TV show Walking Britain’s Lost Railways series stops at Buxton

During the hour-long episode presenter Rob Bell visits heritage operator Peak Rail’s depot at Rowsley South, finishing his journey at Tunstead Quarry and Buxton itself at the train station and site of the former Midland Railway terminus.

While taking a tour of Peak Rail’s workshops Rob Bell comments on how popular the small section of the old line still is with ‘people getting on and off the carriages’

Speaking about Peak Rail’s rail journeys Paul Tomlinson, project director for Peak Rail, told Rob: “We carry something like 45,000 people a year and we have aspirations to do a lot better than that in the future.”

Paul and fellow members of Peak Rail hope to reopen the old Midland Railway line between Buxton and Matlock.

Though the Peak Rail line currently covers a distance of just four miles, during the mid-1850s its Rowsley South, Darley Dale and Matlock stations were part of the Midland Railway route linking Derby and Manchester across the Peak District.

Peak Rail closed its Buxton rail centre in the 1980s but has already cleaned up much of the old site on Station Road while ‘discussions’ continue to see trains running from Buxton to Matlock once more.

Speaking about his appearance on the programme Paul said: “Most people who have seen it say it puts the line in a good profile because it looks at how it came about and how it is today.

“There was a piece of the film dedicated to Peak Rail which promotes us an interesting attraction to come and look at - we hope that will reflect in the visitor numbers this year.”

Speaking about reopening Buxton rail centre he said: “We’ve had delays during the last 18 months because of problems with the Department for Transport due to Brexit.

“In most areas of government it’s ground to a halt because everything was dominated by Brexit but now we have a majority government things should get going.”

You can watch the show on again by visiting My5.