North Midland Railway
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The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham (Masborough) and Leeds in 1840.
At Derby it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station. In 1844, the three companies merged to form the Midland Railway.
The East Midlands had for some years been at the centre of plans to link the major cities throughout the country.
In Yorkshire, George Hudson was the Chairman of the York and North Midland Railway, a proposed line from York towards the industrial markets of Manchester and Liverpool. He was interested in a southwards route, so invested in the building of North Midland, later becoming its chairman. Not only would it give a link from Yorkshire to London, it would provide an outlet for Yorkshire coal well as other minerals. Meanwhile financiers in Birmingham, were looking to expand their system northwards.
George Carr Glyn was the first Chairman of the new company, with George and Robert Stephenson appointed as engineers. George Stephenson surveyed the line in 1835 with his secretary, Charles Binns. It would be 72 miles long, meeting the York and North Midland, at Normanton, and also the projected Manchester and Leeds Railway. He decided the line would follow the river valleys from Derby to Leeds, with minimal gradients and large radii curves. It therefore bypassed Sheffield, but met the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway at Masborough. In later years the Midland Railway built a diversion through Dronfield and Sheffield, which became known to railwaymen as the "New Road", as opposed to the "Old Road".
Nevertheless, the terrain was more difficult than for the other two railways to Derby, requiring 200 bridges and seven tunnels, and an aqueduct for the railway to pass underneath the Cromford Canal.
It received Parliamentary Assent in 1836, and was completed to Masborough on 11 May 1840, and to Leeds on 1 July.
From the start, there was intense competition between the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway for traffic into London George Hudson, who was an investor in the two railways, and, by now, also chairman of the NMR, encouraged them to merge, forming the Midland Railway.
It is now part of the Midland Main Line from London to Leeds and Sheffield and part of the route operated by Virgin Cross Country from the North East through Birmingham to the South West (sometimes known as the Cross Country Route). In addition, the section from Derby to Ambergate, originally the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, is part of the Derwent Valley Line.
See also North Midland Railway Locomotives
[edit] References
- Pixton, B., (2000) North Midland: Portrait of a Famous Route, Cheltenham: Runpast Publishing
- Naylor,P. (Ed) (2000) An Illustrated History of Belper and its Environs Belper: M.G.Morris
