usual (three feet in diameter), placed with their centres as near to each other as was considered consistent with preserving a sufficient base, the soles being at the same time turned a little circular. The C&HPR 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, thus frustrating the Midland Railway's original plans for a route to Manchester. on that line; namely, the sharpness of the curves, and the rails being made of cast iron, limited the weight, and by consequence the powers of an engine.

The section between Middleton and Parsley Hay closed on the 30 Apr 1967 and this included the Sheep Pasture and Hopton inclines, the latter, with its gradient of 1 in 14, being the steepest adhesion stretch of railwayAn official passenger service was operated on the Cromford and High Peak Railway between 1874 and 1877 and during this period there was one train daily throughout the length of the line, in each direction. Great credit is due to the skill and enterprise of Mr. Leonard, under whose directions this engine was constructed, a short account of which we will give, as it may not altogether be unacceptable to those to the Peak Forest Canal, at or near to Whaley (otherwise Yeardsley-cum-Whaley), in the County Palatine of Chester. June 16th. At the meeting Samuel Oldknow was the Chairman and eighteen (named) persons attended including William Jessop. As no person attended from Macclesfield the branch to that town was dropped from the peoposal. [2] [3] Jun 1892The new line between Buxton and Hindlow opened (northern section of the LNWR Ashbourne Line).

Finally Josias Jessop, the son of William Jessop, was asked to survey the route. He, his father and their former partner Benjamin Outram had gained wide experience in building tramways where conditions were unsuitable for canals, and that is what he suggested. Even so, as almost the first long-distance line at 33 miles (53km), it was a bold venture. Moreover, to its summit at Ladmanlow, it would climb a thousand feet from Cromford, making it one of the highest lines ever built in Britain.This is now a national route of the National Cycle Network as well as being popular with walkers and horse riders. Part of the trail is also designated as a section of the Pennine Bridleway. The High Peak Railway, it may be further advanced in the way of preface, is a single line. It is of the same width of gauge, and of the same character of permanent way, as the lines belonging to the London and North Western Company’s ordinary branches.

It is known that the Butterley Company built the stationary engine at Middleton Top and in view of this it is probable that this company built all the stationary engines used on this railway. Between 1792 and 1806,All this I candidly concede, my dear Madam, is very dry and uninteresting, and I apologise for having been so tediously technical. The only extenuation I can urge is that the High Peak Railway is in itself a solid fact of such dimensions that a discursive description of it should also be ‘ballasted’ with facts and figures, data and detail, to carry even my special light locomotive safely. Anon we rush under a bridge carrying a road that seems to lead nowhere; then we pause at a little one-horse, kind of a station called Parsley Hay, which looks just like a wayside shed on an American prairie line. The winding engine house for the Moddleton incline is on the left with the boiler house behind it. Safety catch points can be seen in the foreground and the pointsman's cabin is on the right with a signal beside it. And now the landmarks are lost, and we are running with a rattle and roar over the moors on the top of the world. Steeper the gradients, and ‘a caution’ are the curves. The engineman treats his iron-horse as if he were driving a living animal. He knows her faults and her good points. He can tell at what part of the road she wants whip and loose rein, and when he must hold her in with tight hand. The first was from Cromford Wharf (later extended to join the Midland Railway at High Peak Junction) to Hurdlow, a distance of 15½ miles, which opened on the 29 May 1830 and the second was from Hurdlow to Whaley Bridge, a distance of 17½ miles,

But Josias Jessop discarded his engineering manual as he fashioned plans for a link between the Cromford Canal, built by his father William, and the Peak Forest, a creation of Benjamin Outram. These two waterways served the industrial engine rooms of Lancashire and the East Midlands. Connecting them would speed the flow of Derbyshire coal and open up markets for cotton, minerals and other sundry goods. The scenery, truth to tell, has not been specially attractive during the last few miles. There has been none of these poetic vignettes and glowing wood, that make the ride in a Midland carriage from Derby to Marple such a rich railway romance. Rather a monotonous table-land where niggard fields and stubborn heath are ruled off with bleak stone-walls, and the perspective is unbroken save here and there by a clump of storm-rent ragged pines. Through or local, ‘up’ or ‘down’, ‘fly’ or ‘slow’, there are twenty two trains a day on the High Peak Railway, and the fastest trains occupy a space of over five hours in performing the entire journey.The visitor centre and shop will remain open other than the weekend of 11 to 12 November 2023 and 18 to 19 November 2023, where this will be closed. Audio tours Hubert reported for duty one morning to find the engine shed was smokeless. The overnight cleaner, who should have prepared the loco, was barricaded in the cabin, adamant that he’d seen a ghost – “summat white with a clanking chain behind it”. A short while later, Sparrow Bond arrived from his nearby smallholding, looking for a goat which had escaped in the night. NoteThe Upper and Lower Bunsall incline planes were combined on the 8 Jun 1857. Mean gradient 1 in 7½, 1,115 yards long. The gradient is 1 in 8½; and the train is let down two wagons at a time by a coiled wire rope from a stationary engine. You must be quite prepared to hazard the risk of the run down. Sometimes a wagon does break loose, and it will not stop to be reasoned with, but goes to swift destruction. Ride across the buffer my friend, and be prepared to jump off at once if anything gives way. Like all single lines, the traffic is worked by what in railway parlance is known as the ‘staff system’. The staff is a truncheon painted and lettered specially for the division or line over which it acts as the open sesame. It is suspended on the weather-board of the engine, and no train or engine may enter any section without being in possession of the engine-staff belonging to that section.