would branch at Loughborough, with branches for Nottingham and Derby, and proceeding to Manchester by the Cromford and High Peak Railway. The other option would pass through Northampton, with a branch to Birmingham, go on to Derby, with a branch to Nottingham, and thence to the Cromford and High Peak. The Grand Midland Railway was a proposal to branch from the London to Birmingham railway, already under consideration, at Northampton, and bring it through Leicester, Loughborough and Derby to the Cromford and High Peak. Towards the end of the 1820s the economic climate of the country had deteriorated and many investors were waiting to see how the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway would succeed. What investment that was forthcoming was for ventures with a reasonable expectation of a good, and rapid, return. Although the surveys were useful in the planning of later lines, the three lines were never built. Derby investors, naturally, favoured the scheme by the Midland Grand Junction to connect through Derby (at what was to be called the Grand Central Station) to the Cromford and High Peak Railway and thence to Manchester, since the London Northern would pass through Sandiacre some ten miles away. In the event neither line was built; the Cromford and High Peak Railway was not ideally suited to passenger working, and an alternative via Bakewell and Chapel-en-le-Frith would encounter very difficult terrain. (Manchester was not, in fact, reached until later in the century by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway and its extensions.) Three railways The Midland Counties Railway was originally proposed to connect the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway to Leicester to supply coal. However, supplies provided by the canal network and the River Trent to Nottingham, meant that few people were willing to invest. Provision of coal supplies to Derby were via the Derby Canal but this had not been a resounding success. People in Derby were supportive of any scheme which would bring a railway to the town. George Hudson encouraged the building of North Midland Railway, later becoming its chairman. Meanwhile, financiers in Birmingham, including G. C. Glyn, a banker and chairman of the London and Birmingham Railway, were looking to expand their system. The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway would give it a link from Yorkshire to London, with access to the coalfields. The promoters of the Midland Counties Railway suggested a line linking Nottingham, Derby and