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Blythe Bridge railway station in Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire, England, is served by trains on the Crewe to Derby Line; it is also a Community rail line known as the North Staffordshire line. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. The full range of tickets for travel are purchased from the guard on the train at no extra cost.
Blythe Bridge  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 An East Midlands Railway Class 170 DMU arriving at Blythe Bridge railway station in December 2020 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire Moorlands England | ||||
| Grid reference | SJ956411 | ||||
| Managed by | East Midlands Railway | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | BYB | ||||
| Classification | DfT category F2 | ||||
| History | |||||
| Original company | North Staffordshire Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | North Staffordshire Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | London, Midland and Scottish Railway | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 7 August 1848 | Opened as "Blyth Bridge"[1] | ||||
| 1907 | Renamed "Blythe Bridge"[2] | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  91,124 | ||||
| 2020/21 | 26,082 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  70,590 | ||||
| 2022/23 | 72,300 | ||||
| 2023/24 | 77,568 | ||||
| |||||
The station was opened on 7 August 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR). Until 1907 the spelling of the station name was Blyth Bridge.[1] The station buildings were demolished in the early 1990s and today it is unstaffed.
In 2010 it won East Midlands Trains' Best Small Station award.[3]
Signalling
edit
Blythe Bridge had at one time two signal boxes, Blythe Bridge and Stallington, both of which controlled level crossings, which was a common feature across the former NSR.
Blythe Bridge signal box was opened by the NSR in 1884 on their Derby to Stoke line. The box was built to a standard McKenzie & Holland design and under the S.R.S. designation system is referred to as a MKH Type1.
The signal box was equipped with a standard McKenzie & Holland lever frame and a gate wheel for operating the level crossing gates which controlled traffic on the busy former A50. These gates were later replaced by a barrier crossing when traffic got too heavy for the signalman.
Blythe Bridge signal box finally closed in 1980 and the level crossing was converted to CCTV control with the barriers supervised by Caverswall signal box.
Services
editAll services at Blythe Bridge are operated by East Midlands Railway.
On weekdays and Saturdays, the station is generally served by an hourly service westbound to Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent and eastbound to Newark Castle via Derby and Nottingham.[4] During the late evenings, services terminate at Nottingham instead of Newark Castle.
On Sundays, the station is served by an hourly service between Crewe and Derby only although no trains operate before 14:00.
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longton | East Midlands Railway |
Uttoxeter | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
Line open, station closed | North Staffordshire Railway | Line open, station closed |
||
Foxfield Railway
editThe station is situated 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) south of Caverswall Road railway station, the current southern terminus of the Foxfield Railway.
References
edit- ^ a b Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.>
- ^ "Minute No. 6232". Minutes of Meeting of the Superintendents' Conference (Report). London: Railway Clearing House. 2 July 1907. (Unpublished).
- ^ "Impact: Station Improvements coming soon" (PDF). East Midlands Trains. September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Table 50 National Rail timetable, May 2022
Further reading
edit- Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2016). Derby to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 52-57. ISBN 9781908174932. OCLC 954271104.
External links
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- Train times and station information for Blythe Bridge railway station from National Rail
- Page with more info on the station Archived 18 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- Railways in Draycott
- Photographs of the old station buildings
- Photograph of Blythe Bridge Signal Box