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Swanwick Junction Station

The gateway to our museum complex

Swanwick Junction Station is the gateway to the museum complex. All of the train services stop here to allow visitors to alight and explore, catching a later train to return to Butterley. It is a typical junction station from the past and consists of buildings and structures rescued from other sites. Platform lights and benches and other railway station ephemera complete the period scene. It houses toilets, including those for disabled, Allport’s Emporium and the Deeley Function Room.

The main building is a typical three pavilion Midland Railway Station and was rescued from Syston, in Leicestershire. The footbridge linking the platforms used to serve Belle Vue Station near Manchester to gain access to the nearby zoo. The building on the island platform is a replica of that at Broom Junction, Gloucestershire. The former Swanwick Colliery Branch can be seen curving round into the woods and a further line provides rail access to the museum complex.

Historical Notes

Syston Station was built in the 1870s on the Trent Junction – Leicester line at the start of the Midland Railway’s line to Peterborough.

Allport’s Emporium is named after Sir James Allport, the far sighted General Manager of the Midland Railway from 1853 to 1857 and from 1860 to 1880.

The Deeley Function Room is named after Richard Mountford Deeley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland railway from 1904 to 1909.

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