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Home Page Walks Index |
Railway Walks & Explorations
A rough, illustrated, guide to the former Little Eaton Gangway - and what it looks like today.
By clicking the icon in the top left of the map window, you can select/deselect other options to view or click the icon top right to view full screen.
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The route is shown in
orange
and the former neighbouring Midland Railway, Ripley branch from Derby, in
purple
. However, I had a lot of trouble finding the northern terminii of the gangway
because they changed with time, and mine closures, but also because different authors
seemed unclear about their original routes. Notwithstanding this, I think that I have
now achieved the routes 'in principle', if not exactly as they were on the ground.
You can right-click and download my walk GPX file here for use in your GPS, Sat Nav or phone mapping. The route is mainly alongside the main Little Eaton to Ripley road and, apart from a short branch at Coxbench, only deviates at the extreme ends.
I have found a number of websites with more information on the railway and its
history. The following are just samples.
For a historic map of the route, follow this link and then adjust the
transparency on the slider scale to view the present day appearance:
The best starting point is probably this Wikipedia entry This aditnow.co.uk webpage is primarily concerned with mines etc but does have a large number of relevant photographs. There is also this page from the Industrial Railway Society 'The Little Eaton Gangway and Derby Canal' (David Ripley, 1993, Oakwood Press, ISBN 0 85361 431 8) is probably the major work on this tramway - but even this contains limited, but occasionaly conflicting mapping, from original sources. Otherwise, essential information is limited to that in 'Stone Blocks & Iron Rails', (Bertram Baxter, 1966, David & Charles, p24 & 175) which lists branches and the basic route. |