Shrewsbury railway station is in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Built in 1848, it was designated a grade II listed building in 1969.
The station is north west of Birmingham New Street. Many services starting at or passing through the station are bound for Wales; it is operated by Transport for Wales, although the station is also served by Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway services, and is one of the key network hubs of Transport for Wales.
History
The station was formerly known as Shrewsbury General and is the only remaining railway station in the town; Shrewsbury Abbey, as well as other small stations around the town, having long closed.
Shrewsbury railway station was originally built in October 1848 for the county's first railway — the Shrewsbury to Chester Line. The architect was Thomas Mainwaring Penson of Oswestry and the contractor was Thomas Brassey. The building is unusual, in that the station was extended between 1899 and 1903 by the construction of a new floor underneath the original station building. The building style was imitation Tudor, complete with carvings of Tudor style heads around the window frames. This was done to match the Tudor building of Shrewsbury School (now Shrewsbury Library) almost directly opposite and uphill from the station. The station's platforms also extend over the River Severn. It was operated jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).
At Shrewsbury in steam days, the GWR regularly turned its locomotives by running round the triangle formed by using the Abbey Foregate loop, which links the Wolverhampton Line with the Welsh Marches Line and enables through running for freight trains, summer Saturday specials and formerly for trains like the Cambrian Coast Express. Until 1967 Shrewsbury was served by the GWR, latterly BR Western Region, express services between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside railway station.
The station was given Grade II listed status in May 1969; this applies to the main building on Castle Foregate, adjacent to platform 3.
Arwel Hughes composed Tydi a roddaist in 20 minutes during a wait between train connections in 1938. A plaque to mark this was unveiled on platform 3 in 2004.
Accidents and incidents
On the 15 October 1907, a mail train hauled by Experiment class locomotive No. 2052 Stephenson was derailed at Shrewsbury due to excessive speed on a curve. Eighteen people were killed. On the 6 November 2017, an Arriva Trains Wales Class 175 DMU, numbered 175109, caught fire, causing the station to be evacuated for approximately two hours. There were no casualties but significant travel disruption occurred.
Signalling
Severn Bridge Junction signal box, at the south east end of the station and built by the LNWR, is the largest surviving mechanical signal box in the world, with a frame accommodating 180 levers, and is a listed building. Whilst the line beyond Abbey Foregate signal box to Wolverhampton has been updated to electronic signalling, Shrewsbury itself is set to remain lever operated for the foreseeable future. As a result of Shrewsbury's joint (GWR/LNWR) history, and having been transferred at different times between the Western and London Midland regions of BR and more recently Network Rail - it is now in the Great Western territory again - the signalling is a diverse mixture of lower-quadrant and upper-quadrant semaphore signals, with a few colour lights too. Crewe Junction, on the north end of the station, accommodates around 120 levers and is of the same design as Severn Bridge Junction.
The other Shrewsbury signal boxes are at Abbey Foregate (to a GWR design), controlling the eastern corner of the triangle and Sutton Bridge Junction where the Aberystwyth line diverges from the Hereford line (the now closed Severn Valley Railway to Bridgnorth and also left the main line there).
Two other boxes at Crewe Bank and Harlescott Crossing (slightly further on towards Crewe) were both abolished (and subsequently removed) in October 2013, when the Crewe line had its signalling replaced by a new modular system controlled from the South Wales Rail Operating Centre in Cardiff. The former box had been "switched out" of use for several years previously and had been proposed for abolition by Network Rail back in 2009.