Old Dalby railway station

The station was opened for goods on 1 November 1879{{Cite book | last=Aldworth | first=Colin | title=The Nottingham and Melton Railway 1872 - 2012 | year=2012 }} and to passengers on 2 February 1880 by the Midland Railway. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.{{cite news |author= |title=Notes by the Way. |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000228/18841101/022/0005 |newspaper=Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald |location=British Newspaper Archive |date=1 November 1884 |access-date=12 July 2016 |via = British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}

It was on its cut-off line from {{stnlnk|Melton Mowbray}} to {{stnlnk|Nottingham}}, which had opened the previous year to allow the railway company's expresses between London and the North to avoid reversal at Nottingham. It also improved access to and from the iron-ore fields in Leicestershire and Rutland. Local traffic was minimal but the presence of two army bases built during the last war and the exchange sidings traffic prolonged the life of the station but it eventually succumbed and closed to passengers in 1966.{{Cite book | last=Shannon | first=Paul | title=Nottinghamshire (British Railways Past and Present) | year=2007 | publisher=Past & Present Publishing | location=Kettering, Northants | isbn=978-1-85895-253-6 | page=23}}

According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were handled by this station in 1956: G, P, F, L, H, C and there was a 1-ton 10 cwt crane.Official Handbook of Stations,British Transport Commission, 1956.

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• John J. Shrieves 1879 - 1887
• William Drake 1887 - 1903{{cite news |author= |title=Railway Changes | url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000400/19030822/042/0003 |newspaper=Grantham Journal |location=England |date=22 August 1903 |access-date=6 February 2021 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} (afterwards station master at Harlington, Bedfordshire until 1909 when he was killed by a goods train)
• Sidney William Varnam 1903 - 1906 (formerly station master at Burton Joyce)
• Alfred Ballard 1906 - 1921{{cite news |author= |title=Presentation | url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000753/19211028/116/0006 |newspaper=Biggleswade Chronicle |location=England |date=28 October 1921 |access-date=6 February 2021 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} (afterwards station master at Shefford)
• William Albert Thorneycroft 1921 - 1928
• Percy Harry Hyde 1930 - 1939{{cite news |author= |title=Tewkesbury's New Stationmaster | url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002560/19390128/152/0005 |newspaper=Evesham Standard & West Midland Observer |location=England |date=28 January 1939 |access-date=6 February 2021 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} (afterwards station master at Tewkesbury)
• Reginald W. Whitehead B.E.M. 1940 - 1947{{cite news |author= |title=Old Dalby Wartime Stationmaster Going To Moira | url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003330/19471031/096/0008 |newspaper=Leicester Evening Mail |location=England |date=31 October 1947 |access-date=6 February 2021 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} (afterwards station master at Moira)
• Arthur W. Flewitt 1959{{cite news |author= |title=Stationmaster at Chatburn | url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002041/19590313/057/0005 |newspaper=Clitheroe Advertiser and Times |location=England |date=13 March 1959 |access-date=6 February 2021 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} - 1963 (formerly station master at Chatburn)
• Jack Glover 1963 - 1969

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{{Disused Rail Start}}

{{Rail line|next=Grimston|previous=Upper Broughton|route=Midland Railway
Nottingham direct line of the Midland Railway |col={{MR colour}} }}

{{rail end}}

Following the closure of the line as a through-route in 1968, the track between Melton Mowbray and {{stnlnk|Edwalton}} was converted for use as the Old Dalby Test Track, used initially for the Advanced Passenger Train project and, more recently, for Class 390 Pendolino units.Shannon, P., p. 23.

The station building was timber and did not survive but the timber goods shed still exists. Old Dalby was the site of the original control centre for the line in BR days equipped with utility buildings and a small workshop. Later the operations centre was moved to Asfordby when Alstom took over. Today there are still sidings at Old Dalby and an enlarged workshop and new track layout to accommodate the London Underground trains on test. The transformer and 750DC power supply for the 3rd/4th rail system is also located here. The station master's house survives by the roadside as a private residence and the weighbridge as a domestic garage.

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• [http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#467,323,1 Old Dalby station on navigable 1946 O.S. map]
• [http://www.old-dalby.com/Old_Dalby-1.htm Pictures of Old Dalby station and the locality through the years]
• [http://www.old-dalby.com/Old_Dalby.htm Pictures of trains in the Old Dalby station area through the years]

{{Closed stations Leicestershire and Rutland}}

Category:Disused railway stations in Leicestershire

Category:Former Midland Railway stations

Category:Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1880

Category:Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966

Category:Beeching closures in England

Category:John Holloway Sanders railway stations