The ''Official Handbook of Stations'' was a large book (, 494 pages) listing all the passenger and goods stations, as well as private sidings, on the railways of Great Britain and Ireland. It was published in 1956 by the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

(under the

Railway Clearing House The Railway Clearing House (RCH) was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by pre-grouping railway companies for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or using the rolling stock) of other compani ...

name) and provides an historical snapshot of the railways of the time. Each station or depot was shown against its county, railway region (including its pre-grouping company), and parent station. If the station had a crane then its weight limit was also shown in tons & cwt.

Classes of traffic

In six columns the classes of traffic handled at the station was shown as follows:''Official Handbook of Stations,'' British Transport Commission, 1956 Column 1 - G = Goods Traffic Column 1 - G* = Coal Class, Mineral and Station-to-Station Traffic in Truck Loads. Column 2 - P = Passenger, Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic. Column 2 - P* = Passenger, but ''not'' Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic. Column 2 - P† = Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic (i.e. ''not'' Passengers). Column 3 - F = Furniture Vans, Carriages, Motor Cars, Portable Engines and Machines on Wheels. Column 4 - L = Livestock Column 5 - H = Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans. Column 6 - C = Carriages and Motor Cars by Passenger or Parcels Train.

References

* {{Ireland-transport-stub