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The Waterhouses branch line was a railway built by the North Staffordshire Railway to link the small villages east of Leek, Staffordshire with Leek, the biggest market town in the area. The railway opened in 1905 but closed to passengers in 1935. Freight continued on the line though until 1988, when the line was mothballed as the traffic from the quarries at Caldon Low ceased. In 2009 a new company, Moorlands & City Railways (MCR), was formed with the intention of re-opening the line for commercial freight traffic, and contracted with the local Churnet Valley Railway (CVR) to hold a series of re-opening events in November 2010. Since 2011 an agreement has been reached between the two companies that sees the CVR operate a heritage service along the branch, with MCR continuing negotiations over the return of freight traffic. ==History== The history of the branch is closely linked with the history of the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway (LMVLR) as they were part of same proposal to bring the railways to this rural part of Staffordshire, although the promoters of the scheme and the NSR had different motives. The area east of Leek was (and still is) a rural area consisting of upland hill farms, open moorland interspersed with small villages in the vallies of the rivers Hamps and Manifold. The railways had bypassed such areas as being uneconomic to build into but with the passing of the Light Railways Act 1896 the way was opened for railways to be constructed in rural areas at cheaper cost and with the possibility of financial support from the Treasury. Even as the Light Railways Act was progressing through parliament a committee was formed in Leek to promote a light railway from Leek to Hartington in Dovedale, Derbyshire. In order to access Treasury funds the line had to constructed and operated by an existing railway company and as the NSR had a monopoly on rail traffic in the area, the committee entered into discussion with the NSR board in August 1896. The NSR were not only interested in the traffic to be generated from the area but also because it saw the advantage in using a line under the Light Railways Act as a means of building a Standard gauge line to the quarries at Caldon Low. The NSR operated the quarry under a 999-year lease and exported limestone from the quarry via a narrow gauge railway from the quarry to the NSR station at and as the quarry expanded this was not the most efficient method of moving the stone. As the main objective of the NSR was to improve its mineral traffic from Caldon Low, the company did not view a link with Leek as a high priority and for a considerable time there was disagreement between the railway company, the promotors of the LMVLR and the people of Leek over whether to build a direct route from Leek to Waterhouses (the Leek curve), as the people of Leek wanted, or solely to build a curve away from Leek towards Stoke, as the railway company wanted. It took two years for the light railway order to be approved and the single line branch was not authorised until 1 March 1899 by the ''Leek, Caldon Low, and Hartington Light Railways Order, 1898''. This order did not include the Leek curve at Leek Brook, and it took a further act of parliament, the ''North Staffordshire Railway Act 1899'' (62 & 63 Vict. c.ccxxxi) to give the NSR the authority to build the Leek curve. 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「Waterhouses branch line」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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