Pye Bridge to Mansfield

Midland and GNR lines to Pinxton

From Pye Bridge the GNR Eastwood and Pinxton branch curved away eastwards from the Erewash. A Midland line too curved up from Pye Bridge through Pinxton to Kirkby-in-Ashfield. On the way the MR served collieries at (text to be completed)

But what was the attraction of Pinxton ? This small working town marked the head of the Pinxton branch of the Cromford Canal, as well as forming the southern terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton railway and later the northern terminus of the GNR branch from Ilkeston. The Mansfield & Pinxton was opened in 1817 as a horse drawn tramway to bring Mansfield goods south to Pinxton for dispatch via the canal network. It had been planned to make the canal all the way to Mansfield, but I believe the plan was scuppered by the lack of water sources at what would have been the summit.

When the Robin Hood line was re-opened from Nottingham to Mansfield in 199x, the former MR Annesley-Mansfield line was diverted onto a former GNR alignment at Kirkby Summit just north of Robin Hood's Tunnel. The GNR ran in a cutting through Kirkby town centre whereas the Midland had used level crossings. The line from Pye Bridge was reconnected to the new Robin Hood formation instead of its old route. But Pinxton and Sleights East, between Pye Bridge and Kirkby, retained M.R. signal boxes and manual semaphores until their closure with the Erewash Valley resignalling of August 2007.

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