Operation
Although originally planned as a main route between Manchester and Derby the line became, as many shareholders had worried, something of a backwater. Through trains required co-operation with the LNWR, something that the NSR did not have for many years and when good relations with the LNWR were settled some through services were run but not as many as once anticipated.
Train services settled to a small number of local trains between Macclesfield and Uttoxeter supplemented by a smaller number of slightly shorter workings e.g. Macclesfield—Leek. A lot of excursions were run over the line as the NSR made efforts to promote Rudyard Lake as a tourist destination. The lake, actually a reservoir, supplied water to the Trent & Mersey Canal and had therefore become the property of the NSR in 1846. However the NSR only owned the lake, not the land around it and protracted legal proceedings meant that the NSR were not fully able to promote Rudyard until the early part of the 20th century. Another important tourist destination for the NSR was also served by the line; Alton Towers, owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury, was open to the public on several days during the summer and the NSR provided special trains on these occasions.
The NSR were not the only group seeking to promote the Churnet Valley as a tourist destination and through the efforts of a number of local hoteliers the valley became known as "Little Switzerland". Despite the picturesque description which arose from the valley's steep sides, the area was also an important site in the mineral industry with iron and copper as well as limestone and sandstone being quarried. Previously carried by canal, the output from the quarries and the associated industries was moved by rail especially when the NSR opened a line from Stoke to Leek in 1867. Principal among these were the copper wire works at Froghall and Oakamoor and the limestone quarries at Caldon Low. The latter was also owned by the NSR and moved stone from the quarry to Froghall station via a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge railway. At one point over 1000 tons a week was being shipped from Froghall to Brunner Mond.
Read more about this topic: Churnet Valley Line
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—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
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