The story
In the speculative days of railway mania, many railways were proposed and much investors' money was committed to railway schemes. Surveys were carried out, and parliamentary draughtsmen were employed, not always prudently.
The Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway was authorised on 16 July 1846 by the Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. clv) to build a line linking the manufacturing districts of Lancashire with the collieries of Nottinghamshire, and the port of Boston, Lincolnshire. A partner in this scheme was the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, authorised on the same day. It was to connect Cheadle (now Cheadle Hulme) on the London and North Western Railway south of Stockport, and Ambergate. The AN&B&EJR was itself a combination of two railways authorised in the 1845 session of Parliament, but not yet built: the Nottingham, Erewash Valley and Ambergate Railway, and the Nottingham, Vale of Belvoir and Grantham Railway.
By the act, the Grantham Canal and the Nottingham Canal companies were to be acquired by the Ambergate company on completion of certain administrative processes.
In 1839 the Midland Counties Railway had opened a line at Nottingham; the station there was at Carrington Street. In 1844 the company merged with others and formed the Midland Railway, and in 1846 its line to Lincoln was opened.
The through route would rely on running over the Midland Railway from Bulwell to Colwick, a distance of about 7 miles (11 km) crossing Nottingham.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3