Oakengates railway station

Oakengates
Location	Oakengates, Telford and Wrekin England
Grid reference	SJ696107
Managed by	West Midlands Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	OKN
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Opened	1849
Passengers
2015/16	55,830
2016/17	59,006
2017/18	67,246
2018/19	73,438
2019/20	68,862
Location
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Oakengates railway station serves the town of Oakengates, Shropshire, England. It lies on the former Great Western Railway's London Paddington to Birkenhead via Birmingham Snow Hill line and has two platforms.

Around one in three passenger trains running along the line call at the station, the others pass straight through. Passenger numbers using the station have increased dramatically in the last 10 years.

Rail services are primarily provided by West Midlands Trains seven days a week with Transport for Wales providing a service on late evenings through the week, and a limited service on Sundays. Avanti West Coast do not currently call at Oakengates station.

Between Oakengates and Telford Central is the Oakengates Tunnel.

Oakengates Tunnel[]

This tunnel was a major problem in the construction of the railway. It delayed the project by three years, between 1846 and 1849. Details of the difficulties include unseasonable weather contained in a report of 21 August 1848 from Robert Stephenson, Consulting Engineer, and William Baker, the Shropshire Union Railway Engineer. It was originally built for broad-gauge railways.

This tunnel is the only tunnel on the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line and the longest of the three railway tunnels presently in use in Shropshire. It stretches for 471 yards.

The tunnel passed under the summit level of the Shropshire Canal and was the scene of a disaster in 1855, when a breach from the canal into the tunnel occurred. The entire summit level emptied into the tunnel, causing flooding in the town, although there were no reports of any personal injury.^[1]

An accident occurred at the station on 11 September 1877 when a Great Western train, the 7:40 am from Shrewsbury, arrived at Oakengates station on time at 8:09 am. Its locomotive, no. 153, then exploded due to a boiler failure. The explosion killed the driver, Anthony Robson Potter, and injured several others.^{[citation needed]}

Services[]

Oakengates is typically served Monday to Sunday by one train per hour in each direction between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury via Wolverhampton, with some extra trains at peak times on weekdays.^[2][3] These services are operated by West Midlands Trains under the 'West Midlands Railway' brand using British Rail Class 170 Diesel Multiple Units, which will be replaced by British Rail Class 196 DMUs in 2021.^[4] While for the Transport for Wales as of May 2021, the reduced and revised timetable due to COVID-19 pandemic, the station is only served by the one train per day only to Shrewsbury (single direction) at very late night. This train operates everyday except Sunday, it is the last departure train service to the northern at the end of the day.

References[]

Further reading[]

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Stafford to Wellington. Middleton Press. figs. 70-73. ISBN 9781908174598. OCLC 913791564.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2009). Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury. Middleton Press. figs. 87-90. ISBN 9781906008444. OCLC 286385795.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oakengates railway station.

• Train times and station information for Oakengates railway station from National Rail
• History of the Railway
• Locations from Steam Index

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Telford Central		Transport for Wales Birmingham - Chester Mondays-Saturdays only		Wellington
Telford Central		West Midlands Railway Wolverhampton/Birmingham-Shrewsbury Mondays-Saturdays only		Wellington
Telford Central		West Midlands Railway Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury		Wellington

Coordinates: 52°41′35″N 2°27′00″W / 52.693°N 2.450°W / 52.693; -2.450