A page of Betram Baxter's photographs of the plateway has been added to the ROMA.
This plateway was actually an integral part of the Lancaster canal line because the land on the south side of Preston falls steeply to the River Ribble and its valley, so the engineering of a canal would have necessitated a series of locks to descend the slope, a substantial aqueduct to carry it across the Ribble, and a further series of locks to rise again to the summit levels at Walton Summit. Accordingly, it was decided to break the canal and interpose a plateway tramroad over this section.