Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 1154342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,717 pages of information and 247,131 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Butterley Gangroad

From Graces Guide

The Butterley Gangroad was an early tramway in Derbyshire which linked Hilt's Quarry and other limestone quarries at Crich with the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge.

The first railway project of Derbyshire civil engineer Benjamin Outram (1764–1805), the line was originally a horse-drawn and gravity-driven plateway, a form of tramway that Outram popularised. Unlike modern edgeways, where flanges on the wheel guide it along the track, plateways used "L" shaped rails where a flange on the rail guided the wheels.

The line was constructed in 1793, with the construction of Fritchley Tunnel, now believed to be the world's oldest railway tunnel, being required to go under a road junction at Fritchley.

A steam locomotive using a walking mechanism was trialled on the line in 1813.

In the 1840s, upgrading took place to accommodate steam locomotives, and part of the original line was moved.

The railway remained in use until 1933

See Also

Loading...

Sources of Information