Hemel Hempsted station was a railway station in the town of

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. UK. It was opened in 1877 by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

and was originally the terminus of the Nickey Line, a now-defunct branch line which provided railway services to and and later to . The station was located next to an embankment by the junction of Midland Road and Adeyfield Road, opposite the Midland Hotel. The hotel still stands today and the segment of Midland Road that ran in front of it is now a parking area. Midland Road crossed the railway via a bridge. It had a single platform and a booking office, waiting room and a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

. A

goods yard A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

was located to the west of the station. Passenger traffic on the line ceased in 1947 and the station closed fully in 1963. The siding remained in use for some goods trains until 1969 when the track was lifted and the station was demolished. The Midland Road bridge was filled in and a block of flats was built on the site of the station. The parapet on the north side has survived where the present-day Nickey Line

cycle path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

begins its route to Harpenden. On platform signs and on tickets, the Midland Railway always spelled the station name as Hemel ''Hempsted'' without the 'a'.

History

The Nickey Line was originally proposed in 1862 to provide a town-centre railway link from Hemel Hempstead. The

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

line which opened in 1838 had been forced to follow a route which bypassed the town by a mile after resistance to the railway by influential local landowners, and the town council sought to provide a more convenient station for the municipality. After several years of failed proposals, the Hemel Hempstead and London and Birmingham Railway company failed financially and in the end the project was rescued by the Midland Railway company who agreed to fund the project.

Opening

The Nickey Line was opened on 16 July 1877 to great fanfare with celebrations led by the

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

Rifle Corps A rifle corps (russian: стрелковый корпус, translit=strelkovyy korpus) was a Soviet corps-level military formation during the mid-twentieth century. Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle divisions, although the all ...

Band. A special train was laid on from Hemel Hempsted station to Luton and champagne receptions were held in Luton and Hemel town halls. Church bells were rung and a banner hung across Alexandra Road in Hemel proclaimed "Success to the Hemel Hemptead and Midland Railway Company". The line's development was chiefly driven by the transportation of goods and coal, and the thriving hat making industry in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

created demand for a transport link with the straw plait trade that existed in Hemel. As a result, the line was joined to the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands. ...

north of Harpenden and initially rail services ran to Luton, requiring London-bound passengers to change trains at . After some years Luton's hat trade had declined and passenger demand caused the junction to be re-aligned south to provide a more convenient interchange at Harpenden station.

Bus and rail

Rivalry between the Midland Railway and the

LNWR The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lond ...

(which had absorbed the London and Birmingham Railway in 1846) prevented the line from being extended to join up with the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. For most of its existence, the Nickey Line's southern terminus was a goods siding at Duckhall

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

, only away from Boxmoor station (today's

Hemel Hempstead railway station Hemel Hempstead railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, on the western edge of the town of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. The station is north-west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. Hemel Hempstead is managed by Lo ...

). Passenger services terminated at Hemel Hempsted until 1905 when a new station was opened at , just north of Boxmoor. The LNWR operated a competing bus from Hemel town centre to Boxmoor to "poach" passengers for its main line service to . After the two competitors were

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

into the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

(LMS), Nickey Line passenger services were reduced and more investment was put into the bus service which was extended to Harpenden. The LMS experimented briefly with new transport technology, the " Ro-Railer", which was a bus/train hybrid that could travel on both roads and railways. By operating a bus service through Hemel Hempstead town which could then run at high speed along railway tracks, the LMS hoped to run a more efficient combined road and rail service. On a demonstration run in 1931, the Ro-Railer was driven along the Nickey Line from to Hemel Hempsted, where it entered the siding and was driven up a specially constructed ramp of sleepers laid between the tracks. This provided a level surface for mechanically changing the vehicle from rail to road wheels. It then drove off the railway track and up Crescent Road to tour the locale before returning onto the railway. After the trials, the Ro-Railer vehicle was put into service at but the service was not continued on the Nickey Line.

Decline & closure

Eventually the road bus service prevailed; Nickey Line passenger trains were "temporarily" suspended during the national coal shortage of 1947 and were never resumed, and the last passenger service on the Nickey Line ran on 16 June 1947. Hemel Hempstead, now a designated

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, underwent major redevelopment in the 1950s and 1960s and the Marlowes railway viaduct over the town centre was demolished on 2 July 1960. The Nickey Line, now a part of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways, was a declining goods branch line. The closure of the remaining parts of the line continued in stages and Hemel Hempsted station closed in 1963. Cuttings were filled in, embankments flattened and commercial buildings and housing estates were built on the former railway land. Only the northernmost stretch of track between Cupid Green (north of Godwin's Halt) and Harpenden remained in goods operation, having been leased by BR to the Hemelite concrete company in 1968. The Midland Main Line junction at Harpenden was finally severed in 1979 and the last part of the Nickey Line was lifted up in 1982.

The site today

Nothing remains today of Hemel Hempsted station; the station site has been filled in and is now occupied by a block of flats, while the road layout has been altered. Part of the former station site lies under a grassed area in front of the Midland Hotel, crossed by the realigned Adeyfield Road, and Mayflower Avenue crosses the former goods yard. Today the route of the Nickey Line is in use as a

public footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

and

cycle track A cycle track, separated bike lane or protected bike lane (sometimes historically referred to as a sidepath) is an exclusive bikeway that has elements of a separated path and on-road bike lane. A cycle track is located within or next to the ro ...

, and forms part of Route 57 on the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

which begins at the northern side of the former Midland Road bridge.

References

;Bibliography * * {{Closed stations Hertfordshire Hemel Hempstead Disused railway stations in Hertfordshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1877 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1963 Former Midland Railway stations