incline and the Hopton Incline , which, with a short stretch at 1 in 14, was the steepest Adhesion-hauled stretch of railway in the UK. In , a narrow gauge railway running along the track bed of a branch line off the C&HPR. Part of the route is now also designated as part of the Pennine Bridleway . Near Cromford, the railway passed under Black Rocks a popular Gritstone climbing ground, and gave the name to the 'railway slab', a short tricky 'boulder Problem' by the railway track. The Tissington Trail is now a route of the , Uttoxeter and Ashbourne), to Buxton. However it closed in the early 1950s. REFERENCE Rimmer, A. (1956 & reprints) 'Cromford and High Peak Railway', Locomotion Papers 10, The Oakwood Press, ISBN 0 85361 319 2 EXTERNAL LINK SEE ALSO |
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