Longhurst
The small town of Longhurst is situated some 16 miles to the west from Belper and a mile or so east from Ashbourne. The railway was built to provide a good link from Ashbourne to Belper. Unfortunately, before the railway could be built by the Belper and Ashbourne Railway, other bigger and much grander railway companies had beaten them to it. In the end, the line stopped a mile short of Ashbourne at Longhurst.
Longhurst does not exist in reality, and no railway line ever stretched between Longhurst and Belper. To keep costs down it is assumed that the railway was built to a narrow -gauge standard, and that means that railways were laid at 2′ 4″. The railway is assumed to have been fully completed by 1915 and to have continued to exist with reasonable financial success until the middle of the 1930s.
It conveyed general goods, coal and livestock along the route. It served few industries, mines or quarries and, although the tourists never came in any great numbers, it was often well patronised. The larger main line railways never actually tried to take over the line and seemed unwilling to build their own direct route between Ashbourne and Belper.
The model shows how the railway would have worked in 1935, the last summer before cuts were commenced in the operation of the railway.
