Cromford and High Peak Railway
The Cromford and High Peak Railway (C & HPR) in Derbyshire , England , was completed in 1831 to carry coal and goods between High Peak Junction on the Cromford Canal and Whaley Bridge on the Peak Forest Canal .
history
The first part of the route from the dock at High Peak Junction on the Cromford Canal to Hurdlow opened in 1830. From the canal, the route climbed more than a thousand feet in 5 miles (more than 330 m in 5 miles), over four gradients from 1 in 14 to 1 in 8 - Cromford, Sheep Pasture, Middleton and Hopton above Wirksworth . The line then went over the relatively gentle incline at Hurdlow with a gradient of 1 in 16. The second half from Hurdlow to Whaley Bridge opened in 1832 with a descent through four more inclines, the steepest of which was 1 in 7. The highest part the route was reached at Ladmanlow at an altitude of 1266 ft.
The tracks were made of so-called fish belly rails on stone blocks, as was customary at that time instead of wooden sleepers, in order to be able to use horses for traction on the flat sections . Stationary steam engines were used on nine inclined levels, with the exception of the last incline at Whaley Bridge, which was worked on with a horse mill. The motors, rails, and other ironwork were made by the Butterley Company . The 33-mile journey took about two days. The track was laid in Stephensons gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches (1,435 mm standard gauge ) instead of the Outrams gauge of 4 ft 2 inches which was also common at the time of construction .
Between 1963 and 1967 the Cromford and High Peak Railway was gradually discontinued with the exception of a short section near Buxton used as a siding. The Steeple Grange Light Railway has also been operated on another 800 m long section since 1987 .
literature
- G. Kingscott: Lost Railways of Derbyshire . Countryside Books, Newbury 1983
- DJ Hodgkins: Captain Moorsom and the Attempt to Revive the Cromford And High Peak Railway . In: Derbyshire Archaeological Journal , Vol. 103, pp. 137-159
- M. Blakemore, D. Mosley: Railways of the Peak District . Atlantic Publishers, 2003, ISBN 1-902827-09-0
- A. Rimmer: The Cromford & High Peak Railway . New ed., Locomotion Papers No. 10, Oakwood Press, 1998, ISBN 0-85361-319-2
- High peak power . In: Railway Magazine , November 1966, pp. 640-641.
- J. Marshall: The Cromford & High Peak Railway . Martin Bairstow, 1996, ISBN 1-871944-14-7
- N. Jones, JM Bentley: Cromford and High Peak Junction, Scenes from the past 37 Part Two. Foxline, ISBN 1-870119-67-3
