I have been doing some research into the kind of Goods/minerals traffic that might have been seen at and through Monsal Dale ... would be interested in what people think and whether I might be on the right track or not (pun intended
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MonsalDale itself Circa 1903 ish.
Small Goods wharf and lie by ... Local domestic coal .. the odd Frank Lomas wagon in for individual farmers to unload plus the odd wagon unloaded and carted by Lomas around the locality for sale (both deliveries verbally recorded in Bill Hudsons' book)
Putty Hill Mine ... between 1 and 2 thousand tons of calcite taken out yearly ... ie 2-4 wagons weekly (info from PDMHS) .. assume that no quarried limestone is being exported at this time as anticipation of this would appear to have been the reason for the additional siding request of 1914 followed by the raising of the wharf.
Coal in for the mine - general plus the steam pumping engine - 3 coal wagons in the 1911 photo picked out by Hudson as Butterley.
Some local goods in and out but very minor.
Milk collection and return via the platforms.
I am assuming that the main coal deliveries and Supplies in and out for Cressbrook Mill by this time utilise the Monsal Dale siding at Hassop.
There is a daily pick up goods in both directions.
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The rest will be through traffic some of which makes use of the lie by.
Alongside coal deliveries to Monsal Dale there are local supplies to Millersdale/Buxton/Peak forest and Chapel-en-le-Frith by local agents with their own PO wagons all bringing supplies on the down line ... Frank Lomas/Tom Wright/Kirkland and Pirkin/Sidney Farrow - Bill Hudson has drawings and detail on the livery.
There was considerable Coal supplied and empties returned to and from the various Gas works and to the Buxton area lime kilns. These tended to be Colliery supplied but not exclusively - from .... Butterley / Staveley / Pinxton / Claycross / J.C.Abbot / Ekington / Grassmoor / Nunnery / Swanwick / Bolsover / Sherwood / Stanton / New Hucknall / Manton Wood / Gedling / Wellbeck / Taylor Frith & Co / Babbington. All of these are recorded by Hudson as being active pre first world war with the names recurring up and down the line.
These would tie with the working timetables which have minerals out on the downline and empties returned on the up line (none appear to run through Monsal Dale the other way ... from/to Mansfield/Staveley/Kirkby Sidings/Rowsley Sidings/Tibshelf Junction/Blackwell Sidings / Dunston & Barlow.
There appears to have been some crossover with the lime/limestone traffic and coal where coal came in and limestone out.
In the Buxton area by this time we have the Buxton Limestone Firms group (BLF) but a fair degree of the wagon fleet will have carried their old PO liveries alongside those repainted in the BLF liveries. So we also would have T Bewick/Hill Head quaries/Dow Low lime/Ashwood Dale/East Buxton Lime Co/Buxton Central Lime & Stone (Richard Briggs supplied north so not relevant to Monsaldale?). We then also have Taylor Frith independently.
Other goods would seem to be ....
Cattle - particularly Bakewell .. then Millersdale and Hassop.
Building stone/Millstone/fine dressed stone/Tar Macadam from Matlock/Darley Dale.
Matlock Stone co / Thomas Shaw / T C Drabble / George Boden / Darley Dale Stone / Deeley Stone / Stancliff Quarries / Thomas Beck
.... Not sure which will have had PO Wagons and which used Midland Stock yet.
And Greatorex Macadam PO Wagons
Then there was lumber in and sawn/worked timber out from John Gregory (Darley Dale) - who supplied the wagon builders and George Drabble (Matlock). Rutland Saw Mills (Bakewell)
In addition we have Cotton Bales to the various Mills.
Grain consignments into Hassop from Manchester/Liverpool
suppliers alongside MR were
Bolsover/ Whitewell / Saxby / Plumtree / Bidworth / Grimston / Radford / Farnsfield.
If this overview gets somewhere near the mark, then it should be interesting putting together some of the through trains. Any thoughts on the type of mix that might have been likely between PO wagons and MR would be helpful.
There are also timetabled express goods which I assume may have been passing along the line linking more distant locations.
Anyway ... thoughts very much welcome/sought