The line and the station were built by the Midland Railway. It was opened for goods traffic in April 1875 and for passenger traffic on 1 June 1875[1] when the Midland Railway built a 15 miles (24 km) branch line from Mansfield to Worksop. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.[2]
In 1951, the station was renamed "Shirebrook West" despite being on the eastern edge of the village. This was to "avoid confusion" with three other stations:
Shirebrook North built by the LD&ECR[3] in 1897. Despite its name, Shirebrook North was not actually in Shirebrook, but in nearby Langwith Junction.
Shirebrook South built by the GNR on their line from Langwith Junction to Nottingham Victoria via Pleasley East. This line used to pass through the middle of Shirebrook by a massive embankment, cutting the village in two. Shirebrook South actually was in southern Shirebrook.
Shirebrook South closed to regular passenger services in 1931, but excursions continued to call at least until 1957. Shirebrook North closed to regular passenger services in 1955, but excursions continued to call until 1964. Shirebrook Colliery Sidings closed by June 1954.[4]
Branch lines
Two branch lines are plainly visible veering off north of the bridge at the north end of Shirebrook station.
The double tracks branching off eastwards (i.e. to the right as viewed from the station) to the side of the signalbox joined the LD&ECR's one-time main line to Lincoln, next stop Warsop. The branch only ever carried a regular passenger service for a few years in Edwardian times. It did, however, carry Summer holiday trains such as the Summer Saturdays Radford to Skegness in at least 1963.[5] The branch's main purpose was always freight traffic, with coal being overwhelmingly dominant.
There is some hope of reopening the line as a branch off the Robin Hood Line and reopening Warsop, Edwinstowe and Ollerton stations, providing an hourly service to Mansfield and Nottingham.[6]
The single line veering off westwards (to the left as viewed from the station) was removed in the 1940s and relaid in 1974. It used to have a matching second track coming down on the other side of the main lines, behind the signalbox as viewed from the station, but that was not reinstated.
Finally, up to 1974 the next station north from Shirebrook on what is now the Robin Hood Line was not Langwith-Whaley Thorns but simply "Langwith". That station was at Langwith Maltings. In the 1964-1998 closure period it was demolished. As a new station would have to be built at Langwith when the Robin Hood Line was to be reopened it was decided that the community would be better served by a station at Nether Langwith/Whaley Thorns than at the old station site.
On weekdays and Saturdays, the station is generally served by an hourly service northbound to Worksop and southbound to Nottingham via Mansfield Woodhouse.[7]
There is currently no Sunday service at the station since the previous service of four trains per day was withdrawn in 2011. Sunday services at the station are due to recommence at the station during the life of the East Midlands franchise.[8]
^"Notes by the Way". Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald. British Newspaper Archive. 1 November 1884. Retrieved 12 July 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
Cupit, J.; Taylor, W. (1984) [1966]. The Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. Oakwood Library of Railway History (2nd ed.). Headington: Oakwood Press. ISBN0-85361-302-8. OL19.
Hurst, Geoffrey (1987). The Midland Railway Around Nottinghamshire, Volume 1. Worksop: Milepost Publications. ISBN0-947796-05-3.
Other reading
Little, Lawson (1995). Langwith Junction, the Life and Times of a Railway Village. Newark: Vesper Publications. ISBN0-9526171-0-2.
