Trains at Crewe, WCML, 07/08/26

Crewe railway station is a railway station in Crewe, Cheshire, England. It opened in 1837 and is one of the most historically significant railway stations in the world.

Crewe station is a major junction on the West Coast Main Line and serves as a rail gateway for North West England. It is 158 miles north of London Euston and 243 miles south of Glasgow Central.

It is located at the point where the lines to Manchester Piccadilly and North Wales diverge from this route, and is the last major station before the branch to Liverpool Lime Street diverges. It is also served by lines to Stoke-on-Trent and Shrewsbury.

Crewe railway station has twelve platforms and a modern passenger entrance containing a bookshop and ticket office.

Passengers access the platforms via a footbridge, stairs and lifts. The platform buildings dating from the 19th century contain two bookshops, bars, buffets and waiting rooms. The last major expenditure on the station took place between 1984-1985 when the track layout was remodelled and station facilities updated.

Crewe's location was chosen after Winsford, seven miles to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, as had local landowners in neighbouring Nantwich, four miles away.

Crewe station was the first station to have its own adjacent railway hotel: the Crewe Arms Hotel, built in 1838, and still in use.

It was the first to be completely rebuilt owing to the need for expansion.

It was the also first to have completely independent rail lines built around it to ease traffic congestion.

The station opened on 4 July 1837 on the Grand Junction Railway. : 46  The purpose was to link the four largest cities of England by joining the existing Liverpool and Manchester Railway with the projected London & Birmingham Railway.

The first long-distance railway in the world, it ran from Curzon Street railway station in Birmingham to Dallam in Warrington, Cheshire, where it made an end-on junction with the Warrington and Newton Railway, a branch of the L&M.

The station was built in the township of Crewe, which formed part of the ancient parish of Barthomley.

The township later became a civil parish in its own right, and, later still, was renamed Crewe Green to avoid confusion with the town of Crewe, which was adjacent to it. The station was at the point where the line crossed the turnpike road linking the Trent and Mersey and the Shropshire Union Canals.

Since the land was bought from the Earl of Crewe, whose mansion stood nearby, and it was located in the township of Crewe, the station was called Crewe.

The railway station gave its name to the town of Crewe that was actually situated in the ancient parish of Coppenhall.

In 1936, the railway station was transferred from the civil parish of Crewe to the then municipal borough of Crewe.

As soon as the station opened the Chester and Crewe Railway was formed to build a branch line to Chester and this company was absorbed by the GJR shortly before it opened to traffic in 1840.

A locomotive depot was built to serve the Chester line, and to provide banking engines to assist trains southwards from Crewe up the Madeley Incline, a modest gradient which was a challenge to the small engines of the day.

Duration of the video: 13:46 - 17:25

We'll be seeing services by Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, Transport for Wales, Lumo, East Midlands Railway and possibly freight as well in the duration of this video.

I hope you enjoyed this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll try get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been a long time since I last revisited Crewe but it’s always a pleasure spending time there plus I managed to see some Lumo services heading to Stirling which was great to see plus it was a positive that I saw the Climate Change livery Avanti West Coast unit.

My next station will be Cambridge South which is situated on the West Anglian Mainline & part of the Fen line as well haven’t done any train spotting there before but I’m sure it’ll be worth visiting so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.