Cheadle Branch Line
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cheadle Branch Line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Cheadle Branch Line was a 3-mile railway line that served the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire. It was in operation as a passenger line from 1892 to 1963, and closed altogether in 1978.
Contents |
[edit] Construction
After the North Staffordshire Railway completed its Stoke to Derby line in 1848, the market town of Cheadle remained without any form of rail transport. Several schemes for a branch line were proposed over the years, but none came to fruition.[1]
In 1887, the Cheadle Railway, Mineral & Land Co. Ltd was formed and at long last construction of a branch line leaving the NSR line at Cresswell began the following year. After several financial problems, the first stretch from Cresswell to Totmonslow was opened on 7 November 1892.[2] It was not until 1 January 1901 that the railway reached Cheadle, the Totmonslow to Cheadle section including a difficult tunnel.
[edit] Later developments
Totmonslow station was renamed to Tean in December 1906, although the village of Upper Tean was located a mile to the east. On January 1, 1907 the North Staffordshire Railway inherited the line from the Cheadle Railway Company; until that date they had provided the services but not actually owned the line.[1]
After the NSR was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, problems with the tunnel became progressively worse and construction of a new deviation line began in 1932, the new alignment opening in 1933.[1]
[edit] Decline
The line was not a great success and passenger numbers were dwindling by the 1950s. Tean station closed under British Railways on 1 June 1953 and the final passenger train on the line ran on 17 June 1963.[1]
Freight traffic from a nearby quarry continued to run until 1978 whereupon the line fell into disuse. However, after a gap of nearly 22 years, a special passenger train ran to Cheadle on 28 March 1985 to mark the launch of the InterCity Charter Train Unit. The service included several Pullman vehicles and passengers were taken by road to Alton Towers.[3] A regular service to bring in the park's visitors by rail sadly never came to fruition and the line once again became redundant.
Today, most of the track is heavily overgrown but still in situ, except for the final quarter of a mile into Cheadle which was lifted in 1994 to make way for a new housing estate. The northern portal of the tunnel has been buried by mining activity.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Railways in Draycott. Retrieved on 2007-09-07.
- ^ a b Draycott Cross Colliery & the Cheadle Branch Railway. Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
- ^ Moors, Terry (2007). North Staffordshire Railways: Scenes from the 1980s. Ashbourne: Landmark Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84306-347-6.
