Tamworth in Staffordshire is split into a high-level station on the Cross Country Route between Wilnecote and Burton-on-Trent, and a low-level station on the West Coast Main Line between Polesworth and Lichfield Trent Valley.
WMR 730 010 arrives at Tamworth on a test run along the WCML
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line & Cross Country Route)
Station code:
TAM
Opened:
1839
Platforms:
4
The high-level part of the station came first, being opened by the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway in 1839. The London & North Western Railway built platforms for it's Trent Valley Line in 1847 which ran underneath the earlier line. The new joint station was built and shared between the LNWR and Midland Railway [1].
This station was replaced by a modern design in 1962 [2], the Trent Valley Line (now part of the West Coast Main Line) was electrified at the same time. The high-level lines had to be raised to allow for the catenary.
The two parts of the station were officially named "high-level" and "low-level" in 1924, this naming convention remaining in place until 1971 [3]. Both levels of the station once had numerous sidings, freight yards and the high-level had a turntable. These have all now gone including the once busy Royal Mail facility that would handle hundreds of mailbags a night and required twenty postmen [4].
The station is managed by London North Western Railway.
A Cross Country service arrives at the high level part of the station
Platform shelter in LNWR colours
A freight roars through on the high level
A London bound Desiro stands on a low level platform
A Cross Country DMU waits on the high level platform
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Tamworth to Derby (Middleton Press, 2015) Fig. 1 [2] David Lawrence, British Rail Designed 1948-97 (Ian Allan, 2016) p. 83 [3] Vic Mitchell, Birmingham to Tamworth and Nuneaton (Middleton Press, 2014) Fig. 66 [4] Ibid. Fig. 70
