Line from Stoke to Leek / Oakamoor / Caldon Low

[Justin Smith]

Whilst on a canal boat holiday I ended up walking along the disused line by the locks at Stockton Brook.
There were some fairly large trees in the 4ft, but some sections pretty clear. This piqued my interest in when the line actually closed but research has been contradictory !
Cobbs puts the line closed at 1989, but my 2001 Baker's just puts it as "disused" by that date (12 years later).
Other sources say OOU 1996 and closed 2001.
And all of that is before one gets into the dates of closure of the lines to Caldon Low and Oakamoor quarries, then the reopening of the latter by the Churnet Valley Railway !

 

[Magdalia]

And all of that is before one gets into the dates of closure of the lines to Caldon Low

Pathfinder's Leeky Pot railtour went to Caldon Low on 28 May 1994.

 

[Justin Smith]

Pathfinder's Leeky Pot railtour went to Caldon Low on 28 May 1994.

That seems definitive !
That said, do rail tours ever traverse OOU lines ?
Come to that what exactly is the definition of Out Of Use, or closed (but not lifted) ?

 

[AndrewE]

Less than 10 years ago the Churnet Valley railway ran trains to Caldon Low, but I think the condition of the track stopped them. They might even have leased the track, but from what I saw the condition of the run-round loop at Caldon Low must have worried their engineers!

It was a long return trip with no intermediate traffic/stations, but they did have a significant bank to ascend, so it was well worth going!
(p.s. see https://www.churnetvalleyrailway.co.uk/cauldonlowebranch)

 

[Baxenden Bank]

You need to consider the line in several parts.

1. Stoke junction (near Stoke-on-Trent station) to Endon
2. Endon to Leekbrook
3. Leekbrook to Oakamoor
4. Leekbrook to Leek
5. Leekbrook to Cauldon

1 has not seen a train for a very long time. As far as I can recall the line was 'mothballed' then the Sectional Appendix had it as 'out of use'. Note 'not currently in use' is not the same as closed. I have a friend who used to work on the railways and was sent to Abbey Hulton to act as 'lookout' on a repair job, despite the large trees in the 'four foot' you mention making a train rather unlikely. Similarly the bridge at Deep Hayes (Park Lane) (in section 2) was rebuilt under 'active railway' conditions!
2 was cleared of vegetation a while back as part of a Regional Growth Fund grant, I think it was a requirement of that grant to run a public train but I can't recall if anyone did or when. It would be shortly after the Leekbrook to Cauldon section was re-activated.
3 is the active Churnet Valley Railway as far as Kingsley and Froghall, lifted beyond that to Oakamoor sand sidings in August 2014, long time lifted beyond there.
4 is in the process of restoration by the Churnet Valley Railway to the outskirts of Leek.
5 was re-activated to Cauldon in November 2010, then curtailed to a new loop at Ipstones with the track beyond that to Cauldon lifted between July 2013 and February 2014.

Regarding land near Endon Station, in February 2019, Network Rail, Town Planning LNW commented:
"Whilst the railway line (our ref: SCQ2 3.0200 Stoke on Trent to Caldon Low Branch Waterhouses Branch) is not currently in use Network Rail advises the council that we have to consider proposals adjacent to the line which could be returned to operational status in the future."

Somewhere there is a 'village green status' application for the line heading from Endon towards Stoke which was refused due to it being an active railway. Can't lay my hand on the file at the moment.

 

[Gloster]

The 2005 Quail Midlands & North West Atlas shows Stoke-Caldon Low as non operational, and the Oakamoor line as disconnected and no longer Network Rail. Hurst’s Register gives 30 August 1988 for closure of the Oakamoor line.

 

[Justin Smith]

You need to consider the line in several parts.

1. Stoke junction (near Stoke-on-Trent station) to Endon
2. Endon to Leekbrook
3. Leekbrook to Oakamoor
4. Leekbrook to Leek
5. Leekbrook to Cauldon

1 has not seen a train for a very long time. As far as I can recall the line was 'mothballed' then the Sectional Appendix had it as 'out of use'. Note 'not currently in use' is not the same as closed. I have a friend who used to work on the railways and was sent to Abbey Hulton to act as 'lookout' on a repair job, despite the large trees in the 'four foot' you mention making a train rather unlikely. Similarly the bridge at Deep Hayes (Park Lane) (in section 2) was rebuilt under 'active railway' conditions!
2 was cleared of vegetation a while back as part of a Regional Growth Fund grant, I think it was a requirement of that grant to run a public train but I can't recall if anyone did or when. It would be shortly after the Leekbrook to Cauldon section was re-activated.
3 is the active Churnet Valley Railway as far as Kingsley and Froghall, lifted beyond that to Oakamoor sand sidings in August 2014, long time lifted beyond there.
4 is in the process of restoration by the Churnet Valley Railway to the outskirts of Leek.
5 was re-activated to Cauldon in November 2010, then curtailed to a new loop at Ipstones with the track beyond that to Cauldon lifted between July 2013 and February 2014.

Regarding land near Endon Station, in February 2019, Network Rail, Town Planning LNW commented:
"Whilst the railway line (our ref: SCQ2 3.0200 Stoke on Trent to Caldon Low Branch Waterhouses Branch) is not currently in use Network Rail advises the council that we have to consider proposals adjacent to the line which could be returned to operational status in the future."

Somewhere there is a 'village green status' application for the line heading from Endon towards Stoke which was refused due to it being an active railway. Can't lay my hand on the file at the moment.

Thank you for this.
With regards to (1) and (2), how could a train have run on (2) if it could not run on (1) ? ! ?
One also assumes that once (1) closed (as regards mainline) 2 to 5 must also have done so as well, so the salient date is the closing of the first section from Stoke. Since Magdalia was on a train on there in 1994 that implies the date might be OOU 1996, closed 2001 ? Though Gloster informs us the Oakamoor branch closed in 1988. Maybe Cobb got confused and put 1989 (@1988) as the closing date for the whole branch network ?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Thank you for this.
With regards to (1) and (2), how could a train have run on (2) if it could not run on (1) ? ! ?
One also assumes that once (1) closed (as regards mainline) 2 to 5 must also have done so as well, so the salient date is the closing of the first section from Stoke. Since Magdalia was on a train on there in 1994 that implies the date might be OOU 1996, closed 2001 ? Though Gloster informs us the Oakamoor branch closed in 1988. Maybe Cobb got confused and put 1989 (@1988) as the closing date for the whole branch network ?

The train (if it ran) was based at the Churnet Valley Railway so would have been able to access the Leekbook to Endon section at Leekbrook.
Stoke Junction to Endon didn't actually close, at one time it was 'available for use', then described as 'mothballed' and more recently as 'out of use'. Out of use is not closed, it is 'active/open but not presently being used'. That applied to the whole line to Cauldon. Certainly in 1999 there were proposals to re-activate the line and Railtrack/Network Rail undertook repair works. At the time the line was (perhaps theoretically) available for traffic 'immediately' so they had to get a spurt on and titivate things when someone talked about doing just that!

1988 is the correct date for the last sand train from Oakamoor. Note: last sand train is not necessarily official closure.
1994 is the correct date for the three railtours.
1995 Churnet Valley took on a lease for the Leekbrook to Oakamoor section and operated passenger trains as soon as 1996 between Leekbrook and Cheddleton, expanding to Consall then Froghall in later years. In, or by, 2006 there was a limited passenger service between Froghall and Oakamoor.

 

[Trainman40083]

I remember post 1996, when West Coast Mainline upgrade work reached Stoke, the trackbed that turned off towards Leekbrook from Stoke was all cleared. Maybe even new AWS equipment fitted. But I never heard of any trains running over it.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Looking at some obscure pages on the Churnet Valley Railway website:
here:

Leek Brook Junction lies at the northern end of the Churnet Valley line and is reached through the 531-yard Leek Brrook Tunnel north of Cheddleton Station. Leekbrook is also the point at which the line joins the Cauldon branch controlled by Moorland & City Railways. From summer 2012, Churnet Valley Railway services will join the newly-restored MCR line towards Stoke-on-Trent, the first services in this direction going as far as Endon.

My bold.
The Cauldon Branch transferred to the Churnet Valley Railway in 2016.
I have a feeling that the purchase/lease for the Leekbrook to Endon (to Stoke) section never completed.

Also here:

The only section left now was the Leek Brook Junction to Oakamoor quarry, serving the British Industrial Sand Quarry, with the connecting line from Stoke to Leek Brook Junction being left in place to allow these freight trains to get to the West Coast Mainline from the Churnet Valley. The branch to Cauldon quarry was also still active, with limestone traffic continuing to be produced up until February 1989 when the quarry turned to road transport and the line was mothballed as a result. However in 1994 two enthusiast railtours, organised by the Branch Line Society, ran up the Cauldon branch, before the line was returned to its mothballed status with Cauldon Quarry being categorised as a Strategic Freight Site by BR.

The sand traffic from Hepworth’s Sand quarry at Oakamoor saw sand be transported to St Helens in Merseyside for use in glass making, before the quarry was closed on 30th August 1988, which brought an end of commercial services along the Churnet Valley Line after 139 years.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2024 ==

Bingo, or something like that.

I found the documentation relating to the 'Village Green Status' application for railway land near the former Endon Station.

Staffordshire County Council, Rights of Way Committee 16 November 2012.

Objection (to the village green status application) submitted on behalf of Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd

Extract:

Since 16 July 2007 the line running through the application site has been classed as ‘Out of Use’ rather than mothballed or dis-used. This term means that the line is still part of the national network and has not been formally closed. It means that the track will not be maintained but in any event an ‘Out of Use’ line can be brought back into operational use relatively easily and there is a straightforward procedure to legally give the line ‘Operational' status which means that trains will be able to use it.

Later:

Trains were running on the Application Site up until 1994 and the line was operational until 1997

The document is signed by a named Network Rail surveyor on 21 November 2011.

 

[Justin Smith]

Pics of the line currently, around Stockton Brook.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Sep 2024 ==

Looking at some obscure pages on the Churnet Valley Railway website:
here:

My bold.
The Cauldon Branch transferred to the Churnet Valley Railway in 2016.
I have a feeling that the purchase/lease for the Leekbrook to Endon (to Stoke) section never completed.

Also here:


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2024 ==

Bingo, or something like that.

I found the documentation relating to the 'Village Green Status' application for railway land near the former Endon Station.

Staffordshire County Council, Rights of Way Committee 16 November 2012.

Objection (to the village green status application) submitted on behalf of Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd

Extract:



Later:



The document is signed by a named Network Rail surveyor on 21 November 2011.

Well done, that seems conclusive !