Ketton and Collyweston railway station

Ketton & Collyweston
Signal box at the former station in 1998
Location
Place	Ketton
Area	Rutland
Grid reference	SK984041
Operations
Pre-grouping	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway Eastern Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
1 May 1848	Opened as Ketton
8 July 1935	renamed Ketton and Collyweston
6 June 1966	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Ketton and Collyweston railway station is a former station serving the villages of Ketton, Geeston, Aldgate and Collyweston, Rutland. It is located in Geeston adjacent to a level crossing on the Ketton to Collyweston road. It is under half a mile from Ketton but over a mile from Collyweston. It closed in 1966.

The station was opened by the Midland Railway as Ketton on 1 May 1848, on the Syston and Peterborough Railway about two years after the rest of the line opened. From 1851, trains using the LNWR Rugby and Stamford Railway railway which joined at Luffenham passed through the station but generally did not stop.

Although much of the line had opened in 1846, there was a dispute with Lord Harborough over the course of the line and this section was not opened until 1848. It was built next to a level crossing on the road between Ketton and Collyweston. The handsome station building was built in a Victorian ecclesiastical Tudor pattern of local stone and Collyweston tiles. For good measure it included a small belfry though whether this was ever used is not known. On the other platform was a smaller building in a combination of stone and timber.

To gain a more direct route, in 1879 the LNWR built a line from Seaton to Yarwell junction near Wansford on its Northampton to Peterborough line, thus bypassing the section through Luffenham, though it continued to run a few trains.

On both sides of the double track were ample sidings, particularly on the down Peterborough side where three lines served a good shed and loading dock with a crane. Unusually, access to the three minor sidings was by means of a wagon turntable rather than points. There was a signal box on the other side of the road.

In the early part of the 20th century the station saw six or seven Midland Railway trains per day and five LNWR trains between Seaton and Stamford. After the war is reduced to five a day on the Midland routes with a few on the branch from Seaton.