Buxton Line

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Buxton Line
Principal stations (from north to south)

Manchester Piccadilly
Levenshulme
Heaton Chapel
Stockport
Davenport
Woodsmoor
Disley
New Mills Newtown
Furness Vale
Whaley Bridge
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Dove Holes
Buxton

The Buxton Line is a railway line in northern England, connecting Manchester with Buxton in Derbyshire. Passenger services on the line are currently operated by Northern Rail and most continue through Manchester from Blackpool North.

It has its origins with the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway, which the LNWR built to connect with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, with, in 1863, an extension to Buxton. This forestalled the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's plans for the area, and hindered the Midland Railway's attempts to reach Manchester.

The latter two railways were forced to combine forces in a line following the LNWR, but north of it, through New Mills (part of what is now known as the Hope Valley Line), branching at Millers Dale. As a result, Buxton, one of the largest towns in the Peak, never achieved main line status.

The LNWR had in fact, offered the use of the line (at a price, no doubt) but, with its climb through Dove Holes, the Midland did not consider it useful for express trains, saying that it went up a steep hill merely for the sake of going down. The LNWR may have saved costs in construction but it proved difficult to operate, even with the powerful locomotives they had been forced to introduce for their lines north of Manchester. In later days, a seventeen mile stretch was operated using banking engines, the longest such section on the British railway system. In 1957 there was a serious accident at Chapel-en-le-Frith in which driver John Axon, who died at his post attempting to control a runaway freight, received the George Cross.

[edit] References

  • Pixton, B., (2000) North Midland: Portrait of a Famous Route, Cheltenham: Runpast Publishing
  • Bentley, C., (1997) British Railways Operating History: Volume one, The Peak District, Carnarvon: XPress Publishing.



Railway lines in Northern England:
Main lines:  Cross-Country Route · East Coast Main Line · Midland Main Line · West Coast Main Line
 Chester-Manchester Line  · Hope Valley Line · Liverpool-Manchester Lines  · Manchester-Preston Line · Settle-Carlisle Railway
Commuter lines:  Airedale Line · Blackburn-Bolton Line · Caldervale Line · Mid-Cheshire Line · Dearne Valley Line  
 East Lancashire Line · Glossop Line · Hallam Line · Harrogate Line · Huddersfield Line Kirkby Branch Line  
 Lancaster-Heysham Line · Leeds-Bradford Lines · Liverpool-Wigan Line  · Manchester Airport Line  
 Manchester-Southport Line · Northern Line · Oldham Loop Line · Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line  
 Ormskirk Branch Line · Pontefract Line · Sheffield-Hull Line · Sheffield-Lincoln Line · Stockport-Stalybridge Line  
 Wakefield Line · Wharfedale Line · Wirral Line · York & Selby Lines · York-Scarborough Line
Rural lines:  Barton Line · Borderlands Line · Buxton Line · Cumbrian Coast Line · Doncaster-Lincoln Line  
 Durham Coast Line · Esk Valley Line · Tees Valley Line · Furness Line · Hull-York Line · 
 Oxenholme-Windermere Line · Penistone Line · Ribble Valley Line · Newcastle and Carlisle Railway  
 Yorkshire Coast Line