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London North Western Railway:
Midland Railway:
Stratford Midland Junction Railway
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Coventry Station: Part 1
Coventry station was opened to passenger services 9th April
1838 when the Birmingham to Rugby section of the London to Birmingham Railway
opened. The facilities were so inadequate that within two years the short
platforms immediately below the Warwick Road station building were replaced
with new platforms some 300 feet nearer Rugby. Messrs. Preston Hendry and
Powell Hendry in their book 'An Historical Survey of Selected LMS Stations'
record that the 'buildings were long timber structures 92 ft. 6in by 22ft
8in'.
Increased main line traffic together with the opening of
the Warwick and later the Nuneaton branches resulted in further extensive
alterations being carried out in 1848-50, 1860s, 1880s, 1890s and 1901-04. The
basic plan however remained the same of four lines through the station, the
centre lines being for through traffic, the outer ones for platform roads. The
Railways (agreement) Act 1935 allowed for further improvements. Whilst some
work was effected on the up side of the station, the main work to be carried
out of an additional line and platform on the down side was prevented by the
outbreak of the Second World War.
Coventry finally got the station it deserved when the
station was totally rebuilt commencing in 1959. This expansion with four
platforms and overhead 25kV electric power coincided with the closure of
passenger services to both Leamington and Nuneaton although some services have
subsequently been reinstated. The station was a working museum with some parts
of the station dating back to 1838. The original station building on Warwick
Road remained until 1959 being used as accommodation for the Inspector and
Station Master whilst the Edward Bury water column on the down platformed also
remained until it was moved to the National Railway Museum in York.
A long perpetuated myth was that the Midland Railway built
an engine shed on the down side adjacent to Warwick Road. In fact whilst the MR
might have used the facilities initially in the 1850s when they started to run
into Coventry on a goods service, the shed was in fact built by the London and
Birmingham Railway and opened in 1838. The station also had a parcel depot
which was located between the Birmingham end of the up platform and Warwick
Road bridge, part of its sidings being located on the site of the 1838
platform. A ramshackled structure provided cover to the platform whilst the
office and store were not much better although built to a much higher
specification including a brick built structure.
Additional pages divided on different thematic subjects are
available by clicking on the links below:
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