Conceived and built in the 1820s to link two canals, the C&HPR crossed the heights of the Peak District by a series of nine inclines linked, initially by horse powered sections. In the steam era some of the inclines became adhesion worked, including the 1 in 14 Hopton Incline; the majority of this freight-only line survived into the mid 1960s. It always used smaller locomotives, at odds with its gradients - Crew Goods 2-4-0s, North London Railway 0-6-0 tanks, Kitson 0-4-0 ST’s and latterly Austerity 0-6-0s. Extremely good and well produced book on an exceptional railway. 112 very heavily illustrated pages. Paperback.