Hello there everyone, In today’s video you join me at Chester on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) and partially on the Merseyrail and South Wales Line On 23 September 1840, the first station at Chester was opened by the Chester and Birkenhead Railway (CBR). One week later, on 1 October 1840, the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) opened a separate station. Neither station was open for long, due to the inconvenience of transferring goods and passengers between them. They were replaced by the new joint station at the junction between the CBR, GJR and Robert Stephenson's new Chester and Holyhead Railway (CHR) which started at the joint station. The station was designed by the architect Francis Thompson and constructed by Thomas Brassey. The engineer C. H. Wild designed the train shed. Elements of the overall design were produced by other engineers, including Stephenson.
On 1 August 1847, construction of the station began, the foundation stone was laid by Brassey. It was built by a workforce of around 2,000 people, including bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters, roofers, plumbers and other skilled and unskilled workers. On 1 August 1848, Chester Station was officially opened, exactly a year after construction began. The opening was met with great acclaim amongst the city's populace due to the wide range of destinations that could be reached for the first time.
The station building is built of Staffordshire blue brick and pale grey Storeton sandstone with slate roofs in the Italianate style. It has a 305-metre two-storey façade with a 15-bay central section and 5-bay lateral projecting pavilions, each of which have two towers. A large clock, manufactured by J.B Joyce & Co on the front of the station was originally located centrally, but was moved to the western half of the facade following the construction of the Queen Hotel, which obscured it. The central section's middle seven bays contain carvings by sculptor John Thomas. Several carved wooden owls occupy locations in the roof beams above platform 4 to deter feral pigeons from roosting.
As first built, the station had a single through platform, a pair of bay platforms, and the main building. Early on, it became highly trafficked, partially due to its position as a junction between multiple lines and railway companies. In its first few decades of opening, it was expanded via the construction of sidings, warehouses, signal boxes and two motive power depots to service steam locomotives that belonged to different railway companies. To accommodate the increasing number of passengers and freight in the 1860s and 1870s, the station was extended again. Two island platforms, two bay platforms, and additional facilities connected via a footbridge to the existing station were completed by 1890! I would really recommend visiting this station if you’re interested in seeing any new variety of trains or companies whilst you have the chance or any railtours too. Hope you all enjoy the video! :)
TOC Included:
Merseyrail
Transport for Wales
Avanti West Coast
Includes:
- 🟡 Class 507/508 ‘PEP’ Built in 1978 - 1980 and can be seen serving all across the Merseyrail Network from Liverpool towards Chester, Ormskirk, New Brighton, West Kirby, Hunts Cross, Southport, Ellesmere Port and Kirkby
- 507/0 Built in 1978 - 1980
- 508/1 Built in 1979 - 1985 (after being reclassified from 508/0)
- 🔴 Class 197 ‘Civity’ Built in 2020 - Present date and these can be seen serving across the Transport for Wales (TfW) lines mostly North and South of Wales
- 197/0 & 197/1 Built in 2020 - Present Date
- 🔴 Class 150 ‘Sprinter’ Built in 1984 - 1987 and can be see serving on Transport for Wales and Northern routes and Great Western Railway and recently introduced LNWR on the Bedford - Bletchley route
- 150/2 Built in 1986 - 1987
- 🔵 Class 221 ‘Super Voyager’ Built in 2001 - 2002 and these can be seen serving Avanti West Coast services towards Holyhead and on Grand Central services (recent addition) from King’s Cross to Sunderland and Bradford Interchange and Wakefield Westgate and on CrossCountry services all across their network
- 221/1 Built in 2001 - 2002
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©️Darik
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