Pitsford Station

Pitsford & Brampton Station

The station at Pitsford & Brampton has an interesting history. The London & North Western Railway originally favoured as site close to Brampton Bridge. This is where the line crossed the road to Welford and is now known as Boughton Crossing. Indeed the people of Boughton made representations to the Company to try to ensure that it was built there. However, the Earl Spencer had different ideas. He wanted the station to be built at the point where the road between Chapel Brampton and Pitsford crossed the line. The railway company were reluctant to do this as the line was in a cutting at this point and the road was very poor. The Earl finally got his way, on condition that he paid for the road improvements.

The station opened on 16th February 1859 as Pitsford when the line opened to passenger traffic. Shortly after this it was renamed Pitsford & Brampton, and then virtually before the paint was dry it became Brampton & Pitsford. Then finally returning to Pitsford & Brampton. And so it is today - but you never know, it could change again!

The station had a very quiet career, never having that many passengers. A special dock was built for loading sugar beet wagons, a very important local crop at one time, but no more. The strange irony of this is that the beet dock was the only part of the station to survive demolition when it finally closed on 5th June 1950.

The platform today is much longer than the original, extending from a point roughly where the station building once stood right to the beet dock. This section now has a raised loading ramp to facilitate the occasional use of end loading wagons, however this place is now occupied by the static buffet car.

Unlike a lot of other preserved railways, the NLR started with nothing, and as money is a scarce commodity, portable buildings make up the present station, with the exception of the booking office which is the top half of the Lamport signalbox and the Station signalbox which was moved from Little Bowden Crossing near Market Harborough. One day we will have a traditional style LNWR building here, but as yet this is out of our reach.

Pitsford & Brampton as it is today.

Last Amended: 28-Mar-2006