Some Early Lines
Old Railway Companies
Alva Railway
The junction at Cambus for the ‘Alva Railway’ (known more recently as the Menstrie branch) taken in 1988 just after the signal box had been demolished, which is why the point is hand-operated. This junction was created in 1863 when the Alva Railway opened, and up to the late 1960s the main line was double track. http://staff.stir.ac.uk
Incorporated on 22 July 1861, this 3¾ mile line to Cambus (Stirling & Dunfermline Railway,) from Alva, east of Stirling, opened on 11 June 1863 and was vested in the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway by an Act of 23 June, with effect from 31 July 1864. It closed to passengers on 1 November 1954.
Ambergate Nottingham & Boston & Eastern Junction Railway
This was formed on 16 July 1846, a union of a Nottingham & Boston scheme, the Nottingham, Erewash Valley & Ambergate Railway and the Nottingham, Vale of Belvoir & Grantham Railway. The line opened from Colwick Junction to Grantham on 15 July 1850 and for local goods on 22 July. The Great Northern Railway coveted the line for access to Nottingham, but the Midland Railway was jealous of its monopoly. The Great Northern Railway made an offer to the Ambergate Company, and an Act of 1854 gave authority to work, lease or buy it. The Midland Railway replied with an injunction preventing the Great Northern from working to Ambergate. The first Great Northern train into Nottingham was surrounded by Midland Railway engines – the Great Northern driver set his locomotive in motion and jumped. The locomotive was locked in a shed for seven months while the Midland claimed breach of injunction, the Great Northern claiming in return that the loco had been hired by the Ambergate, Nottingham & Boston & Eastern Junction Railway! In the end the line was leased to the Great Northern by an Agreement signed on 30 March 1855, but it had to build its own station in Nottingham. The Company changed its name to the Nottingham & Grantham Railway & Canal Company on 15 May 1860, and as such it passed to the LNER in 1923.
Colwick Yard Complex.
View [probably] WNW, to the western part of the vast ex-LNER Colwick Yards and towards Gedling etc. on the Nottingham Avoiding LNERLine. The signalbox is [probably] Locomotive Junction, the great Locomotive Depot, with an allocation of over 200 engines is off to the left. [It was a very difficult complex to access from public roads. My car is in the foreground, and how I got up so high is a mystery to me. Better elucidation by someone else would be welcome]. Fifty years ago, this was a very major railway centre, dealing with an immense freight traffic, especially coal, but all has long since gone in the modern age.
Date 27 March 1956
Source From geograph.org.uk Author Ben Brooksbank
Permission Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0
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