Trent railway station
Encyclopedia
Long Eaton
Long Eaton is a town in Derbyshire, England. It lies just north of the River Trent about southwest of Nottingham and is part of the Nottingham Urban Area...
in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
at the junction of the Midland Railway
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
line from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
and Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. It was unusual in that it did not serve any community, being simply an interchange.
The complex network of tracks in this area is popularly known as Trent Junction, though strictly this was the junction of the Derby and the Leicester line at the south of the triangular layout, later renamed Trent South. It was built in 1839 by the Midland Counties Railway
Midland Counties Railway
The Midland Counties Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1832 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, to London. The MCR system connected with the North Midland Railway and the...
which linked Derby and Nottingham with Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
and thence to London St Pancras
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...
. Other individual junctions within the complex are Attenborough Junction, Sheet Stores Junction, Toton Centre, Toton East, Trent East (now just Trent) and Trent South. Additionally the Meadow Lane, South Erewash/Trent Station North, Sawley Junction and Platt's Crossing components were removed when those sections of line disappeared.
Immediately to the south-west is Trent Lock, a four-way junction on the British canal system
History of the British canal system
The British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...
, linking the River Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
and Erewash Canal
Erewash Canal
The Erewash Canal is a broad canal in Derbyshire, England. It runs just under and has 14 locks. The first lock at Langley Bridge is actually part of the Cromford Canal.-Origins:...
to the River Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
, and leading to the Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
.
History
Between 1847 and 1862, the Midland built a line from ChesterfieldChesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...
(now known as the Erewash Valley Line
Erewash Valley Line
The Erewash Valley Line is a railway line in Britain running from south of Chesterfield along the Erewash Valley to Trent Junction at Long Eaton, joining the Midland Main Line at each end.- History :...
- pronounced Error-wash). This had a curve to join the northbound line towards Nottingham, but crossed the Derby-Nottingham curve on the level at Platt's Crossing to meet the southbound line.
At this time passengers from Nottingham travelled to Derby before heading for London, an eighteen mile round trip. Trent Station was built in 1862 as an island platform
Island platform
An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange...
, in typical "Midland Gothic" style, on the Nottingham-Leicester arm. Through its century long existence it barely changed - even retaining the gas lighting.
Platt's Crossing was removed and the Derby line brought round in a sharp curve to enter the station from the north. This curve was so tight that it was said that passengers in the leading coaches could see the tail of their own train. At the same time a curve was built from the south of the station on to the Derby line.
It was particularly remarkable in that, although there was an up and a down platform, trains for a given destination might face in either direction. There is a famous comment by Sir Edmund Beckett,: You arrive at Trent. Where that is I cannot tell. I suppose it is somewhere near the River Trent; but then the Trent is a very long river. You get out of the train to obtain refreshment, and having taken it, you endeavour to find your train and your carriage. But whether it is on this side or that, and whether it is going north or south, this way or that way, you cannot tell. Bewildered, you frantically rush into your carriage; the train moves off around a curve, and then you are horrified to see some red lights glaring in front of you, and you are in immediate expectation of a collision, when your fellow passenger calms your fears by telling you that they are only the tail lamps of your own train!
In 1869 a further line was built from Sawley, from what was known as Sheet Stores Junction, to Stenson
Stenson, Derby
Stenson is a hamlet south of Derby on the Trent and Mersey Canal.Between Stenson and Derby itself lies the busy A50 dual-carriageway and Stenson Fields, a large housing estate built between the early 1970s and late 1990s...
which allowed trains for the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
to bypass Derby.
Goods traffic increased to such an extent that, in 1893, the quadruple track was extended from Radcliffe
Radcliffe on Trent
Radcliffe-on-Trent is a large village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire-Location:Radcliffe has a population of around 8,000. It is to the east of Nottingham, and is close to but not quite part of the Greater Nottingham built-up area...
to Trent across Trent Viaducts
Trent Viaducts
Trent Viaducts are railway bridges which carry the Midland Mainline over the River Trent between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.Originally a single bridge, it was built by the engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles for the Midland Counties Railway in 1839....
and through a second Red Hill Tunnel and, with the growth of the sidings at Toton
Toton
Toton is a small suburb of Nottingham. It forms part of the Greater Nottingham urban area, and is in the Borough of Broxtowe. The inhabited area is contained within the electoral ward of Toton and Chilwell Meadows...
, the goods line was taken at high level over the Nottingham line in 1901.
Through the early part of the Twentieth century, the station was an important changing point for a variety of local services. In addition the Erewash Valley was used by expresses from London to Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and the north, such as the Thames-Clyde Express
Thames-Clyde Express
The Thames–Clyde Express was a named express passenger train operating on the Midland Main Line, Settle-Carlisle Railway and the Glasgow South Western Line between London St Pancras and Glasgow St Enoch....
, which first ran as a named train in 1927.
Some of the Nottingham expresses instead used the line through Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray is a town in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It is to the northeast of Leicester, and southeast of Nottingham...
and Corby
Corby
Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...
, which opened to Kettering
Kettering
Kettering is a market town in the Borough of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It is situated about from London. Kettering is mainly situated on the west side of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene which meets at Wellingborough...
in 1880. Derby continued to handle the services from London to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
along what is now the Derwent Valley Line
Derwent Valley Line
The Derwent Valley Line is a railway line from Derby to Matlock in Derbyshire.The line follows the Midland Main Line as far as Ambergate Junction, which is just south of Ambergate railway station, continuing to Matlock, following the course of the River Derwent.*Derby*Duffield**Former branch line...
, some of which bypassed Trent due the difficulty of negotiating the North Curve.
The station was closed in January 1968 and demolished shortly afterwards, and the North Curve was removed, in spite of much local opposition. The route of Fields Farm Road now uses the trackbed of the former curve. The name Trent remains however, perpetuated on the Power Signal Box
Signal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
built in 1969.