The Lancashire Derbyshire & East Coast Railway

If I walk out of the back door of the house where I grew up then within 20 minutes walk I can cross the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln Railway and the North Midland Railway. They all run parallel in the floodplain of the River Rother, and their owners presumably didn't get along with one another too well, cause they could have saved themselves a lot of hassle by just building the one. Now only one is left, the North Midland Railway, which is used by a few freight trains.

The first one I listed (that's the one in the title) must have been a bitch to build, as it was the last of the three and the flat and easy ground had gone. The railway dates from the 1890s and runs through impressively deep cuttings followed by huge embankments. Today I cycled, walked and slipped down the derelict remains of this railway. The lines were removed when I was small and the track has been mostly left to nature and to fly-tippers, which makes cycling quite a challenge. Here's a picture of the railway as it passes through a cutting.



click for google maps overhead shot of photo

Possibly the trickiest bit of cycling the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway to get past is the bridge over the Chesterfield Canal. In some weird parallel world the canal is filled with water and boats and the railway is home to the Killamarsh steam railway museum, and all visitors to the area would flock to see the point where the steam trains pass over the narrowboats going down the canal. In this world the canal is empty and filled with vegetation and the odd house, whilst the bridge has huge holes in it and is fenced off on one side. Here is a photo of the bridge. If you look carefully you can see the fence which used to block the way, but no longer does.



And here's the bridge from the other side. I didn't manage to get my bike across, but it's not too hard to walk round.



click for google maps overhead shot of photo

Anyone wishing for a serene pedal would be better advised to go down the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln Railway which is now a cycle path and part of the trans-pennine trail, but it isn't half as much fun.

If you read this far you might wish to see the three railway lines on google maps. They run fairly straight from north to south and are lined with trees. If you can't work it out, use streetmap for orientation. Note the lovely oxbow lake in both cases.

(I wrote this a few days ago, but only got the pictures up now).