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This book on the Lancashire Derbyshire and East
Coast Railway discusses the reasons for the
railway s promotion and its subsequent outcome as a
business venture. Enacted in 1891 and opened for
traffic in 1896, the LD&ECR was planned to be an
east-west line linking the Derbyshire coal fields to
the Manchester Ship Canal at Warrington, as well as
to a port on the Lincolnshire coast at Sutton-on-
Sea. Although parliament approved the construction
of more than 170 miles of railway only 58 miles of
the main line and branches between Chesterfield and
the western outskirts of Lincoln would be opened.
The LD&EC was to be notoriously impecunious but
managed to avoid bankruptcy. Shareholders failed to
obtain any dividends during the life of the LD&EC
but the coal-owners of north east Derbyshire, whose
burgeoning and very profitable output was consigned
along its tracks, could not have regarded the LD&EC
as a failure. This analysis will be of interest to
all those interested in late Victorian history,
transport and financial ventures.
About the author
David Wilmot retired from a career in export finance with the engineering industry in 1998. He gained a Masters degree from the Institute of Railway Studies at the University of York. His lifelong interest in industrial history led him to form the North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society. David died in 2008.
