Former Railways
There are many closed lines in Shropshire, including
- Tenbury and Bewdley Railway which ran from the now-closed Woofferton station on the Shrewsbury to Hereford line and passing briefly through Herefordshire through Tenbury Wells, Cleobury Mortimer, and then into Worcestershire to Bewdley
- Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway
- Bishop's Castle Railway was a 191⁄2 mile line running from just north of Craven Arms station to Bishop's Castle
- Severn Valley Railway; although part of the southern section has been restored, the line used to continue north from Bridgnorth to Sutton Bridge Junction in Shrewsbury
- Craven Arms station to Wellington via Much Wenlock and a junction with the Severn Valley Railway at Buildwas. A small section of this line has been reopened as the Telford Steam Railway. There was also a branch via Madeley to Shifnal.
- Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway (the 'Potts Railway'), an 18 mile line from Shrewsbury Abbey to Llanymynech with a branch to Criggion
- Minsterley branch line was a 9 mile line from Shrewsbury station to Minsterley, with a further branch to Snailbeach
- Stafford to Wellington line ran from Wellington to Stafford via Newport and Gnosall. Although closed in the 1960s, new track has been restored from east of Wellington to Donnington in 2008. It is hoped the next phase would be to reconnect Newport to the railway network. The line is in the top 36 'Lines that should reopen' listing published by the Campaign for Better Transport.
- Wellington to Nantwich in Cheshire, via Market Drayton, with another line running into Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire from Market Drayton
- Oswestry to Newtown, passing through Shropshire
- Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway, a constituent line of the Cambrian Railways system
- Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway, a constituent line of the Cambrian Railways system which ran for a short distance within Shropshire
- Whitchurch and Tattenhall Railway which ran for a short distance in Shropshire before passing into Cheshire
Many were closed in the 1960s, although the county did not fare too badly under Dr Beeching's massive nationwide railway cuts. The Heart of Wales Line was saved from closure. However, some previously major railway centres in the county, such as Oswestry, Newport and Market Drayton, now have no public railways.
Read more about this topic: Railways Of Shropshire
Famous quotes containing the word railways:
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)