East Langton railway station

East Langton
Site of the station in 1995
Location
Place	East Langton, Leicestershire
Area	District of Harborough
Operations
Original company	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	2
History
2 October 1876	opens as Langton
1 May 1891	renamed East Langton
1 January 1968	station closes[1]
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East Langton railway station was opened by the Midland Railway on what is now the Midland Main Line in 1857, initially calling it simply Langton.

Plans had been made earlier in 1847 for a line from Leicester to Bedford, but had lapsed. However the Midland, running to Rugby at that time and dependent on the LNWR for its path into London, was looking for an alternative. It revived its plans for Bedford to go forward to Hitchin to join the Great Northern Railway

The station had two platforms with neat Midland pattern timber buildings. The booking office was on the southbound up line, with a small waiting-room on the down. There was no footbridge and the line was crossed by a barrow crossing at the northern end. To the north were long sidings on either side of the running lines capable of handling trains of 30 to 41 wagons - typical for Victorian trains of the period. The signal box was next to these on the down side. Southbound LNWR trains also used the line on their way to a junction at Market Harborough and would signal their presence to the box by means of three whistles.^[2]

It was renamed East Langton in 1891 though it also served West Langton, Church Langton, Thorpe Langton and Tur Langton.^[3]

At grouping in 1923 it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

It closed in 1968. Although the station itself was demolished upon closure the site is now privately owned and even though most of the features have also been demolished a number do still remain, parts of the platform still exist, parts of the first loading dock are still constructed and the second loading dock is complete in its entirety. The current owner of the site was informed that the station was bulldosed into part of the embankment and objects surface every now and then. There are been a number of small digs to recover items over the years but nothing significant has emerged.

References

1. Butt, R.V.J., (1995) The Directory of Railway Stations, Yeovil: Patrick Stephens
2. Preston Hendry, R., Powell Hendry, R., (1982) An historical survey of selected LMS stations : layouts and illustrations. Vol. 1 Oxford Publishing
3. Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books

External links

• http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/

 
 

Coordinates: 52°31′15″N 0°56′23″W / 52.5209°N 0.9396°W