Ashbourne railway station

Ashbourne railway station formerly served the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire. There have been two stations in the town. The first, opened in 1852, was operated by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR); it was replaced in 1899 by a station at a new location, jointly operated by the NSR and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1923 the station passed into the ownership of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and in 1948 that of the London Midland Region of British Railways. It was finally closed to all traffic in 1963 (regular passenger services having been withdrawn in 1954).HistoryThe first station was opened in 1852 by the North Staffordshire Railway on its branch from Rocester on its Churnet Valley Line. This station was located on Clifton Road at and had a single platform.Most services ran to although the NSR made arrangements with both the LNWR and the Midland Railway (MR) for services to London. From the 1880s the MR ran a direct through carriage each day from Ashbourne to and return while in the 1890s the LNWR ran several trains per day to where passengers could make a single change of journey to.In 1861 the LNWR took over the Cromford and High Peak Railway and started consideration of an extension of the line from to Ashbourne which once connected to the NSR line would give the LNWR a direct line between and London to rival the MR service.