Trains at: Chester, 28/05/22

A very enjoyable afternoon spent at Chester station situated on the North Wales Coastline where we see plenty of services from Transport for Wales, Northern, Avanti West Coast and Merseyrail.

This wasn't the first station to make an appearance in Chester as in 1840 the first station was opened by the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, and then no more than a week later a second station was opened by the Chester and Crewe Railway. However both of these stations didn't survive for long, this was because when they were built there was no easy way to transfer goods and passengers between the two of them which made them very unpopular and as such was very little interest.

These were subsequently replaced by a third station which sat on a junction with the Chester and Birkenhead Railway and the Chester and Crewe Railway. This is now the sight of the current station. Why this wasn't done at the very start is beyond me. This station was also the starting point of the Chester to Holyhead railway which was designed by Robert Stephenson. This new station started construction in 1847 and was officially opened one year later in 1848. This station recieved massive acclaim from the local community nd surrounding areas because of the vast amount of places you could now get to thanks to this station.

When the station was built it was given a fairly standard design which was one through platform with a pair of bay platforms and the main station building, now this would work for a quiet rural station. But because Chester station was built on a junction to three different lines it meant that the station became quickly congested with trains waiting for access into the station.

In the next 20 years the station was expanded by adding in new sidings, warehouses to store the goods, signal boxes and two motive power depots that would see steam engines getting serviced, this would be used by all the various companies at the time. Between the 1860's and 1870's the station went through some more work by adding in two island platforms and two additional bay platforms that would ease the flow of traffic coming into Chester.

Chester is a busy station but nowhere near as much so as when the Edwardian period was in full swing as this was 200 trains everyday and a staff of 100 strong keeping the station going, there was a huge amount of freight going through the station, most of this was mail trains.

During the first world war the station was heavy use from troop trains as they would transport soldiers from the Welsh training grounds down to southern England where they would be sent off to the Western Front.

The same thing happened in WW2 but this time saw more ammunition trains coming through, there was still heavy troop trains coming through aswell.

Since the mid 2000's the station has had different work done to it including resurfacing platforms and modernising the signalling in the area. As well as new access into and across the station including a new footbridge and lifts being installed, the canopy roofs were also maintained as well.

My next film will be from the footbridge at Sandy on the East Coast Mainline.

You can now find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2022.

You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce