Oakengates railway station serves the town of

Oakengates Oakengates is a constituent town and civil parish in Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. The towns parish population was recorded as 8,517 in the 2001 census. Etymology The name is not derived from "oak" or "gates" but is derived from the ...

Telford and Wrekin Telford and Wrekin is a borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called The Wrekin. In 1998, the district became a unitary authority and was renamed "Telford and Wrekin" ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, England. It has two platforms. Rail services are primarily provided by

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

seven days a week with

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

providing a service on late evenings through the week, and a limited service on Sundays. Avanti West Coast do not currently call at Oakengates station. Between Oakengates and Telford Central is the Oakengates Tunnel.

Oakengates Tunnel

This tunnel was a major problem in the construction of the railway. It delayed the project by three years, between 1846 and 1849. Details of the difficulties include unseasonable weather contained in a report of 21 August 1848 from

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson FRS HFRSE FRSA DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father ...

, Consulting Engineer, and William Baker, the Shropshire Union Railway Engineer. It was originally built for broad-gauge railways. This tunnel is the only tunnel on the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line and the longest of the three railway tunnels presently in use in Shropshire. It stretches for 471 yards. The tunnel passed under the summit level of the

Shropshire Canal The Shropshire Canal was a tub boat canal built to supply coal, ore and limestone to the industrial region of east Shropshire, England, that adjoined the River Severn at Coalbrookdale. It ran from a junction with the Donnington Wood Canal ascend ...

and was the scene of a disaster in 1855, when a breach from the canal into the tunnel occurred. The entire summit level emptied into the tunnel, causing flooding in the town, although there were no reports of any personal injury. An accident occurred at the station on 11 September 1877 when a Great Western train, the 7:40 am from Shrewsbury, arrived at Oakengates station on time at 8:09 am. Its locomotive, no. 153, then exploded due to a boiler failure. The explosion killed the driver, Anthony Robson Potter, and injured several others.

Services

Oakengates is typically served Monday to Sunday by one train per hour in each direction between

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

and Shrewsbury via

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

, with some extra trains at peak times on weekdays. These services are operated by

under the 'West Midlands Railway' brand using British Rail Class 170

Diesel Multiple Units A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

, which will be replaced by

British Rail Class 196 The British Rail Class 196 '' Civity'' is a class of diesel multiple unit built for West Midlands Trains by Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF. A total of 26 units have been built; 12 two-car units and 14 four-car units. They are the first ...

DMUs in 2021. While for the Transport for Wales as of May 2021, the reduced and revised timetable due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the station is only served by one train per day to Shrewsbury (single direction) at very late night. This train operates everyday except Sunday, it is the last departure train service to the northern at the end of the day.

References

External links

History of the Railway
{{coord, 52.693, -2.450, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Shropshire DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains Telford Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail 1849 establishments in England

Oakengates Tunnel

Services

References

Further reading

External links