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| CATEGORIES ABOUT NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY | |
| pre-grouping british railway companies | |
| transport in staffordshire | |
| history of staffordshire | |
| lms constituents | |
| stoke-on-trent | |
| staffordshire moorlands | |
| newcastle-under-lyme | |
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As well as the canals, other schemes were being promoted. The Staffordshire Potteries Railway promoted a route from Macclesfield to the mainline at Colwich plus a spur to Crewe and The Churnet valley scheme promoted a line from Macclesfield to Derby . After these two companies applied for the necessary powers to build the lines, Parliament suggested a pause of a year 'to afford time for consideration and for maturing some more complete scheme for the accommodation of that important district'. This was advantageous to the SPR who formed the North Staffordshire Railway company. HISTORY
After forming the SPR was absorbed so as to avoid 'powerful opposition or ruinous competition if both lines had been passed'. The prospectus promoted the NSR's 3 main lines 'giving the most ample accommodation to the towns of Tunstall , Burslem , Newcastle-under-Lyme , Hanley , Stoke , Fenton , Longton and Stone '. Due to the obvious competition this line would provide for the Trent And Mersey Canal , the NSR and the T&M came into agreement that the NSR should pay £30 a share for all the T&M shares, and from the 15th of January 1846, the whole Canal including the Cauldon branch, Cauldon quarries, and the Plateway , was leased to the NSR. On the 25th of November 1845 the Derby and Crewe Railway was absorbed giving the NSR the basis on which to submit plans for construction. On the 26th of June 1846, the 3 NSR acts were passed with the £2,900,000 share capital being shared amongst the 3 lines as shown:
Then, to start the construction work, there was an official 'cutting of the first sod' ceremony. The site chosen was a field in Etruria . There was a roped - off enclosure for directors and the rest for reserved guests. There was a mile long procession headed by John Lewis Ricardo . On his arrival crowds broke through the roped off area and Ricardo was pushed and shoved. During the actual cutting he buckled the silver spade and had difficulty removing the sod. His hat later blew away. By February 1847, 1,318 men and 60 horses were working between Macclesfield and Colwich and had removed 80,000 cubic yds of earth, driven 843 yds of tunnel heading and erected 12,000yds of fencing. Then on the April, 3 rd 1848 the first goods service ran and on the April, 17 th 1848 the first passenger train left the temporary Stoke station at Wheildon road, hauled by no.1 'Dragon' heading for Norton bridge. Profits for the first 2 months were £1,668 'exceeding expectations'. From this point on the rest of these 3 lines were opened in stages and other lines opened up to 1911. Another thing to note is that in 1864, Stoke Railway Works were opened producing everything for the NSR from Locomotives to Carriages and parts for Bridges . Also, a few months after the opening of the first line, the permanent station at Stoke was opened, October, 9 1848 . Stoke Station then became the headquarters of the NSR. Later branches included lines from Stoke-on-Trent to Congleton via Biddulph ; Stoke-on-Trent to Leek ; Newcastle to Silverdale , Keele and Market Drayton (junction with the Great Western Railway ); Alsager to Audley , Leycett and Keele, and Rocester to Ashbourne . The famous Loop Line from Etruria via Hanley , Cobridge, Burslem , Tunstall , Pitts Hill, Newchapel & Goldenhill to Kidsgrove Liverpool Rd. and a junction with the Manchester line was the last of the NSR’s major undertakings. Twentieth century construction included a branch from Leek to Cauldon Lowe via Waterhouses from where the independent narrow gauge Leek And Manifold Light Railway was constructed through the Hamps and Manifold river valleys to Hulme End near Hartington . Finally in 1910, a very short line was built from Stoke-on-Trent to Trentham Park. It was authorised as part of an alternative line to Newcastle-under-Lyme but construction work beyond Trentham was quickly abandoned owing to rising costs. The Company prospered throughout its seventy-five years of independent ownership and operation, paid its shareholders good dividends (latterly a notable 5%), and successfully resisted repeated take-over bids by the London and North Western Railway Company. Under the Railways Act 1921 , the NSR was one of the eight major companies designated to form the LMS Group. The NSR was absorbed into the London, Midland And Scottish Railway on the 1st of July 1923. RUNNING RIGHTS AND OTHER COMPANIES In 1867, an independent local company built the Stafford And Uttoxeter Railway , later incorporated into the Great Northern Railway which had built a line from Nottingham and Derby Friargate via Mickleover to Egginton Junction with running powers over the NSR from Etwall, through Uttoxeter , to Bromshall junction. A Joint Committee was formed with the Great Central Railway to construct the Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway which was authorised on July 14 , 1864 , opening for passengers August 2, 1869. This gave the NSR access to an alternative routes to East Coast ports for its freight traffic and for passenger trains to Manchester London road (circuitous route) and to the fashionable spa resort of Buxton . The Cheadle Railway , a small local company with NSR's (very reluctant) backing, built at great cost over a period of twelve years a short line from Cresswell to Cheadle . This line, only four miles long, included a very difficult tunnel. The line was opened from Cresswell to Totmonslow November 7, 1892 and to Cheadle, January 1, 1901. In 1933, the Cheadle tunnel experienced a catastrophic collapse resulting in the LMS constructing a deviation without a tunnel. From the start, a significant proportion of NSR route mileage lay in the neighbouring counties of Cheshire and Derbyshire and, with through running rights, NSR. passenger trains ran to Manchester , Stafford , Crewe and Derby and later to Buxton , Nottingham and Llandudno . The London And North Western Railway also exercised running rights over the NSR, particularly for its express services between London and Manchester. These Manchester to London Euston restaurant car expresses were unique in often being hauled by NSR tank engines from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent where the LNWR express engines took over for the run via Stone, Sandon, Colwich, and the main line to London Euston. The NSR. received a payment for every through passenger on these trains and employed a small army of ticket inspectors to examine and clip (with its distinctive 'P' clip) every ticket during the Stoke-on-Trent station stop. Other through running powers included LNWR rights between Ashbourne and Burton which were used by through coaches from Buxton to Euston and Great Western Railway rights between Market Drayton and Stoke-on-Trent which were used by a single daily goods train in each direction. The NSR possessed running powers over the GWR line from Market Drayton to Hodnet , which it used on market days. see also: Leek And Manifold Valley Light Railway . NSR MAIN LINES AND BRANCH LINES One NSR director described the network as being like an octopus, stretching out into far away districts. Here are the NSR's lines: (AUTH) = Authorisation, (P) = passenger traffic, (G) = goods traffic
EXTERNAL LINKS
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