Peak Rail Presents - Doug Copley's Lineside Images #02.4 - The Great Rocks to Hindlow Line 1987- 90s

Описание: Part 1  -  1987-1989 SECTION  (22 min)


Film opens with views of Buxton Diesel depot alongside the station.


We then move to Great Rocks Junction to follow a pair of Class 37s draw a rake of loaded ICI vacuum hoppers out of Tunstead limestone quarry to enable the locos to run around the train, before proceeding to the limeworks at Hindlow.


Now flooded, the one-time turntable pit at Great Rocks is seen.


After run around, the 37s head through Great Rocks Dale to the short (29 yards) Peak Forest Junction Tunnel and then swings onto the north-to-west spur of the former triangular junction towards Wyedale and passing the Peak Rail Cheedale Halt for the Monsal Trail.  The halt platform is now relocated to Matlock Riverside.


The 37s pass Tarmac's Topley Pike Quarry and are then viewed from the A6 in Ashwood Dale and then over the rooftops of Buxton as they swing north into sidings on the site of the former LNWR Buxton engine shed for the locos to to run-around again.


Now heading south, the train crosses Dukes Drive viaduct and is then seen passing through Harpur Hill.


Now at altitude 1,200 feet and still climbing past the derelict Tarmac Roadstone Buxton Quarry, then follows the very much working Peakstone Quarry Limeworks at Brierlow just before entering Hindlow Tunnel (514 yards).


Now on Sterndale Moor in the High Peak, journey's end is reached at Hindlow limeworks.  As the crow flies, we are only 4 miles south of Tunstead Quarry where the train originated, but a rail distance of 13 miles.


After yet another loco run-around, the wagons are propelled into the works for unloading where, in the snow, the traincrew and yard staff look like matchstick men in a L S. Lowrie painting.


Just beyond Hindlow limeworks can be seen the Dowlow Works of Steetley Minerals where 2 Ruston diesels are stabled.  Dowlow is now only occasionally served by a Class 47 trip working from Peak Forest, but dependable Doug captures one such working on this film. 


Dowlow now marks the end of the former LNWR line from Buxton to Ashbourne, which originally continued along the North Staffs Rly to Uttoxeter.  A little beyond Dowlow is Parsley Hay where cycle hire is now available for use on the trackbed along the Tissington Trail  -  to Ashbourne  -  or along the High Peak Trail following the route of the former Cromford and High Peak Railway.


We now follow the empty hoppers from Hindlow back to Tunstead and get a brief glimpse of the trackbed of the former Cromford & High Peak Railway which once ran over the top of Hindlow Tunnel.


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Part 2  -  LATE 1990s SECTION  (26 min)


This part of the film benefits from brighter weather and a better camera.


There have been changes:-

British Rail is now privatised.

the 60 year old ICI vacuum-braked bogie hoppers have now been replaced by air-braked bogie hoppers, now branded 'Buxton Lime Industries'

Buxton diesel depot adjoining the station has closed and locos are now stabled at Peak Forest yard.

the full-throated roar of pairs of Class 37s working hard is now replaced by single Class 60 locomotives.

The film follows a Class 60 loco coming off Peak Forest stabling point and making its way down to Tunstead to collect a rake of loaded limestone hoppers, which we then follow to Great Rocks Junction for the loco to run-around the rake before finally departing south for Hindlow.


As the outward journey repeats the locations passed in the earlier film, on Saturday 20 November 1999 Doug is by Topley Pike Quarry's headshunt to record the passing of a Kings Cross to Buxton special hauled by EWS liveried 47760 with a complete rake of SR green-liveried stock, and a Res/Parcels sector liveried Class 47 on the rear.


The loaded hoppers are again propelled into Hindlow for unloading, and then half an hour after the empties have departed back to Tunstead they are followed by another Class 60 working from Dowlow Quarry with a rake of 4-wheel box wagons conveying limestone aggregate destined for the construction site of Manchester Airport runway extension.


Down at Buxton signalbox, the empties for Tunstead run into the sidings from the LNWR Ashbourne line for the loco to run-around the wagons ready to depart via the Midland line up Ashwood Dale. Whilst this is going on, we see Class 150/1 and 156 dmus on the hourly services to/from Manchester Piccadilly via the LNWR route via Dove Holes (atop the Midland's Dove Holes tunnel), Whaley Bridge, Hazel Grove, and Stockport.


On arrival back at Great Rocks Junction the single-line tablet is surrendered at some speed, but the signalman is well-prepared and uses the poker for the fire as a tablet catcher extension!

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