 Smith, the manager of the colliery, claimed in evidence to a House of Lords Committee that it followed the line of the old wooden tramway, which had been built before the Nutbrook Canal, but it actually followed the 1848 branch of the Erewash Valley Railway.Although the volume of coal using this route gradually decreased, it was not until 1946 that it finally stopped.In June 1895, Smith, acting for the canal, gave notice to the collieries that the gates of the locks above Stanton would be locked shut, as large amounts of rent were outstanding.