Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

A wet day at Cresswell station, Staffordshire 1954

The locomotive in this photograph is an LMS Fowler 4F 0-6-0, built for freight work but here seen heading a passenger train. The shed code is 5D, Stoke.

The 4F class was based on the 197-strong Midland Railway 3835 Class of 1911, with only a few modifications, primarily the adoption of left-hand drive in favour of right-hand drive. They originally had been designed by Henry Fowler, who from 1925 became Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS. 530 of these locomotives were built between 1923 and 1928, numbered sequentially from where the Midland engines left off from 4027. A further 45 examples were reluctantly authorised by William Stanier in 1937 at the behest of the operating department.

Cresswell station was built by the North Staffordshire Railway, and the line still runs between Crewe and Derby, although the station no longer exists. The line from Cresswell to Cheadle (via Tean), built by the Cheadle Railway Company, opened on January 1, 1901, was closed to passengers in 1953 and to freight traffic in 1978. The nearest railway station to Cresswell is now Blythe Bridge, also in Staffordshire. The current population of Cresswell is about 300.

Photo © The Step Back Through Time Collection
Text courtesy of Peter Langsdale