Widmerpool railway station

Widmerpool

Surviving down platform waiting room in 2006.
Location
Place Widmerpool
Area Rushcliffe
Operations
Original company Midland Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London Midland Region of British Railways
Platforms 2[1]
History
2 February 1880[2] Station opens
28 February 1949 Closed to passengers
1 March 1965[3] Closed to goods
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

Widmerpool was a railway station serving Widmerpool in the English county of Nottinghamshire. It was situated on the Midland Railway route between London and Nottingham via Corby.

History

The station was opened for goods (1 Nov 1879) [1] & passengers (2 February 1880) [1] by the Midland Railway. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.[4]

It was on its cut-off line from Melton Mowbray to Nottingham, which had opened the previous year to allow the railway company's expresses between London and the North to avoid reversal at Nottingham. It also improved access to and from the iron-ore fields in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Local traffic was always minimal, a situation not helped by the station being situated one and a half miles from the village of its name, and it closed to passengers as early as 1949.[5]

According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P†, F, L, H, C and there was a 1-ton 10 cwt crane.[6]

Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Plumtree   Midland Railway
Manton Route		   Upper Broughton

Present day

Following the closure of the line as a through-route in 1968, the track between Melton Mowbray and Edwalton was converted for use as the Old Dalby Test Track. This was used initially for the Advanced Passenger Train project and, more recently, Class 390 Pendolino units.[7] It is currently used for testing London Underground 'S Stock' trains.

The station's Up platform remains in existence, as does the Down platform waiting room although the platform itself was removed during electrification work in 2000. The main station building was converted into a pub and restaurant c1966 before the line closed. It was originally called the Schooner Inn and later the Pullman Inn, which has just been refurbished.

The timber goods shed survived until electrification in 2000. Just to the north of the station site lies Stanton Tunnel, 1,330 yards (1,220 m) long.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Aldworth, Colin (2012). The Nottingham and Melton Railway 1872 - 2012.
  2. ↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 250.
  3. ↑ Clinker, C.R., (1978) Clinker’s Register of Closed Station, Avon Anglia ISBN 0-905466-19-5
  4. ↑ "Notes by the Way.". Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald. British Newspaper Archive. 1 November 1884. Retrieved 12 July 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  5. ↑ Shannon, Paul (2007). Nottinghamshire (British Railways Past and Present). Kettering, Northants: Past & Present Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-85895-253-6.
  6. ↑ Official Handbook of Stations, British Transport Commission, 1956.
  7. ↑ Shannon, P., p. 23.

Coordinates: 52°51′23″N 1°02′22″W / 52.8564°N 1.0395°W / 52.8564; -1.0395

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