Clay Cross railway station

Clay Cross
General information
Location	District of North East Derbyshire
Platforms	4
History
Original company	North Midland Railway
Pre-grouping	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	LMS British Railways
Key dates
1840	Opened
1967	Closed

Clay Cross railway station was a railway station built by the North Midland Railway in 1840. It served the town of Clay Cross in Derbyshire, England.

It was originally planned to have been built within the Clay Cross Tunnel, however it was clear that it would be impossible to ventilate it effectively, so instead it was built at the northern entrance - nearer to Tupton.

The original station was the usual Francis Thompson Italianate design. In 1879 the line from Trent Junction was built through the Erewash Valley meeting the North Midland at the station, which had platforms serving two passenger lines, with two goods lines passing to the east, which continued the whole way down the Erewash Valley. The station was rebuilt in the Midland Railway style and, at some time, it was enlarged to serve four tracks, with two outer platforms and an island platform in the middle.

The station closed in 1967. There are no visible remains.

North of Clay Cross, there developed very busy Coal sidings, particularly those serving the Avenue Coal Carbonisation Plant. A locomotive shed was built at Hasland in 1861 with at one time as many as sixty engines. In the 1960s it supported sixteen Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 locomotives used for the coal traffic from Yorkshire.

The next station northwards was at Chesterfield.

South West Trains Class 158 unit 158882, on loan to East Midlands Trains, tails another class 158 unit in Central Trains livery past the site of Clay Cross station.

East Midlands Trains InterCity 125, hauled by power car 43055, speeds past the site of the station, with a service from London St. Pancras to Leeds

References

• Pixton, B., (2000) North Midland: Portrait of a Famous Route, Cheltenham: Runpast Publishing

External links

• Maps of the area including the rail junction
• "Picture the Past" The Original Station at Clay Cross
• "Picture the Past" Clay Cross station circa 1900