THE MIDLAND RAILWAY STUDY CENTRE
Researching Your Local Railway Station

One of the many and very common uses to which the Midland Railway Study Centre can lend its resources is to find out more about your local railway station. Depending on the depth you want to delve into, and perhaps the size and nature of the station concerned, this can be as complex or as straightforward a project as you want it to be. It can be a personal quest for knowledge or a collaborative approach with the end result being, well, whatever you want it to be....

These bullet points are intended to pose some questions you might want to investigate, along with some suggestions as to where you might find information and some of the resources we have in the Midland Railway Study Centre to help. The list is not and never can be exhaustive and clearly not all points apply to all stations. However, we hope this might provide some inspiration and perhaps spark a new project for you?

• History and Operation
• When did it open
• When (and why) did it close
• What was the last train to stop
• Was it always located in the same position
• What was the community or other purpose(s) it was built to serve
• What train services called there
• How did the service change over the years
• What facilities did it have
• Was there a particular commodity of goods or sundries that it handled
• When was it de-staffed
• What is its current status


• Infrastructure
• What company built it
• Who was the architect
• Was/is there anything unusual in its design
• What other buildings were there (goods shed, signal box, station master’s house, weigh house, stables, railway cottages)
• What other purposes were the buildings used for over the years after closure
• When were (if) they were demolished


• People
• Who worked there over the years...
• The Station Master
• Clerks
• Porters
• Signalmen
• Goods Agents
• Platelayers
• How many of them were there at any particular time
• Who were they
• What were their jobs
• Where did they live
• Where did they come from
• Where did they go
• What was their career path



• Potential resources to consider

Some of these are areas we can help with, others you'll find elsewhere on-line such as the genealogy web sites. The last one of course is perhaps best done by going out and talking to people!

• Railway company Board and Committee minutes
• Maps, plans, diagrams
• Timetables, handbills & posters
• Postcards and photographs
• Staff records
• Census and electoral roll
• Newspapers
• Paperwork and ephemera
• Published works
• Local residents

A starting point for any research will almost always involve Wikipedia and, yes, we've all heard about the perils and pitfalls that can involve. However, at the very least the Wikipedia page for “your” station will almost always tell you what railway company was responsible for its origins. This will — in the case of a Midland Railway station — probably have led you here. For other pre-grouping companies, there will be an an equivalent organisation that you can contact.

From there, and having found this web site, we would implore you to go to our Catalogue page and simply type your station's name in the search box. Unless you're looking into St. Pancras, Derby or one of the other large station (and good luck to you!), then you should end up with a manageable list of material that we hold. Sift through that to decide what might be useful, then Get In touch!