Freight in the Peak District

The Peak District area of England has yielded limestone products since around the time of the Romans and by 1794 the Peak Forest Tramway arrived to help transport products further afield. By the time the Midland Railway arrived in the Buxton area in the 1860s, limestone and stone traffic was booming by rail. Even now large tonnages of raw limestone, aggregates and cement are dispatched all over the UK.

This book illustrates some of these traffic flows, both past and present, and how they have changed locomotives and wagons. Some of these traffic flows are long-standing ones such as the Tunstead to Northwich, whereas others are more recent and short-term spot hire traffic. Privatisation in the mid-1990s saw EWS dominate the main flows but now DB Cargo, Freightliner Heavy Haul and GBRf all vie for lucrative flows from the four main rail-served quarries.