Duckmanton Junction

The GCR's key hope in connecting the lines was to carry coal from the LD&ECR's catchment area to markets further south, notably London.

[citation needed] It also foresaw the possibility of traffic from the LD&ECR's intended Immingham Dock (which would open in 1912) having an alternative route for coal from the GCR's Derbyshire catchment area.

The whole was laid and signalled to passenger standards and a "fast" service was tried from Lincoln to Nottingham, connecting with expresses to London Marylebone.

When Immingham dock opened in 1912 it was natural for coal to go there directly rather than go west through Duckmanton Junction, north down the GC main line, then to the east.

Some will have been routed from east to south via Duckmanton, but that was largely rendered redundant by the opening of the Mansfield Railway progressively from 1916.

[citation needed] Arkwright colliery opened in 1938 and was connected to the LD&ECR line by a sharply curving branch which was to provide a steady traffic flow for fifty years.

From that point onwards just three local traffics passed through the complex of junctions: The Chesterfield Market Place goods was cut back to serve Arkwright Town station only from March 1957.

1 were connected to the ex-MR Doe Lea Branch and in any event both Markham collieries had an ex-GCR outlet northwards direct to Staveley Central.

This benefitted the NCB which became able to extend its tip west of Buttermilk Lane by burying the "LNER Markham Branch" trackbed.

It also benefitted Coalite which became able to use the area around the junction of the erstwhile Markham and Bolsover colliery branches as a stocking site.

[21] This left coal from Arkwright colliery as the sole traffic on the LD&ECR west of Langwith Junction.

[25] This slow and costly arrangement involved maintaining several miles of track north of Staveley plus two reversals.

[26] After the colliery closed methane gas was found to be unstoppably seeping into buildings in the village of Arkwright Town.

Coal from the opencasting was hauled by road trucks along the trackbed of the GCR Main Line and put onto trains at Oxcroft Disposal Point.

[27] The landscaping has revealed views never available in the 20th Century, notably with the demolition of the substantial LD&ECR embankment East of Arkwright Town Junction.