Midland Main Line

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:MetaSidebar

This article is about the Midland Main Line railway route. For the train operating company, see Midland Mainline.

The Midland Main Line is a main railway line in the United Kingdom, part of the British railway system.

The line links London (St Pancras) to Sheffield (Midland station) in northern England and connects other important population centres including Luton, Bedford, Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Leicester, Loughborough, Long Eaton, Derby, Beeston, Nottingham and Chesterfield. There are plans to build a station on the line to serve Nottingham East Midlands Airport, to be called East Midlands Parkway.

Express passenger services on the line are operated by the Midland Mainline train operating company. The section between St Pancras and Bedford is electrified and is also used by Thameslink commuter trains (operated by First Capital Connect). Central Trains also operates regional and local services between Nottingham and Leicester / Derby / Sheffield.

Contents

[edit]

History

The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1860s, as three lines which met at the Tri Junct Station in Derby. First to arrive was the line built by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and its subsidiary the Stonebridge Railway from Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire, on the London and Birmingham Railway, to Derby. This section opened on 12 August, 1839. This is now the "cross-country" route through Birmingham to Bristol.

This was followed on 1 July, 1840 by the North Midland Railway, which ran from Derby to Leeds Hunslet Lane Station via Chesterfield, Swinton, Masborough, near Rotherham (from where the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway ran a branch to Sheffield Wicker Station), and Normanton. This avoided Sheffield, Barnsley, and Wakefield in order to reduce gradients.

On the same day the Midland Counties Railway, which ran from Derby and Nottingham to Leicester, was extended from Leicester (its previous Campbell Street Station being replaced by the current London Road Station) to a temporary station on the northern outskirts of Rugby. A few months later, the Rugby viaduct was finished and the Midland Counties Railway reached the London and Birmingham's Rugby Station. This cut 11 miles off the former route via Hampton-in-Arden. Consequently the Stonebridge Railway lost all importance, was soon singled, and closed in 1917 as a wartime economy measure and to release track material for other use. Thus this became the first main line in Britain to close. Its parent company, the Birmingham and Derby Junction, survived, reached Birmingham Lawley Street Station in 1842, and is now part of the Cross-Country InterCity route from Birmingham to the North-East.

When these three companies merged to form the Midland Railway on 10 May 1844, the Midland did not have its own route to London, and relied upon a junction at Rugby with the London and Birmingham's line (which became part of the London and North Western Railway on 1 January, 1846) to London Euston for access to the capital.

By the 1850s the junction at Rugby had become severely congested, and so the Midland Railway constructed a route from Leicester to Hitchin on the Great Northern Railway, via Bedford. The line avoids Northampton, a major town south of Leicester, instead going via Kettering and Wellingborough in the east of Northamptonshire. This line met with similar problems at Hitchin as the former alignment had at Rugby, so in 1868 a line was opened from Bedford via Luton to London St Pancras.

The final stretch of what is considered to be the modern Midland Main Line was a short cut-off from Chesterfield through Sheffield, which opened in 1870.

Also part of the line is the Erewash Valley Line, which carries services from Chesterfield and the north to Nottingham and the south.

Image:Midland-main-line-st-albans.jpg

[edit]

Route

The cities, towns and villages served by the MML are listed below. Those in bold are served by fast InterCity services.

[edit]

London to Trent Junction

Kettering North Junction: formerly services to Corby and Melton Mowbray, from which both Leicester and Nottingham could be reached via an alternative route
Wigston South Junction
At Trent Junction, the line splits into three, with lines to Derby, Nottingham and Erewash Valley
[edit]

Trent Junction via Derby

Rejoins with Nottingham line.
[edit]

Trent Junction via Erewash Valley Line

[edit]

Trent Junction via Nottingham

trains often reverse to join the Erewash Valley Line
[edit]

Continued

[edit]

A Main Line to Manchester

The line was once the Midland Railway's route from London St Pancras to Manchester, branching at Ambergate Junction along the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, now known as the Derwent Valley Line. In LMS days it featured named expresses such as the Palatine and the Peaks.

This line was closed in the 1960s between Matlock and Buxton, severing an important link between Manchester and the East Midlands, which has never been satisfactorily replaced by any mode of transport. The line between Matlock and Rowsley is in the hands of the Peak Rail preservation group.

[edit]

The Settle-Carlisle

This is no longer considered part of the Midland Main Line: see Settle-Carlisle Railway. World War I prevented the Midland from finishing its direct route (avoiding reversal at Leeds) to join the Settle and Carlisle. The first part of the Midlands West Riding extension from the main line at Royston (Yorks) to Dewsbury was opened before the war. However the second part of the extension, involving a viaduct at Dewsbury over the River Calder and a tunnel under Dewsbury Moor, to link up with the existing railway into Bradford Exchange station (over which running powers had been obtained) was not completed - nor was the closure of the 500yd gap between the stations at Bradford which still exists today. The failure to complete this section ended the Midland's hopes of being a serious competitor on routes to Scotland and finally put beyond all doubt that Leeds, not Bradford, would be the West Riding's principal town. Midland trains to Scotland continues onwards from Carlisle via either the Glasgow and South Western or Waverley routes. Heysham was the port for the Midland's Irish traffic.

[edit]

Former stations

As with most railway lines in Britain, the route used to serve far more stations than it currently does (and consequently passes close to settlements that it no longer serves). Places that the current mainline used to serve include

Template:British main lines Template:Railway lines in Central England Template:Railway lines in North England

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Midland_Main_Line"