Cheadle Branch Line

The Cheadle branch line was a railway line of just under 4 miles (6.4 km) in length that served the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire. It was in operation as a passenger line from 1892 to 1963, and closed altogether in 1986. It took 46 years from conception to completion and was notable in that part of the line had to be practically rebuilt partway through its existence.

In 1849 the market town of Cheadle, population 3,000, was still without any form of rail transport. The North Staffordshire Railway had completed its Stoke to Derby line in 1848 and the Churnet Valley Line the following year but both of the lines missed the town, passing around 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the south and north of Cheadle respectively. The people of the town, along with several mines on the Cheadle Coalfield, wanted a rail connection as a means of transporting their goods. Several schemes for a branch line were proposed over the years; among these was a branch from the NSR east of Blythe Bridge and running via Forsbrook to Dilhorne and then Cheadle. Unfortunately, none of the schemes ever came to fruition.

In 1887, the Cheadle Railway, Mineral & Land Co. Ltd was formed and at long last construction of a branch line leaving the NSR line at Cresswell began the following year. In the meantime, the owners of Foxfield Colliery at Dilhorne had grown tired of waiting for the new line and had built their own connection to the NSR near Blythe Bridge. This line, running entirely over private land and opened in 1893 still survives today as the Foxfield Light Railway, albeit without the connection to the main line.

The first sod of the line was dug at Totmonslow on 22 March 1888. After several financial problems, the first stretch from Cresswell to Totmonslow was opened on 7 November 1892. The first train ran to Tunstall on the Potteries Loop Line and regular services became an extension of those on the latter for almost the whole of the branch's existence.

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