Welcome to part 16 on this Cromford & High Peak Railway. The almost 200 year old railway that sits abandoned across the county of Derbyshire. We're fast approaching the end of the series as we drop quickly down the series of inclines towards Whaley Bridge and the Peak Forest Canal.

We're picking up at Fernilee again and some remains of the trackbed, including a burried bridge under the Whaley Bridge to Buxton road, where we see the top of the arch peeking through. As we follow the line of this lost railway, we encounter the top of the Shallcross incline. Long closed and disused back in the 1890s, but evidence of the inclines engine house and workings still remains.

We head down the Shallcross plane at a gradient of 1 in 10.25 towards the Shallcross yard area at the bottom. Remains for the gas works and railway yard can still be seen, despite being surrounded by new housing developments. The base of a crane, narrow gauge tracks around the gas works, an old wall and decorative stone can be found.

Next time out we will pick up the remaining section to the trans-shipment warehouse in Whaley Bridge basin, right through the heart of the town.

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On this series we'll be following the disused railway line the 33 miles from Cromford in the Derbyshire Dales over to Whalley Bridge in the High Peak.

During the conception of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, canals were in fashion and railways hadn’t really taken off yet. The line exists as there was a desire to connect the Peak Forest canal (Manchester's industry in the West) to the Cromford Canal and the various industry in the East Midlands. A canal was considered but the number of locks to cross the peak district would be enormous.

So instead, a tramroad, or tramway was decided to be the way forward. Horse drawn with rope inclines at several locations to pull the wagons up the steep gradients.

An extremely ambitious venture at the time coming only a handful of years after the Stockton and Darlington railway. This makes it one of the world oldest railways. The 33 mile long line opened at the turn of the 1830s connecting the two canals and shortly after the horses were replaced with steam engines. The inclines were powered by static steam engines.

We’ll see as we progress down the line, various challenges that ultimately led to the line's closure. Apart from a few quarry lines, the railway closed in stages up to 1967.

These days a large portion of the line is accessible as the High Peak Trail.


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