Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway

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The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway was an early British railway company, which opened its line from Chesterfield to Lincoln in 1897.

It arose out of a perceived need for an East-West line, the plan being to take it from Warrington on the Manchester Ship Canal to Sutton-on-Sea on the east coast of Lincolnshire. It was largely financed by a group of coal owners, led by William Arkwright, a descendant of Richard Arkwright.

Due to lack of investment, only the portion from Chesterfield to Lincoln was built, with some extremely expensive engineering works. As an example, it included a plan to cross Monsal Dale in Derbyshire with a viaduct some three hundred feet high. In Chesterfield itself, on leaving the Market Street station, a seven hundred foot long viaduct carried the line over both the Midland and the MS&LR lines at Horns Bridge.

In 1900 a branch was built from Sheffield to meet the line at Langwith Junction near Shirebrook, using the Midland Line for part of the way.

In 1907 the line was taken over by the Great Central Railway. A continuing problem had been the 1 mile 864 yard long Bolsover Tunnel, not only because of water ingress but also mining subsidence and in 1951 it was closed along with the section of the line between Langwith Junction and Chesterfield. Passenger services over the rest of the line to Lincoln finished in 1955. They had virtually ceased on the Sheffield branch before the Second World War.

[edit] References

Kingscott, G., (2007) Lost Railways of Derbyshire Newbury: Countryside Books ISBN 978-1-84674-0428

[edit] Further reading

Cupit, V & Taylor, W., (1984) The Lancashire , Derbyshire & East Coast Railway Usk: Oakwood Press ISBN 978-0-853613-02-2