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The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was based in Stoke-on-Trent and was nicknamed The Knotty; its lines were built to the standard gauge of . The main routes were constructed between 1846 and 1852 and ran from Macclesfield to Norton Bridge, just north of Stafford, and from Crewe to Egginton Junction, west of Derby. Within these main connections with other railway companies, most notably the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), the company operated a network of smaller lines although the total route mileage of the company never exceeded . The majority of the passenger traffic was local although a number of LNWR services from Manchester to London were operated via Stoke. Freight traffic was mostly coal and other minerals but the line also carried the vast majority of china and other pottery goods manufactured in England. As the NSR was surrounded by other larger railway companies, there were in the 19th century several attempts emanating from other companies or proposals from NSR shareholders to amalgamate with one or more of the other companies that adjoined it. None of these came to fruition and the NSR remained an independent company up to 1923 when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company. ==Before the railway== The area of north Staffordshire known today as the City of Stoke-on-Trent was already a thriving industrial area before the arrival of the railways.〔Christiansen & Miller p. 17.〕 The establishment of the pottery industry and the development of coal and ironstone mines in the 18th century had provided a need for materials, most noticeably clay, to be brought into the area. A corresponding need also arose for the resulting fragile goods i.e. pottery to be taken away from the area. This need had given rise in the mid to late 18th century of the construction of the Trent & Mersey Canal (T&M) and its various branches. Opened in 1777〔Christiansen & Miller p. 18.〕 it was a spectacular success and paid dividends reaching 75% in 1822.〔 By 1845 this had fallen to a still impressive 30%〔 despite the onset of railway development in the North West of England. In 1836 the canal carried of goods away and brought in .〔Christiansen & Miller p. 19.〕 It was the Trent & Mersey Canal company that built the first railway in north Staffordshire when in 1776〔Jeuda: The Churnet Valley p. 8.〕 it was granted powers to build a railway, or plateway, from Caldon Low limestone quarries to the canal basin at Froghall in the Churnet Valley. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「North Staffordshire Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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