Lost Derbyshire Railway - Midland Butterley to Ambergate Line

Lost Derbyshire Railway - Midland Butterley to Ambergate Line - Part 3 of 4

Welcome to another disused railway explore. We are on the Midland Railway Pye Bridge to Ambergate line in Derbysire.

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 London, Midland and Scottish Railway (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Passenger services were withdrawn on 16 June 1947, just prior to the line passing into British Railways ownership.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.

We start from the end of the restored and preserved Midland Railway Centre Butterley. The Hammersmith halt to be precise. From here the line passed through what is now the A38 and skirted alongsie the Pentrich Colliery. These days widening of the A610 has take up most of the route of the line past Lower Hartshay, but we pick up the trackbed at Buckland Hollow by the side of the Cromford Canal, near to The Excavator pub.

We see the junction with the Buckland Hollow branch and the double bridge over the two lines. The disused trackbed then enters a cutting before we lose it once more to industry,

Our line joins the main Midland Mainline between Derby and Chesterfield at Ambergate.