Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway
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The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was a British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station.
Although Birmingham was served by an extensive canal network, indeed, it is suggested they were a factor in its growth as an engineering centres, there were huge technical problems.
As early as 1824, entrepreneurs had been looking at the possibilities of the railway and by the end of the 1830s the lines to London and to Liverpool and Manchester were proving a huge success. Accordingly, there was great interest in exploring other routes, including the northeast, with the idea of a line to Derby to meet the proposed North Midland Railway.
George Stephenson surveyed the route in 1835 and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway Bill passed through Parliament in 1836. It would run from Derby to Hampton-in-Arden, where it would join the London and Birmingham Railway line to its terminus at Curzon Street.
George's son Robert Stephenson took on the post of engineer, with an assistant, John Birkinshaw. Some 42 miles long, it would need seventy eight bridges and two viaducts, with a cutting at the approach to Derby, consideration being given to the danger of flooding by the River Trent.
It opened on 12 August 1839. From the start the joint use of Curzon Street terminus, with the London and Birmingham, gave problems, so in 1840 a new line was built with a terminus at Lawley Street.
Strong competition between the line and the Midland Counties Railway for transport, particularly of coal, to London, almost drove both of them out of business. In 1844, the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway, the Midland Counties and the North Midland Railway merged to form the new Midland Railway.
It is now part of the main line from the North West and Newcastle, via Derby and Birmingham New Street, to the south West at Bristol. It now operated by Virgin Cross Country.
The route to Hampton-in-Arden, the Stonebridge Railway immediately lost all importance when the companies merged, and traffic was redirected through the shorter Midland Counties route via Rugby. It became a minor branch line, and struggled on as such with only one daily passenger train until 1917, when this train was withdrawn as a wartime economy measure. The line remained open until 1935 for freight-only closing when one of the original timber bridges failed, thus becoming one of the earliest railway closures. The old Derby Junction station building at Hampton can still be seen.
See also Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway Locomotives
[edit] Reference
Clinker. C.R., (1982) The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway, Avon-AngliA Publications and Services.
