Crewe railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crewe
Location
Place	Crewe
Local authority	Crewe and Nantwich
Operations
Managed by	Virgin Trains
Platforms in use	12 (+4 freight)
Annual Passenger Usage
2004/05 **	1.529 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1837 and 1861
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Crewe (source)   * 2002/03 Disclaimer  ** 2004/05 Disclaimer
UK Rail Portal

Crewe railway station is one of the most historic railway stations in the world. It was the first to be built independently of the need to serve a town. Nowadays, as well as serving the town of Crewe that has grown near it, it still operates as a major junction on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). It also serves as a major rail gateway for Cheshire. On the WCML, Crewe is located 158 miles north of London Euston, and 243 miles south of Glasgow Central.

In April 2006, Network Rail organised its maintenance and train control operations into "26 Routes". The main line through Crewe forms part of Route 18 (The West Coast Main Line). The line from Shrewsbury and South Wales to the junction south of Crewe station is Route 14 (South and Central Wales and Borders). The North Wales Coast Line to Chester and North Wales is Route 22 (North Wales and Borders) and the Crewe to Manchester Line forms a part of Route 20 (North West Urban). The Crewe to Derby Line is electrified between Crewe, Kidsgrove and Stoke-on-Trent to enable it to serve as a diversionary route and therefore forms a part of Route 18.

Crewe currently has 12 platforms in regular use. There is a modern passenger entrance containing a bookshop and ticket office. Passengers access the platforms via a footbridge, stairs and lifts. The platforms have buildings dating from the 19th century containing two more bookshops, bars, buffets and waiting rooms. The last major expenditure on the station was in 1985, when the entire track layout was remodelled and the station facilities updated during a three-month period when few trains called at the station. There is currently (2005) a "Crewe Gateway" proposal supported by Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council, Cheshire County Council, and the North West Regional Assembly to spend over £30 million to bring the station's facilities into the twenty-first century, as illustrated in this Cheshire County Council Station layout (PDF).

Contents 1 History 2 Current Services 3 External links 4 Notes and references

[edit] History

When it was built, Crewe railway station was truly unique, and has set many 'firsts'. It was the first station in the world to have its own railway hotel (The Crewe Arms, 1838, still in use). It was the first to be completely rebuilt owing to the need for expansion. It was the first to form a junction between more than two companies. It was the first to have a completely independent railway system built around it, to ease traffic congestion.

The story begins on 4 July 1837, with the opening of the Grand Junction Railway. The purpose of this railway was to link the four largest cities of England by joining the existing Liverpool and Manchester Railway with the projected London and Birmingham railway. The line, which was the first long-distance railway in the world, ran from Curzon Street railway station in Birmingham to Dallam in Warrington, Cheshire, where it made an end-on junction with the Warrington and Newton Railway, a branch of the L&M.

Conceived as a through route, the GJR was not interested in serving towns en-route. Wolverhampton, for instance, was by-passed by half a mile because it did not lie on the intended route, and no central station was built for several years, instead a small station at Wednesfield Heath (now Heath Town) was deemed to suffice. But a station was built in the parish of Monks Coppenhall in Cheshire, at the point where the line crossed the turnpike road linking the Trent and Mersey and the Shropshire Union Canals. Since the land was bought from the Earl of Crewe, whose mansion stood nearby, the station was called Crewe. At this time there was no town at this point, only a few scattered dairy farms.

As soon as the station opened it was seen to be at a useful point to begin a branch line to the county town of Chester. The Chester and Crewe Railway was formed and was absorbed by the GJR shortly before it opened to traffic in 1840. A locomotive depot was built at the station, to serve the Chester line, and to provide banking engines to assist trains southwards from Crewe up the Madeley Incline, a modest gradient which was a challenge to the small engines of the day.

By 1841 the Chester line was seen as a starting point for a new trunk line to Holyhead, to provide the fastest route to Ireland, and the importance of Crewe as a junction station began to be established. This was given further endorsement when the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, a separate undertaking which had hoped to build a wholly independent line linking the two cities, shorter than the GJR, decided that it would be uneconomical to compete with that line over the greater part of its length, and decided to divert its own line to meet the GJR at Crewe. Teething squabbles between the companies delayed the running of through services for a while, and the M&B had to build a temporary station of their own, part of which survives today as an isolated platform next to the North Junction, at the start of the line to Manchester.

In 1842 the GJR decided to move its locomotive works from Edge Hill in Liverpool to Crewe, siting the works to the north of the junction between the Warrington and Chester lines. To house the workforce and company management the town of Crewe was built by the company to the north of the works.

In 1845 the GJR merged with the London and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Manchester railways to form the London and North Western Railway Company, which until its demise in 1923 was the largest company in the world. The new company extended the existing lines to Holyhead, the Warrington line to Lancaster and Carlisle, the Manchester line to Leeds, and built a new line to Shrewsbury to join the Shrewsbury and Hereford lines which provided connections to South Wales. The North Staffordshire Railway built a line from Stoke-on-Trent, joining the LNWR from the South East. Crewe was therefore the centre of a wide-ranging railway network, and freight-handling facilities grew up to the south of the station.

To cope with the increase of traffic, the station was rebuilt in 1861, the buildings facing each other on the present platforms 5 and 6 dating from this time. At the same time the works was extensively redeveloped and enlarged, and the town also considerably enlarged, under the leadership of John Ramsbottom, a Stockport man who had become Locomotive Superintendent for the whole company. Locomotive construction, hitherto divided with Wolverton (on the London and Birmingham Railway) was concentrated at Crewe. Ramsbottom also built a steelworks, the first in the world to make large-scale use of the Bessemer process, as only the LNWR required enough steel to keep a Bessemer plant continuously occupied. He also introduced mass-production techniques, whereby as many parts as possible were identical between one engine and another.

Ramsbottom retired in 1871 and was succeeded by the legendary Frank Webb, a colourful and controversial figure who was known as 'The Uncrowned King of Crewe'.

By the 1890s Crewe junctions had become so busy that a survey revealed 1,000 trains passing within a 24-hour period. Since half of these were freight trains which did not need to call at the station, the company decided to build a completely separate four-track railway line passing to the west of the station, joining the existing lines beyond the north and south junctions, burrowing beneath them and avoiding them completely. This huge undertaking also included a vast marshalling yard to the south of the station at Basford Hall, a revolutionary 'tranship shed' which allowed fast transfer of freight from wagons to road vehicles under cover, and the increase in the size of the passenger station by one-half again.

In 1923 the LNWR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish railway group. Crewe remained the major centre for locomotive construction. In 1938-39 the signal boxes at North and South Junctions were completely reconstructed as massive concrete structures to withstand air raids, and remained in use until the resignalling project in 1985. The North Junction signal box can now be visited as part of the Crewe Heritage Centre. Although the railway station is virtually synonymous with the town of Crewe, it was not actually incorporated within the borders of the borough of Crewe until the late 1930s, as it lies about 1 mile to the south east of the actual town centre.

With the exception of two new signal boxes and associated greatly improved colour light signalling, track circuiting and electrically operated track points, train operation at Crewe changed little in over fifty years. The trains did become longer and heavier and were hauled by larger engines, which required increased supplies of water to be taken on board before departure, but the number of passenger trains using Crewe Station and the method of operation did not vary greatly despite the passage of two world wars. Trains continued to divide at Crewe with the front portion for Manchester and the rear for Liverpool. The station pilot engine always had a pair of restaurant cars in a bay platform ready to attach to a morning service to London. Always there were extra coaches waiting to be attached to overcrowded trains. In addition to passengers there were vast quantities of mail, parcels and even live animals and birds of all descriptions transported in specially designed transit crates. When necessary the station staff had to feed and water these special passengers, which travelled in copious luggage vans.

In 1948 the LMS was nationalised as British Railways, London Midland Region. Nationalisation greatly facilitated the modernisation of British Railways and after a false start developing new improved steam engines, came electrification, diesel power and fixed formation air-braked trains. These changes had a significant effect on Crewe station. Notably the variation in station use caused firstly by the electrification in stages of the West Coast Main Line between 1959 and 1974 and secondly by the general end of steam traction on Britain's railways. Following the completion of Electrification in 1974, trains did not need to change locomotives at Crewe, except for the London to Chester and Holyhead service. Many locomotive hauled trains were replaced by electric or diesel multiple unit trains, with much faster turn-round times. Additionally, two local branch lines had closed, which resulted in fewer trains terminating at Crewe. However, compensating for the decline of local passenger traffic, the reduction in mail and parcels traffic and the total elimination of livestock carriage, came the great increase in inter-city passenger traffic and the need for even faster, smoother and more efficient handling of passenger trains.

In 1985 the entire track layout was modernised, simplified and reduced, eliminating a vast array of points and crossings and allowing 80 mph running over the North Junction. At the same time all but one (platform 12, illustrated above) of the six 1902 extension platforms were taken out of use.

Crewe Works, the diesel locomotive depot & the electric locomotive depot are all situated nearby.

[edit] Current Services

West Coast Main Line

Legend Edinburgh Waverley for ECML Haymarket Glasgow Central     for SPT Network Motherwell for SPT Network Carstairs for SPT Network Carstairs South Junction Lockerbie Carlisle for Tyne Valley Line,    Cumbrian Coast Line and    Glasgow South Western Line Penrith Oxenholme Lake District     for Windermere Line Lancaster Preston Wigan North Western Bolton Warrington Bank Quay Liverpool Lime Street Runcorn Weaver Junction Manchester Piccadilly Stockport Cheadle Hulme Junction Crewe North Junction Crewe Stoke-on-Trent Stone Junction Norton Bridge Junction Stafford Colwich Junction Lichfield Trent Valley Wolverhampton Tamworth Birmingham New Street Nuneaton Coventry Rugby for Birmingham Loop Northampton Milton Keynes Central Watford Junction London Euston

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Stafford		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line (London to Scotland)		Warrington Bank Quay
Stafford		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line (London to Liverpool)		Runcorn
Stafford		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line (Crewe to Manchester)		Wilmslow
Stafford		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line (London to Holyhead)		Chester
Stafford		Central Trains West Coast Main Line (Birmingham-Liverpool)		Winsford
Stafford		Central Trains West Coast Main Line		Warrington Bank Quay
Terminus		Central Trains Crewe to Derby Line		Alsager
Terminus		Northern Rail Crewe to Manchester Line		Sandbach
Nantwich		Arriva Trains Wales Welsh Marches Line Crewe to Manchester Line		Wilmslow
Terminus		Arriva Trains Wales North Wales Coast Line		Chester
London Euston		First ScotRail West Coast Main Line Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Preston

In the SRA's 2002/03 financial year 773,969 people joined the railway system at Crewe railway station, and 763,846 left it there (tickets sold at Crewe, and tickets sold to Crewe; figure does not include passengers interchanging between one rail service and another). ^[1]

[edit] External links

• Train times and station information for Crewe railway station from National Rail
• Street map and aerial photo of Crewe railway station from Multimap.com

[edit] Notes and references

 

v • d • e Major UK railway stations
Managed by Network Rail: Birmingham New Street • Edinburgh Waverley • Gatwick Airport • Glasgow Central • Leeds City • Liverpool Lime Street • Manchester Piccadilly
Managed by train operator: Aberdeen • Belfast Central • Birmingham Snow Hill • Brighton • Bristol Temple Meads • Cardiff Central • Crewe  • Derby • Doncaster • Dundee • Glasgow Queen Street • Hull • Manchester Victoria • Newcastle • Nottingham • Reading • Sheffield • York
Railway stations of London: Central area | Greater London
Managed by Network Rail: Cannon Street • Charing Cross • Euston • Fenchurch Street • King's Cross • Liverpool Street • London Bridge • Paddington • Victoria • Waterloo
Managed by train operator: Blackfriars • Marylebone • Moorgate • St Pancras