 The Little Eaton Gangway in 1908 with the last train of loaded coal waggons | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Little Eaton |
| Locale | England |
| Dates of operation | 1795–1908 |
| Successor | Abandoned |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) and 4 ft (1,219 mm) |
| Length | 5 miles (8 km) |
The Little Eaton Gangway, officially the Derby Canal Railway, was a narrow gauge industrial wagonway serving the Derby Canal, in England, at Little Eaton in Derbyshire.
In 1792, Benjamin Outram was asked to prepare plans for a broad canal from Swarkestone to Smithy Houses, near Denby, with a branch at Derby to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre, which he estimated would cost £60,000. The original report has been lost in time with only a dated and signed map drawing surviving in Derbyshire Records Office. William Jessop on 3 November 1792 confirmed Outram's proposals. The Derby Canal Act of 1793 authorized a rail connection between the Derby Canal at Little Eaton and the collieries to the north. The wagonway ran four miles (6 km) from the canal wharf to Smithy Houses and another mile further to Denby Hall Colliery. Further short branches served Salterwood North and Henmoor Collieries as well as the Denby Pottery.
The purpose of this 5-mile (8 km) long plateway was to carry coal from Kilburn and Denby down to the canal at Little Eaton and general goods including stone, pottery and "clogs of wood".
Outram's original plan was for a conventional waggonway with wooden sleepers and oak rails reinforced with cast iron plates. Accordingly, an advertisement appeared in the Lincoln & Stamford Mercury for 16 August 1793 [1] for 10,000 oak sleepers 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) long squared at each end for a length of 9 inches (229 mm).
However, by the time the railway was approved, Outram had decided to use the flanged rails with which his name has become associated. In this he may have been greatly influenced by William Jessop (1745 to 1814) and also by Joseph Butler of Wingerworth near Chesterfield, who had constructed a similar line in 1788. Butler is believed to have been the first to do so in Derbyshire and supplied the rails, rather than Outram's own works. Outram considered himself the first to use stone blocks as sleepers. These were drilled with a six-inch (152 mm) hole into which an oak plug was fitted. The rails of cast iron were usually three feet (0.91 m) long (he also manufactured four-foot (1.22 m) long rails when asked) and of L-shaped cross-section, were attached by means of spikes into a notch at the end of the rail. The line was originally 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge, being increased later to 4 ft (1,219 mm) at an unknown date.
The cast iron plates used to build the track initially weighed 28 lb/yd (13.9 kg/m) although this was increased to 40 lb/yd (19.8 kg/m) for plates made after 1804. By 1825, there were nine passing places on the single-track line, which carried 2-long-ton (2.2-short-ton; 2.0 t) waggons. Each waggon carried a box of coal, with a load of between 1.65 and 1.87 long tons (1.85 and 2.09 short tons; 1.68 and 1.90 t), which was transferred to a barge at Little Eaton wharf by a crane. From Smithy Houses, several private lines served the Denby Main colliery and other mines in the locality. [2] Further extensions were made between 1827 and 1829, when lines were built to provide links to the colliery owned by Harrison, Pattinson and Davenport at Denby, to Kilburn colliery and to Salterwood pits. [3]
The waggons, built at Outram's Butterley works consisted of containers mounted loosely on a chassis, or tram, with four cast iron wheels. The container would be lifted off at Little Eaton and loaded complete into narrowboats or transferred to two-wheeled carts for carriage by road. The canal line from Little Eaton led to Gandy's Wharf in Derby for onward distribution through the canal network or by road and was an early example of a containerised system (see Duke of Bridgewater Canal for first use)
The gangway and the Little Eaton line of the canal opened in 1795 to a great ceremonial fanfare with the wagons being kitted out with seats for the dignitaries and a Band to mark the occasion. The first load of coal from Denby was distributed to the poor of Derby.
When the Midland Railway built its branch line to Ripley in 1856, it lost most of its trade, finally closing in 1908. [4]
The trackbed was used for a new road, the A61, bypassing the old road through Coxbench. This, in turn, was superseded at the end of the twentieth century by the A38 trunk road, demoting it to the B6179. Thus there are three generations of highway side-by-side, plus the remains of the railway.
The only remaining trace of the gangway is the Wharf building seen in the photo above, the easternmost arch of Jack O' Darley bridge, and another two arch bridge over the Bottle Brook, with a few of the sleeper stones that have been used in nearby walls. A wagon from this period of the gangway's history was preserved in the National Mining Museum at Lound Hall, Bothamsall and is now in the National Railway Museum. [5]
A replica Little Eaton Gangway wagon is on display at the Midland Railway Trust near Ripley.
Wagonways, also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, were used. The advantage of wagonways was that far bigger loads could be transported with the same power.
Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley borough of Derbyshire, England.
The Derby Canal ran 14 miles (23 km) from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone to Derby and Little Eaton, and to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre, in Derbyshire, England. The canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793 and was fully completed in 1796. It featured a level crossing of the River Derwent in the centre of Derby. An early tramroad, known as the Little Eaton Gangway, linked Little Eaton to coal mines at Denby. The canal's main cargo was coal, and it was relatively successful until the arrival of the railways in 1840. It gradually declined, with the gangway closing in 1908 and the Little Eaton Branch in 1935. Early attempts at restoration were thwarted by the closure of the whole canal in 1964. Since 1994, there has been an active campaign for restoration spearheaded by the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust and Society. Loss of the Derwent crossing due to development has resulted in an innovative engineering solution called the Derby Arm being proposed, as a way of transferring boats across the river.
The Erewash Canal is a broad canal in Derbyshire, England. It runs just under 12 miles (19 km) and has 14 locks. The first lock at Langley Bridge is part of the Cromford Canal.
Benjamin Outram was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
The Peak Forest Tramway was an early horse- and gravity-powered industrial railway system in Derbyshire, England. Opened for trade on 31 August 1796, it remained in operation until the 1920s. Much of the route and the structures associated with the line remain. The western section of the line is now the route of the Peak Forest Tramway Trail.
A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later.
The Erewash Valley Line is a railway line in England, running from Long Eaton, located between Nottingham and Derby, and Clay Cross, near Chesterfield. The southern part was opened by the Midland Railway in 1847 as far as Codnor Park, where it connected to established ironworks, and soon after, a line to Pinxton and Mansfield.
Little Eaton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire. The population as taken at the 2011 Census was 2,430. The name originated from Anglo Saxon times and means the "little town by the water".
The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009.
Bullbridge is a small village in Derbyshire. The Bull bridge accident, in which a railway bridge failed as a goods train was just passing over it, happened here in 1860.
The history of rail transport in Great Britain to 1830 covers the period up to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first intercity passenger railway operated solely by steam locomotives. The earliest form of railways, horse-drawn wagonways, originated in Germany in the 16th century. Soon wagonways were also built in Britain. However, the first use of steam locomotives was in Britain. The invention of wrought iron rails, together with Richard Trevithick's pioneering steam locomotive meant that Britain had the first modern railways in the world.
The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway was an early waggonway, possibly the first in Scotland, opened in 1722. It was 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) miles long and connected coal pits at Tranent with the salt pans at Cockenzie and harbour at Port Seton in East Lothian, Scotland. The track was wooden, and wagons were drawn by horses. The Battle of Prestonpans in 1745 was fought across the line.
Little Eaton railway station was a railway station which served the village of Little Eaton in Derbyshire, England. It was opened in 1856 by the Midland Railway on its Ripley branch from Little Eaton Junction to Ripley.
Denby railway station was a railway station which served the village of Denby in Derbyshire, England. It was opened in 1856 as Smithy Houses by the Midland Railway to on its Ripley branch from Little Eaton Junction to Ripley.
The Midland Railway Ripley Branch connected Derby to Ripley in Derbyshire, England running from Little Eaton Junction on the Midland Railway line to Leeds.
The Avon and Gloucestershire Railway also known as The Dramway was an early mineral railway, built to bring coal from pits in the Coalpit Heath area, north-east of Bristol, to the River Avon opposite Keynsham. It was dependent on another line for access to the majority of the pits, and after early success, bad relations and falling traffic potential dogged most of its existence.
The Ticknall Tramway was a 12.8 mi (20.6 km) long 4 ft 2 in gauge horse-drawn plateway terminating at Ticknall, Derbyshire, England. It operated from 1802 to 1913.
The Silkstone Waggonway was a narrow-gauge industrial wagonway serving the Barnsley Canal, in England, at Silkstone in South Yorkshire.
