Penkridge is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Staffordshire between Wolverhampton and Stafford.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
PKG
Opened:
1837
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1837 by the Grand Junction Railway later taken over by the London and North Western Railway.
The railway needed to pass through the lands of Baron Hatherton. The Baron was an enthusiastic early user of the railways and granted access in return for the railway company building stopping two trains a day at Penkridge (and money too of course!)
The station is now unstaffed though retains station buildings, though they are shuttered up and not available to the public. Passenger facilities consist of ticket machines and the usual bus shelters.
The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1934 in what was then the London Paddington to Birkenhead Line. The station was known as Birches & Bilbrook Halt when it opened, it reverted to the current name in 1974.
The two platforms are staggered either side of a road bridge with access to the platforms via ramps from the road. The station is unstaffed with just the basic bus shelters and information screen for passengers. The station is served by at least one train an hour by West Midlands Railway.
The station was opened by the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway in 1849 later becoming part of the Great Western Railway in 1854. The station being on the GWR line from London Paddington to Birkenhead. The station building dates from from the 1850s with a GWR footbridge added in 1883. This was unfortunately destroyed by a contractor's crane in accident in 2005 [1], the bridge was later restored though is slightly higher than the original bridge.
The station had a goods yard but this was closed in 1964 [2]. A signalbox to the East of the station was closed in 2006. The original station building is now a pub. Station facilities are the usual shelters and screens. The station is served by West Midlands Railway with two trains an hour in each direction with a limited number of stops by Transport for Wales.
View down the platform showing the footbridge
Original station building
View down the platform showing WMR signage
Road bridge and station sign, the entrance is to the left
Under the bridge
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury (Middleton Press, 2009) Fig. 65 [2] Ibid. Fig. 63
The station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1848. The station is built at one end of a cantilever bridge over a road, the platforms being on an embankment. The platforms once had canopies but these have now gone. A ticket office was situated at street level below the station but this was closed in the 1990s. The station is now unstaffed.
A bus station was built next to the station in 2003 called Longton Transport Interchange [1]. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway who usually operate an hourly service in both directions.
View down the platform, the usual bus shelter can be seen
Station sign
The cantilever bridge
Down the platform in the other direction, towards the bridge
EMR 156 917 departs
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Derby to Stoke-on-Trent (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 62
Stoke-on-Trent is on the Stafford-Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line and is also the hub of a number of local branch lines.
LNWR 350 114 at Stoke-on-Trent
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
SOT
Opened:
1848
Platforms:
3
The station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1848 as Stoke station (sometimes referred to as Stoke Junction), the name changing to Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 when the county borough was created [1]. The station building was also used by the North Staffordshire Railway as it's headquarters with the board room and directors on the first floor.
The station is mostly unchanged since opening apart from the obvious changes such as signage, though two centre roads (which had been mainly used for storing stock) have been lifted. This was done to make space for electrification masts in the 1960s.
Access between the platforms is via a subway. The station is nowadays managed by Avanti West Coast and is served by themselves, Cross Country, London Northwestern, Northern and East Midlands Railway.
Station frontage
Avanti WC 390 136 arrives at Stoke-on-Trent
Northern 323 227 on Platform 3
An EMR service from Crewe approaches
A Manchester Cross County service pulls in
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Derby to Stoke-on-Trent (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 68
Lichfield Trent Valley is a split-level station in Staffordshire, with the northern terminus of the Cross-City Line being on the high-level and the West Coast Main Line between Tamworth and Rugeley Trent Valley below.
WMR 323 207 arrives at the high-level platform
Information
Type:
National Rail (West Coast Main Line & Cross-City Line)
Station code:
LTV
Opened:
1847
Platforms:
3
The station was first opened by the Trent Valley Railway in 1847 as Lichfield. A couple of years later the South Staffordshire Railway built a nearby station called Lichfield Trent Valley Junction. In 1871 the London & North Western Railway, which had absorbed both companies, closed both of these stations and amalgamated all the services at a new Lichfield Trent Valley station on the current site. Lichfield also has the more central Lichfield City which is the next stop along the Cross-City Line.
Once the high-level platforms were through platforms on a route to Burton-on-Trent but the platforms were closed in 1965 when services between Lichfield City and Burton-on-Trent ceased (the lines themselves remain open for freight and diversions) before being re-opened in 1988 as the terminus of Cross-City Line which was extended from Lichfield City [1]. The low-level platforms nowadays serve the Rugby-Stafford section of the WCML.
The station was upgraded in the early 2010s with a new station building and a larger car park. The station is managed by London North Western Railway.
LNWR 350 120 with a North bound service
Freightliner 66 566 brings a freight through the station
The high-level platform
This is where you are
View down the WCML platforms
[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) p. 117
Stafford is a major interchange station on the West Coast Main Line in Staffordshire, located at the junction of the Trent Valley and Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford branches of the WCML. It is situated between Rugeley Trent Valley or Penkridge and Crewe.
DRS 88 010 takes a freight through Stafford
Information
Type:
National Rail (West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
STA
Opened:
1837
Platforms:
5
The original Stafford station was opened by the Grand Junction Railway
in 1837 but lasted less than ten years before being rebuilt in 1844. There was a further rebuild in 1862 and exactly one hundred years later the current station was built with in the current Brutalist architecture style. This rebuild removed the overall roof with shelter from the elements now rather limited to a few canopies which do not extent along the whole platform. There are five platforms though they are numbered up to six, platform two no longer exists. It was a bay platform next to the station building (which used to be used by GNR trains for Uttoxeter [1]) and is now used as a siding.
A Royal Mail platform still exists next to platform six which used to be used by the adjacent sorting office though this is no longer in use. Stafford also used to have a large locomotive depot but this closed in 1965 [2].
Stafford is a busy station with regular Avanti West Coast (who manage the station), London North Western and Cross Country services as well as freight passing through.
GBRf 66 799 heads through with a freight
Colas 56 090 runs around a freight train on the post office lined
A RHTT heads through
Double headed 90s lead yet another freight through Stafford
LNWR 350 112 prepares to depart North, the main station building can be seen in the background
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Derby to Stoke-on-Trent (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 94 [2] Ibid. Fig. 96
Rugeley Town is a stop on the Chase Line in Staffordshire between Rugeley Trent Valley and Hednesford.
LNWR 350 260 arrives at Rugeley Town
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Chase Line)
Station code:
RGT
Opened:
1870 (Closed 1965)
Re-opened:
1997
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the London North Western Railway in 1870 [1] on the LNWR Cannock Branch later to be called the Chase Line. The station was closed in 1965 along with the other stations on the Chase Line between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley.
A new station was opened in 1997 about 250m to the South of the original station. This was the terminus of the re-opened Chase Line until the following year when the link to Rugeley Trent Valley and the West Coast Main Line was re-established. The Chase Line, including through Rugeley Town, was electrified in 2018 (though electric trains did not operate until early 2019).
Rugeley Town is an unstaffed station and has basic facilities including bus shelters and information screens. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway though the trains are currently operated by London Northwestern. There is a half-hourly service most days between Rugeley and Birmingham New Street, half of the trains continue on to Birmingham International.
View down the platform, access between the platforms is via this footbridge
The station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1881 [1]. This replaced three earlier stations opened between 1848 and 1849 (Uttoxeter Bridge Street, Uttoxeter Junction and Uttoxeter Dove Bank). The station was also served by the Stafford & Uttoxeter Railway. The station had an engine shed which closed in 1964. After 1971 the station was unstaffed, the stone station buildings were demolished and replaced by the usual bus shelter type facilities. A new footbridge was built in 2013, direct access to the adjacent racecourse was also added [2].
The station is managed by East Midlands Railway with one train an hour in each direction between Crewe and Newark Castle.
View down the platform towards Derby
Colas 67 027 and friend head through the station
Station footbridge
Station view from the footbridge
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Derby to Stoke-on-Trent (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 28
