Waltham on the Wolds railway station was a railway station at the end of the Waltham Branch, serving the village of

Waltham on the Wolds Waltham on the Wolds is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Waltham on the Wolds and Thorpe Arnold, in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It lies about north-east of Melton Mowbray and south-west of Grantham ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. The Waltham Branch was built by the Great Northern Railway from the

Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway The Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway was a British railway line, almost entirely within Leicestershire. Authorised by the same Act of Parliament, the Great Northern Railway Leicester Branch was built, branching from the ...

Scalford Scalford is a village and civil parish in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It lies to the north of Melton Mowbray at the southern end of the Vale of Belvoir. In the 2011 census the parish (including Chadwell and Wycomb) had a ...

to exploit ironstone deposits in the area. The station opened in April 1883 but never had a regular passenger train service, which was confirmed in the edition of ''The Railway Magazine'' published in May 1932. Instead, it was used only for specials bringing visitors to Waltham Fair or to race meetings at Croxton Park until at least 1907 or 1906. The

Eaton Branch Railway The Eaton Branch Railway was a standard gauge industrial railway built to serve ironstone quarries around the village of Eaton in Leicestershire. It operated from 1884 until 1965. History Iron ore quarrying flourished throughout the East ...

began at "Eaton Junction" immediately south of the station. It served the

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...

quarries that surrounded the village of Eaton. From 1916 to 1918, the line was used for military specials serving Harrowby Army Camp, after which it was used for freight or occasional enthusiast specials, until completely closed in 1964.A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 9 The East Midlands. Robin Leleux

References

Disused railway stations in Leicestershire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1883 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Former Great Northern Railway stations {{EastMidlands-railstation-stub