Great Central Railway maps/photos - North of Chesterfield?

[Dave]

Hi,

Does anyone have any idea where I could view online, old photo's or route
maps of the Great Central Railway, particularly the route as it travels
north of Chesterfield, from the old Trebor factory as the line came out of
the tunnel at the Chesterfield bypass/Chesterfield college [the chesterfield
bypass runs on top of the old route as far as Tesco's], through Wheeldon
Mill, between Whittington and Brimington, Hollingwood, Staveley and beyond.

There are a few remnants of the line that are still accessible on foot, such
as from the bridge at Newbridge lane along the old course of the track upto
Blue Bank Lock on the Chesterfield canal, the bridge at Cow Lane and the
platforms at Hollingwood station as the Chesterfield canal becomes
un-navigable which is only a 10 minute walk from Barrow Hill Roundhouse.

I never saw the line in working order but it is always something that has
intrigued me.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

[c***@yahoo.co.uk]

Post by Dave
Hi,
Does anyone have any idea where I could view online, old photo's or route
maps of the Great Central Railway, particularly the route as it travels
north of Chesterfield, from the old Trebor factory as the line came out of
the tunnel at the Chesterfield bypass/Chesterfield college [the chesterfield
bypass runs on top of the old route as far as Tesco's], through Wheeldon
Mill, between Whittington and Brimington, Hollingwood, Staveley and beyond.
There are a few remnants of the line that are still accessible on foot, such
as from the bridge at Newbridge lane along the old course of the track upto
Blue Bank Lock on the Chesterfield canal, the bridge at Cow Lane and the
platforms at Hollingwood station as the Chesterfield canal becomes
un-navigable which is only a 10 minute walk from Barrow Hill Roundhouse.
I never saw the line in working order but it is always something that has
intrigued me.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Dave

Try www.old-maps.co.uk (although just now it wasn't working). Or go to
Amazon and try to buy a copy of The Great Central Then and Now by Mac
Hawkins - that has maps and photographs

[Dave]

Post by c***@yahoo.co.uk
Try www.old-maps.co.uk (although just now it wasn't working). Or go to
Amazon and try to buy a copy of The Great Central Then and Now by Mac
Hawkins - that has maps and photographs

Thanks Cliff, old-maps seems to predate the GCR by a few years but I found a
good pic of Staveley-Works station (I thought it was Hollingwood) here;

http://www.chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk/photo_html/91031504.html

Dave

[Dave]

A good site that I've just found is this one that shows the Chesterfield
Loop Line as it seemed to be called;

Loading Image...&mlsref=1020&cmn=Arkwright%20Town&pn=1&mp=

Dave

[jonathan]

Post by Dave
Hi,
Does anyone have any idea where I could view online, old photo's or route
maps of the Great Central Railway, particularly the route as it travels
north of Chesterfield, from the old Trebor factory as the line came out of
the tunnel at the Chesterfield bypass/Chesterfield college [the chesterfield
bypass runs on top of the old route as far as Tesco's], through Wheeldon
Mill, between Whittington and Brimington, Hollingwood, Staveley and beyond.
There are a few remnants of the line that are still accessible on foot, such
as from the bridge at Newbridge lane along the old course of the track upto
Blue Bank Lock on the Chesterfield canal, the bridge at Cow Lane and the
platforms at Hollingwood station as the Chesterfield canal becomes
un-navigable which is only a 10 minute walk from Barrow Hill Roundhouse.
I never saw the line in working order but it is always something that has
intrigued me.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Dave

This site contains the OS maps for the whole line from London to
Manchester.

http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/osIndex.php

[Dave]

Post by jonathan
This site contains the OS maps for the whole line from London to
Manchester.
http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/osIndex.php

Many Thanks Jonathan,

I uderstand the Chesterfield loop part of the line better now. However, I
didn't realise that the line that ran from Arkwright through Staveley was
the line proper as I thought it was just the line that carried coal from
Arkwright pit to the North Midland line. I have seen trains carrying coal,
although slow moving with guards vans on the back of them run through
Inkersall around 30 years ago. It was a single rail track then.

Dave

[David Jackson]

Post by Dave
I have seen trains carrying coal,
although slow moving with guards vans on the back of them run through
Inkersall around 30 years ago.

Rather more than 30 years ago, but I have a copy of a postcard of
Chesterfield which shows a slow-moving coal train with a guards van on
the back... And a bit more besides:

Loading Image...

[Just for reference, the line crossing the viaduct (name escapes me) was
the LD & ECR, the next layer was/is the Midland, and at the bottom of
the stack is, I understand, the Great Central, now replaced by a road.]

[Dave]

Post by David Jackson
[Just for reference, the line crossing the viaduct (name escapes me) was
the LD & ECR, the next layer was/is the Midland, and at the bottom of
the stack is, I understand, the Great Central, now replaced by a road.]

Dave,

Yes, the viaduct was called Horns Bridge which was situated where the
current Horns Bridge roundabout is where the A617 (Hasland Bypass - from
Chesterfield to J29 M1) intersects with the A61 Derby Road. Coincidentally,
The A617 from J29 of the M1 to Horns Bridge roundabout is the approximate
route of the start of the Chesterfield Loop of the GCR judging by the map
here:

http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/map/allmaps.php?mapid=440367.jpg&mlsref=1020&cmn=Arkwright%20Town&pn=1&mp



The text below is copied from Wikipedia re: Chesterfield Railway Station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesterfield_railway_station

*The first line into Chesterfield was the North Midland Railway from Derby
to Leeds in 1840. The original station was built in a Jacobean style similar
to the one at Ambergate, but it was replaced in 1870 by a new one further
north, when the Midland Railway built the 'new road' to Sheffield.

In 1893 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, later taken over
by the Great Central Railway, crossed under the North Midland line half a
mile south, at Horns Bridge, to a station a few yards west. in 1897, the
Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway arrived, with a viaduct seven
hundred feet long, above both lines, with a station at the Market Place.

The Great Central station closed in 1963 and was demolished in 1973 to make
way for the town's inner relief road. The line into Market Place station
closed in 1951 due to problems in Bolsover Tunnel, the station building was
demolished in the 1970s. The Midland station was knocked down and rebuilt in
1963.*

--

There's another photo of Horns bridge taken from another angle which I
suspect was taken around the same time as the one you have;

http://www.ondamar.demon.co.uk/dream/cf.htm

and one taken close up around 12 years ago;

http://www.ondamar.demon.co.uk/photos/cf4.htm

As well as quite a nice water colour;

http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/stories/getobjectstory.php?rnum=L1223&enum=LE126&pnum=2&maxp=2

Interesting stuff indeed

Dave

[Dave]

"Dave" <***@no.thanks.co> wrote in message news:4453f6f0$0$9231$***@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...

For want of seeming to be talking to myself, here's another photo, this time
taken looking at Chesterfield GCR Station looking south on what is now the
A61 relief road as it turns veers left sharply near the Chesterfield Hotel.
Chesterfield College is to the immediate right of where this picture was
taken.

Dave

[Dave]

"Dave" <***@no.thanks.co> wrote in message news:4453f6f0$0$9231$***@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...


For want of seeming to be talking to myself, here's another photo, this time
taken looking at Chesterfield GCR Station looking south on what is now the
A61 relief road as it turns veers left sharply near the Chesterfield Hotel.
Chesterfield College is to the immediate right of where this picture was
taken.

http://www.ondamar.demon.co.uk/cf/intro.htm

Dave

[David Jackson]

Post by Dave
Dave,
Yes, the viaduct was called Horns Bridge which was situated where the
current Horns Bridge roundabout is where the A617 (Hasland Bypass - from
Chesterfield to J29 M1) intersects with the A61 Derby Road.

Thanks for the name, Dave. We have a "Horns Mill bridge" near here, and
I couldn't think of the Chesterfield name without the "mill" bit getting
in the way! My uncle lived in Hartington Rd, across the valley from the
town and the viaduct was a big landmark when I was a child.

[Tim Fenton]

Post by David Jackson
[Just for reference, the line crossing the viaduct (name escapes me) was
the LD & ECR, the next layer was/is the Midland, and at the bottom of
the stack is, I understand, the Great Central, now replaced by a road.]

I recall seeing the then newly rebuilt Midland station, with its new diesel
trains, then going more or less across the road to Central, which was in its
last days. There was no train information anywhere, no staff around apart
from at the ticket office, and all the traffic was steam worked.

At the time I think that the LD&EC station on Market Street was a carpet
shop, BICBW of course.

[David Jackson]

Post by Tim Fenton
At the time I think that the LD&EC station on Market Street was a carpet
shop, BICBW of course.

I can remember it as a station, but securely gated and padlocked. We
didn't get over that way for a few years, and when we did, the landscape
re-arrangers had been hard at work, playing havoc with my memories -
even the viaduct had gone, although I had been warned about that so it
wasn't too much of a shock.

[Dave]

Post by Tim Fenton
At the time I think that the LD&EC station on Market Street was a carpet
shop, BICBW of course.

The site of the old station is where PC World and Curry's are now. There
are still the remnants of a level crossing gate on Queens park that must
have served as some sort of siding purpose that went at least as far as the
bottom of Chatsworth Rd via the side of the park where the footpath leads to
the car park.

Dave

[E.D. Wivens]

Post by Dave

Post by Tim Fenton
At the time I think that the LD&EC station on Market Street was a carpet
shop, BICBW of course.

The site of the old station is where PC World and Curry's are now.

No. Market Place Station was further west, at West Bars. IIRC the
Royal Mail sorting office is on the site.

Post by Dave
There
are still the remnants of a level crossing gate on Queens park that must
have served as some sort of siding purpose that went at least as far as the
bottom of Chatsworth Rd via the side of the park where the footpath leads to
the car park.

I don't have my maps handy at present [1], so I may be wrong, but I
think that was the Midland's Brampton Branch, which predated the LD&EC
and served a couple of coal pits and the gas works.

There's almost no evidence of the LD&EC (or the GC) in Chesterfield
now.

[1] The joys of moving house...


Wivens

[Dave]

"E.D. Wivens" <***@mailspike.co.uk> wrote in message news:***@4ax.com...

"Dave" wrote:
The site of the old station is where PC World and Curry's are now.

Post by E.D. Wivens
No. Market Place Station was further west, at West Bars. IIRC the
Royal Mail sorting office is on the site.

I didn't realise it went that far down from Horns Bridge. I seem to have
been misinformed and I stand corrected. My apologies.

Post by E.D. Wivens
I don't have my maps handy at present [1], so I may be wrong, but I
think that was the Midland's Brampton Branch, which predated the LD&EC
and served a couple of coal pits and the gas works.

That could be true. There's also a iron moulding that used to carry a chain
to stop traffic in the Bridge at the bottom of Chatsworth Rd where the gas
works used to be.

Post by E.D. Wivens
There's almost no evidence of the LD&EC (or the GC) in Chesterfield
now.

I'd say that's about right. There's a large disused cutting that runs
east/west between Hady and Calow towards Arkwright/Bolsover that may have
been the LD&ECR. I can't work out how a railway line travelled from
Chesterfield towards Bolsover and I never knew that there were tunnels under
Duckmanton and Bolsover before the line reached Warsop!

Just found this picture of Chesterfield Market Place Station;

Loading Image...&title=Oakwood%20Library%20Of%20Railway%20History

I can feel a visit to Chesterfield library stirring in me now.

Dave