Shirebrook North railway station

Shirebrook North
General information
Location	Bolsover
Owned by	LNER British Railways
Managed by	Great Central Railway
Line(s)	LD&ECR
Key dates
8 March 1897	Opened as Langwith Junction
2 June 1924	renamed Shirebrook North
17 September 1955	closed for passengers
4 January 1965	Closed

Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway
Chesterfield (Market Place) Boythorpe Viaduct over MR Brampton Branch and Boythorpe Railway   Horns Bridge over Midland Main Line GCR Chesterfield Loop River Rother Duckmanton Tunnel Great Central Main Line Arkwright Town Arkwright Town Jct (1907) River Doe Lea Doe Lea Viaduct over MR Doe Lea Branch Bolsover South Bolsover Tunnel Scarcliffe Summit MML to St Pancras Sheffield Midland Attercliffe Road (MR) Rotherham Masborough West Tinsley (SDR) Catcliffe (SDR) Rotherham Masborough Treeton (MR) Woodhouse Mill (MR) Beighton (GCR) Beighton Junction Killamarsh West (MR) Beighton (GCR) Upperthorpe and Killamarsh Spinkhill Spinkhill Tunnel Clowne South Summit Markland Grips Viaduct Creswell and Welbeck Shirebrook North (Originally Langwith Junction) Langwith Junction shed Shirebrook South GNR to Nottingham Victoria (1901) Shirebrook West MR (now Robin Hood Line) Nottingham Midland to Worksop Warsop Clipstone Colliery Sidings Mansfield Railway to Nottingham Victoria (from 1917) Edwinstowe Ollerton Boughton Tuxford Central Tuxford Works Tuxford shed Dukeries Junction GNR (now ECML) Kings Cross to Retford Fledborough Fledborough Viaduct over River Trent Clifton-on-Trent Doddington and Harby Skellingthorpe GN&GEJR to Saxilby Pyewipe Junction Lincoln to Peterborough

Shirebrook North railway station was a railway station in Langwith Junction, Derbyshire. It was opened by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (later part of the Great Central Railway and subsequently the LNER) in March 1897 and closed to regular passenger traffic by British Railways in September 1955.

It was originally called Langwith Junction, and gave this name to the adjacent steam locomotive shed and the settlement that grew up around it, although the station was renamed as "Shirebrook North" on 2nd June 1924, despite not being in Shirebrook. It was located on the LD&ECR line between Chesterfield and Lincoln. A branch ran north-west via Clowne to meet the Midland Railway at Beighton, on the outskirts of Sheffield, originally with the aim of running on the MS&LR - later Great Central - line into Sheffield Victoria. That company rejected the idea and, for a time, it led to a goods depot at Beighton, until it was linked with the Sheffield District Railway in 1900.

The station had four platforms and was one of the three with a refreshment room, the others being Chesterfield Market Place and Edwinstowe. The signalmen would warn passengers of the arrival of a train by ringing a bell.

In November 1901 the Great Northern Railway's "Leen Valley Extension" line arrived, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Pleasley and its own Shirebrook station, later known as Shirebrook South. The LD&ECR had plans for its own branch to Mansfield but gave them up, and built a curve into the Midland Railway line from Nottingham to Worksop. Thus, at its zenith, Shirebrook North served five routes - West to Chesterfield Market Place, first stop Scarcliffe; North West to Sheffield, first stop Creswell and Welbeck; East to Lincoln Central, first stop Warsop, South East to Mansfield Midland, first stop Shirebrook (later renamed Shirebrook West) and SSE to Nottingham Victoria, first stop Shirebrook (later renamed Shirebrook South.)

Shirebrook North was closed to regular passenger traffic in stages.

First to go was SSE via Shirebrook (South) in 1931, though timetabled Summer weekend services and excursions continued until 1964. The line was closed completely on 27th May 1968. The running lines near Shirebrook North were adopted as sidings of the wagon works.

Next was NW via Creswell and Welbeck and Clowne (South) on 10th September 1939, though timetabled Summer weekend services, excursions and diversions continued until 1964. The line heading North from Shirebrook was finally closed in 1974. South from its northernmost end, Beighton Junction to the northern portal of Spinkhill tunnel, a distance of 3 miles, remained open until Westthorpe Colliery, Killamarsh closed in 1984.

Services SE to Mansfield Midland also ended on 10th September 1939. The curves joining the LD&EC lines east of Shirebrook North to the Midland's Worksop-Nottingham line were lifted between 1946 and 1950. Remarkably, the South to West curve was reinstated in November 1974 to serve Davis's Wagon Works, which it still does. This was because of the blasting of a single line cutting between the former Midland coming from the north. This cutting sloped up to the East-bound former LD&ECR, enabling the closure of the Sheffield branch which had been performing this function. The South to West curve referred to above (which was originally the inside leg of a flyover junction with the Midland facing Mansfield) has an interesting syphon which appears to have been preceded by a launder going over.

Services west to Chesterfield Market Place ended on 3rd December 1951. The sparse traffic made the £1M (1951 prices) cost of repairing Bolsover Tunnel, plus uncosted concerns over the Doe Lea viaduct west of Bolsover (South) hopelessly uneconomic. Track between Markham Junction (between Bolsover and Arkwright Town) and a few hundred yards west of Shirebrook North was lifted immediately. The remaining yards west of Shirebrook North were used as a headshunt and a wagon store for several years.

The remaining Monday to Saturday service ran between Shirebrook North and Lincoln Central, serving a sparse population between. Inevitably it succumbed; ending on 17th September 1955. Extra carriages were provided for the last day service, but few people turned up. The lines eastwards were rationalised over the years and Shirebrook North was subsequently cut off in 1974, but they still serve a remnant of Britain's deep-mined coal industry and, remarkably, have been chosen for Network Rail test tracks, including a short electrified section.

September 1955 left Shirebrook North providing three services and witnessing two others.

1. Goods were handled up to 4th January 1965.

2. Summer excursions called until 5th September 1964, notably to East Coast resorts.

3. Timetabled Summer weekend services also survived until 5th September 1964. NW via Clowne South to Blackpool, NE via the Tuxford West to North curve and Retford to the Yorkshire Coast, East via Lincoln to the Lincolnshire Coast and SSE to Nottingham Victoria to connect with holiday expresses to many points South and West. The Yorkshire coast service provided a minor "last", in that the final, timetabled, steam-hauled train south from Retford was not an "A3" for Kings Cross, but was Black 5-hauled via Tuxford, the LD&EC and Mansfield Central, with a connection from Ollerton calling at Shirebrook North.

4. The route from Lincoln through Shirebrook North and Clowne South served as a diversionary route. Notably, this led to the occasional appearance of March "Britannia" 4-6-2s on the Liverpool Central-Harwich Parkestone Quay Boat Train (known locally as "The Boaty") trundling through Warsop and Shirebrook North in the early 1960s.

5. GC main line trains were also occasionally diverted via Shirebrook North, travelling from Nottingham Victoria via the Leen Valley, through Shirebrook South, Shirebrook North and Clowne South, regaining the GC Main Line at Killamarsh.

Passenger traffic was very small beer compared with the massive mineral traffic, in which coal was head and shoulders above the rest.

Langwith Junction and Halwill Junction on the Devon/Cornwall border are the only two place names (as opposed to station names) in Britain including the word "Junction."

The Shirebrook railway station used today is on the Robin Hood Line, which is the modern branding of the Midland Railway's Nottingham to Worksop route. It had been closed in 1964 as Shirebrook West and was reopened in 1998.

This complex history of openings, closings and renamings is most clearly rendered by the superb map on page 67 of Lawson Little's "Langwith Junction, the life and times of a railway village" (see bibliography, below.)

Former Services

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Scarcliffe		British Railways		Warsop
Creswell and Welbeck		British Railways		Warsop
Terminus		British Railways		Shirebrook South
Terminus		British Railways		Shirebrook West

     

Bibliography

• "Great Central" Vol 3, esp Chapter VII, by George Dow (Ian Allan, 1965)
• "Derbyshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards" by Brian Lund in "Yesterdays's Derbyshire" Series No 3, ISBN 0 946245 86 X
• "Lost Railways of Derbyshire" by Geoffrey Kingscott (Countryside Books, 2007) ISBN 978 1 84674 042 8
• "Forgotten Railways, The East Midlands" by P Howard Anderson (David & Charles, 1973) ISBN 0 71536094 9
• "British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas & Gazetteer" (pub Ian Allan 1958, reprinted many times) ISBN 0 7110 0320 3
• "Langwith Junction, The life and times of a railway village" by Lawson Little (Vesper Publications, 1995) ISBN 0 9526171 0 2
• "Sheffield Victoria to Chesterfield Central" Part 1, by Ken Grainger (Foxline Publications, undated) ISBN 1870119 83 5
• "An Illustrated History of Mansfield's Railways" by Paul Anderson & Jack Cupit (Irwell Press, 2000) ISBN 1-903266-15-7, esp pp48&49
• "Forward" Vols 132 to 135, articles by Lawson Little. "Forward" is the journal of the Great Central Railway Society ISSN-0 141-448
• The DVD "Farewell to the GNR Lines in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire" filmed by Alan Thompson, distributed by Local Videos 2004 Ltd of Derby
• The Marsden Rail DVDs "11 Doncaster", "18 Retford" and "10 Sheffield to Nottingham", filmed by Michael Marsden
• "The Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway" by J Cupit & W Taylor (Oakwood Press, 1966; 2nd Ed 1984) ISBN 0 85361 302 8
• "North Midland and Peak District Railways in the Steam Age Vol 2" by A R Kaye (Lowlander Publications, undated) ISBN 0 946930 09 0
• "Back Track" Vol 16, No 4 of April 2002, article by David Gilks (Atlantic Publishers)
• "British Railways Illustrated" Vol 22, No 5 of February 2013, article by Brian C Bailey (Alliance Media)
• "Steam Days" No. 283, March 2013, article by A J Ludlam (Redgauntlet Publications 1993) ISSN 0269-0020
• "Eastern Region Steam Twilight, Part 2, North of Grantham" by Colin Walker (Pendyke Publications, 1991) ISBN 0 904318 14 1, esp inside front cover