MRS Journal No. 15 (Winter 2000)

Table of Contents

• Early Accidents on the Midland Railway: 1846 (part 2) / By Chris Rouse
• Midland Railway Literature (12) / By Ted Hancock
• The Loss of the Steamer “Donegal” 17th April 1917 / By Michael Walker
• Travelling on the Midland Main Line during the Second World War / By Fred Cockman
• Locomotive Aesthetics / By Jack Braithwaite
• Ticket Collection Arrangements at Gloucester / By Glynn Waite
• The Floods of 31st December 1900
• In memory of George Thums
• Comments on Items in Previous Journals
  • Railway football teams
• Query Corner
  • Query 20 : Out-door assistant’s office, Derby / Form numbers
  • Query 21 : Wilson and Cammell Works, Dronfield
  • Query 22 (new query) : Where is this station (1)?
  • Query 23 (new query) : Where is this station (2)?

• Front cover
  This excellent photograph is endorsed at the bottom “First Sunday passenger train on Riplay branch entering Little Eaton station, April 3rd 1910.” What it doesn’t tell us, however, is that the train concerned was relatively short-lived. There were two trains in each direction initially — one at 10.15am from Derby (depicted here), which returned from Ripley at 10.55am, and one which left Derby at 5.40pm and returned fro Ripley at 6.30pm. It would appear that the morning services did not cover its costs and it was omitted from the Winter timetable which commenced in October. The evening services had a much longer life and, in fact, ran for some years after the closure of the line to regular passenger traffic on 1st June 1930 — the primary purpose being the conveyance of milk traffic from the local farms.
  [Photo C. Champion collection]

Rear cover
When the line opened from Kirkby to Mansfield in October 1849, there was an intermediate station at Sutton (later Sutton-in-Ashfield), albeit some ¾ mile from the town of that name. This remained the case, until 1st May 1893 when the Midland — probably aware of the threat from the Great Northern as it extended up the Lean Valley — introduced passenger services over a recently opened goods branch between the original station (re-named Sutton Junction) and the town. This timetable shows the initial service over the branch.