Colwich Junction is a rail junction near the village of

Little Haywood Little Haywood is a village in Staffordshire, England. For population details as taken at the 2011 census see under Colwich. It lies beside a main arterial highway, the A51 (linking the English Midlands with Liverpool) but traffic through th ...

, in the county of Staffordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is the junction between two routes of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

: the

Trent Valley line The Trent Valley line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line. It is named after the River Trent which it follows. The line was built to provide a direct route from London to North West E ...

and the Stone to Colwich cutoff line. The junction was the site of the 1986

Colwich rail crash The Colwich rail crash occurred on the evening of Friday 19 September 1986 at Colwich Junction, Staffordshire, England. It was significant in that it was a high speed collision between two packed express trains. One driver was killed, but no ...

Routes

Situated on the

Trent Valley Line The Trent Valley line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line. It is named after the River Trent which it follows. The line was built to provide a direct route from London to North West E ...

section of the WCML between and Stafford, it accesses a twin track,

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

(25 kV AC

overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...

) cut off line through to

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

, where it joins the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was base ...

s main line (

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in ...

to Cheadle Hulme Junction via

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

). This provides a shorter route to Manchester Piccadilly than using lines via Stafford or

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

, although the route via

and

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England, south of Manchester city centre. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census. History Toponymy Wilmslow derives its name from O ...

is technically a faster route due to fewer speed restrictions on the route. South of the junction, the line is quadruple tracked towards & Rugby but to the north both lines continue as double track only (though the WCML remains so only for two miles before quadrupling once more again on the approaches to Stafford). The main line dates from 1847 and was opened by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the ...

, whilst the branch towards Stone was opened by the NSR two years later. Prior to June 2005, the junction was worked locally from a

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

LMR Type 15 brick and timber electro-mechanical signal box, but this has since been closed and the lines in the area transferred to the control of the signalling centre at .''The Signal Box: Section C - 2005''
www.signalbox.org; Retrieved 2015-02-28

Stations

There are currently no stations on the Colwich Junction to Stone line, local stopping services having been withdrawn by the LMS in January 1947. Although there were platforms on this line at Stone, they have been demolished. There was a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

at Colwich itself, but this closed in 1958.

Accident history

There was a rail accident here on Friday 19 September 1986, when two express passenger trains collided - see

References

Rail transport in Staffordshire Rail junctions in England Railway lines in the West Midlands (region) {{England-rail-transport-stub

Routes

Stations

Accident history

See also

References