Midland Railway - To Manchester

To Manchester

From the 1820s proposals for lines from London and the East Midlands had been proposed, and they had considered using the Cromford and High Peak Railway to reach Manchester.(See Derby station) The ideas had never reached fruition since the practicality of using cable haulage for passenger trains was always in doubt.

Finally the Midland joined with the Manchester and Birmingham Railway (M&BR), which was also looking for a route to London from Manchester, in a proposal for a line from Ambergate. To be known as the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, it received the Royal Assent in 1846, in spite of opposition from the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. It was completed as far as Rowsley a few miles north of Matlock in 1849. However the M&BR had become part of the LNWR in 1846, thus instead of being a partner it had an interest in thwarting the Midland.

In 1863 the Midland reached Buxton, just as the LNWR arrived from the other direction by means of the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway. In 1867 the Midland began an alternative line through Wirksworth (now known as the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway), to avoid the problem of the Ambergate line. The section from Wirksworth to Rowsley, which would have involved some tricky engineering, was not completed because the Midland gained control of the original line in 1871. Access to Manchester, however, was still blocked at Buxton. At length an agreement was made with the MS&LR to share lines, built from a branch at Millers Dale and running almost alongside the LNWR, in what became known as the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee.

Continuing friction with the LNWR caused the Midland to join the MS&LR and the GN in the Cheshire Lines Committee, which also gave scope for wider expansion into Lancashire and Cheshire, and finally a new station at Manchester Central.

In the meantime Sheffield had at last gained a main line station. Following representations by the council in 1867 the Midland promised to build a through line within two years. To the Midland's surprise, the Sheffield councillors then backed an improbable speculation called the Sheffield Chesterfield Bakewell Ashbourne Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway. This was unsurprisingly rejected by Parliament and the Midland built its "New Road" into a station at Pond Street. Loathed by all who used it, it was rebuilt in 1905 as the present Sheffield railway station.

Among the last of the major lines built by the Midland was a connection between Sheffield and Manchester, by means of a branch at Dore to Chinley, opened in 1894, involving the construction of the Totley and Cowburn Tunnels, now known as the Hope Valley Line.