Midland Railway – Butterley has signed up to be part of the Visit Peak District and Derbyshire’s ‘At the Centre of it All’ campaign.

The campaign aims to promote the area on the basis of its location in the middle of England, which makes it accessible to people in many locations.

For example, it is just ninety minutes from London by train.

The campaign is encouraging people to take their next break in the Peak District and Derbyshire, which it describes as “a place of wild peaks and rugged moorland with views that stretch forever.”

The Midland Railway – Butterley is a standard-gauge heritage railway that lies on the Ambergate to Pye Bridge line of the old Midland Railway.

It operates both steam and diesel trains, and hosts special events. The only historic station on the line is Butterley, which opened in 1875.

It was demolished after the line closed in the 1960s, but was rebuilt once the heritage line opened in the following decade.

The original line closed in 1968, with work to restore it beginning in 1973. A large part of its trackbed was destroyed in 1976, when a section of the A38 road was built between Ripley and Alfreton.

The Railway ran its first preservation services in 1981.

The line runs for 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) from Hammersmith to Ironville, via Butterley, Swanwick Junction and Riddings. The Midland Railway Trust operates and maintains the line.

The Railway includes a museum, although its main exhibition hall, the Matthew Kirtley Building – which is named after the Midland Railway’s first Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1844 to 1873 – is currently closed while work is carried out on its roof, after the Railway raised the money to repair it.

The railway is also home to the Golden Valley Light Railway, which is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge line which opened in 1991.

Other heritage railways in Visit Peak District and Derbyshire’s area region include the Churnet Valley Railway and the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway.

Being at the centre of it all isn’t just a feeling here, it’s a fact.

Cara Thompson, Nottingham’s first Nature Poet Laureate