Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain: a Chronology

NEW VERSION 5.05 (electronic only) NOW AVAILABLE – Issued September 2023

Use the link below to download. We advise that, in order to obtain full Adobe capabilities (including text-based searches) you ensure that your browser settings are set to open PDFs in Adobe OR, save the PDF to a separate file.

Click this link for the publication:  Railway Passenger  Stations in Great Britain

This of course, is a work which can never be considered ‘complete’.  Even forgetting present day changes to the railway network (pleasingly many additions rather than all deletions!), research continues all the time into what is published here.  One such researcher, our member Richard Maund, has produced a ‘critique and compendium of observations and corrections’ and at 166 pages can be read alongside the main work

Background to what is now known as ‘Quick’

Over thirty years ago, Michael Quick amused himself by drawing maps showing the changing aspects of Britain’s railway network over time. Discovery of many gaps and anomalies in recording station names led him into the task of recording the names, name changes, opening dates and (if closed) closing dates of every railway passenger station in England, Wales and Scotland. In the process, he uncovered what he refers to as ‘vast gaps in the provision of even remotely accurate information about opening dates’. Quick’s compilation was first published in 1995, though, in his own view, it was still in many ways premature. But publication had the great value of bringing him into contact with many others with an interest in this aspect of railway and local history and who shared his concern with accuracy. Indeed, he says ‘the book as it stands should really be seen as the co-operative effort of many people’.

The 2022 edition of ‘Quick’, incorporating updates and further research, is unrivalled as a reference and information source on its subject. This is due to two aspects – its completeness and its extremely high level of accuracy. Original and contemporary information sources have been used as much as possible; and where secondary sources have been used, they are noted and have been checked for general authority and accuracy. No other chronological directory approaches this depth of research and range of detail. Conceived very much as a research tool, its huge range of quoted sources gives invaluable pointers to further research. The book takes full account of what Quick calls the ‘evolutionary nature of railway history’ and the consequent vagaries and variations of station naming. Finally, apart from the basic facts, it offers much information on unusual and unorthodox uses of stations, and about special occasions at particular stations.

Consequently it is both an authoritative reference book and a mine of serendipitous information. Where else in modern print would one discover that special stations were provided in 1849 at Redstone Hill when Prince Albert came there to lay the foundation stone of a Reformatory Chapel, and in 1858 at Werrington Junction to provide the best view of an eclipse of the sun?

This edition of ‘Quick’s Directory’ comprises not only the contents of the 4th edition and its supplements, but also additional information which has come to light in more recent years, thereby retaining its place among the handful of basic and essential reference works on British railways.

“A very big plus is the availability . . . of a country-wide list of opening dates … this is a book which can be thoroughly recommended to all interested in the history of railway passenger stations” — Transport Ticket Society Journal, on the 2002 edition.

CONTRIBUTIONS FOR FUTURE POSSIBLE CORRECTIONS should be sent to Ted Cheers, Coordinator of the RCHS Railway Chronology Group, as per details below.

Railway Chronology

The Railway & Canal Historical Society’s Railway Chronology Group seeks to bring together members interested in producing databases of railway Acts, line and station opening and closing dates, station renamings, etc, with a view to eventual publication. A regular Newsletter is issued to members which includes both full-length articles and listings and also shorter contributions in the form of Notes and Queries.

Click to see a recent Chronology Newsletter:   Newsletter 92  If you have any questions regarding the group please contact Ted Cheers, the Group Coordinator by email to rchschronology@aol.com or by post to 7 Wealden Hatch, Wolverhampton, WV10 8TY.