Saltney railway station

Saltney
Location
Place	Saltney
Area	Cheshire West and Chester
Operations
Original company	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
?	Station opens
12 September 1960	Closed to Passengers
3 April 1967	Closed to Goods [1]
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

Diagram of railway junctions around Chester & Saltney, 1914

Saltney was a minor railway station located on the Great Western Railway's Paddington to Birkenhead line a few miles west of Chester, England. Although the station is now closed, the route is still open today as part of the Shrewsbury to Chester Line.

History

The GWR and the London and North Western Railway had raced from London to develop their services throughout Wales, and onto the important shipping point and docks at Liverpool. After the North Wales Coast Line to Holyhead had been incorporated into the LNWR, the two companies agreed compromise in the Chester area, there by jointly owning and operating the Birkenhead Joint Railway north from Chester to Liverpool.

Although Saltney hence was a small station, Saltney Junction just to its north became important in the operations of the GWR, as it was both:

• The last place northwards from London where the former broad gauge tracks met 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in), and the resultant restrictive loading gauge. This meant that some large rolling stock such as the GWR Super Saloons could not work north of this point
• Where tariffs became applicable for the shipment of traffic over the jointly operated lines

Express trains on the route did not call here, only local trains. According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G & P, and there was a 6 ton crane.^[2] The station was closed under the Beeching Axe on 3 April 1967.

Present

Nothing now remains of the station, on what is an abandoned expanse of waste ground. The double track on the Chester to Wrexham section was made into a single track in the 1980s, but there are plans to re-double at least part of the route. There is a proposal to open a new station at Lache a short distance to the south.

References

Neighbouring stations

External links

• Saltney station on navigable 1946 O.S. map

Coordinates: 53°10′46″N 2°55′08″W / 53.1795°N 2.9188°W / 53.1795; -2.9188