Crewe Railway Station

Comment by John Dalton

15 Dec 2010

The statement that Crewe station was remodelled "over a three week period" in 1985 is misleading.

In fact the station was closed to most traffic for a period of 7 weeks in June and July 1985 for the implmentation of the main works to track, signalling and OHLE.

Preparatory workds had been in process for some time before the "blockade" and I suspect that these had taken considerably more than three months. My recollection is that laying the fast through lines beween platforms 5 and 6 (formerly plaforms 5 and 4 respectively) had taken place several months earlier.

An anecdote is that I travelled south from Crewe on the Saturday before the Sunday on which the blockade started and returned the same day. It was notable that all southbound trains from Crewe that day took the slow line to Stafford with considerable disruption all signals on the up fast being at danger. Perhaps it had been intended to to de-energise the track circuits on that day, but I have often wondere if - in the rush to start work - someone pulled the plug on something they shouldn't.

Fond memories of those heady days!