Widmerpool railway station


Widmerpool was a railway station serving Widmerpool in the English county of Nottinghamshire. It was situated on the Midland Railway route between London and Nottingham via Corby.

History

The station was opened for goods & passengers by the Midland Railway. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.
It was on its cut-off line from to, which had opened the previous year to allow the railway company's expresses between London and the North to avoid reversal at Nottingham. It also improved access to and from the iron-ore fields in Leicestershire and Rutland.
Local traffic was always minimal, a situation not helped by the station being situated one and a half miles from the village of its name, and it closed to passengers as early as 1949.
According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P†, F, L, H, C and there was a 1-ton 10 cwt crane.

Present day

Following the closure of the line as a through-route in 1968, the track between Melton Mowbray and was converted for use as the Old Dalby Test Track. This was used initially for the Advanced Passenger Train project and, more recently, Class 390 Pendolino units. It is currently used for testing London Underground 'S Stock' trains.
The station's Up platform remains in existence, as does the Down platform waiting room although the platform itself was removed during electrification work in 2000. The main station building was converted into a pub and restaurant c1966 before the line closed. It was originally called the Schooner Inn and later the Pullman Inn. Following closure of the business, Network Rail purchased the building and surrounding land in order to secure access to the test track infrastructure. The building is currently unused.
The timber goods shed survived until electrification in 2000. Just to the north of the station site lies Stanton Tunnel, long.