Country Images Magazine North January 2018 | Page 9

Duffi eld Station
Th e Terminus
Duffi eld Station
of Dale Quarry, the massive hole that blighted the town from its situation
a matter of less than a quarter of a mile from the town centre; this one was
linked to Wirksworth Station’s goods yard through a tunnel by standard
gauge. Baileycroft , even closer to the town had a narrow gauge track
through another short tunnel. Stonecroft Quarry further up the road had
both standard and narrow gauge tracks. Th e top half of Middlepeak didn’t
use the valley line and was joined to the Cromford and High Peak line by
standard gauge; however its lower twin did run stone by narrow gauge into
the station yard, along with a conveyor built in 1954. Coleshill Quarry half
way up the incline sent its stone by trucks on a narrow gauge track.
Th e sleepy branch line was never going to be a commercial success, passenger
use was never going to pay its way. Gradually road transport was taking over
from rail, especially aff ecting the morning milk train. No longer was milk
laboriously moved in pails from farm to station, to train, to dairy, but simply
pumped into a tanker. Stone was easier to send by road and in any case,
many of the quarries around Wirksworth were running out of space; the
last stone train left the station in December 1969. Passenger services ended
in June 1947 – the excuse being to save coal. From some reason the then
owners of the line, LMS, possibly thinking forwards to nationalisation a
year later, did not offi cially withdraw passenger services. Th ey continued to
publish a time table, but added the word ‘suspended’, and eff ectively stopped
running passenger trains without the need for a public inquiry. Following
nationalisation, British Rail saw no need to alter the status quo, and so the
line slowly sank into oblivion.
Shottle Station
Level crossing at Idridgehay
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