Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway

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.