Ambergate to Pye Bridge Line

Ambergate to Pye Bridge Line
Legend
Pye Bridge
Erewash Valley Line
Ironville
Riddings
Swanwick Junction
Swanwick Colliery
Midland Railway - Butterley
Butterley
Hammersmith
To Ripley
Hartshay Colliery
Midland Main Line
Ambergate
Derwent Valley Line
Midland Main Line

The Ambergate to Pye Bridge Line is a partially disused, partially restored, and partially developed for other uses railway line in Derbyshire, England. It was a short east-west line linking the Midland Main Line with the Erewash Valley Line.

The line, which was double track, started from the Midland Main Line north of Ambergate railway station at Crich Junction () and proceeded through Sawmills, Butterley (where there was a station), Swanwick (where the Swanwick Colliery Branch diverged)

At its eastern end, it connected to the Erewash Valley Line via a triangular junction known as Riddings Junction (with the three points being Riddings North Junction, Riddings West Junction and Riddings South Junction). Pye Bridge railway station on the Erewash Valley Line was just to the north of this triangle. At this point, the two sides of the triangle cross the River Erewash, meaning that a very small section of the line is actually in Nottinghamshire.

The line was opened by the Midland Railway to freight on 1 February 1875, and to passenger trains on 1 May 1875. The Midland was grouped into the LMS in 1923. Passenger services were withdrawn on 16 June 1947, just prior to the line passing into British Railways ownership. BR withdrew freight from the line on 23 December 1968, as a result of the Beeching Axe.[1]

Today, the line is preserved and used partially by the Midland Steam Railway - Butterley between Hammersmith and Ironville, while on the western section a road has been built on the same alignment.

List of Stations & Junctions along the line

References

  1. ^ CJ Gammell, LMS Branch Lines, OPC