North Staffordshire Railway Map

I am often asked, due to my interest in local railways, where certain long-gone rail tracks used to run, including both main line and industrial. It occurred to me to create a new map of the North Staffs Railway era (1848 - 1923), showing all its routes overlaid on a modern-day map background. Thus people can then relate to where the rails would be if still in place. It would perhaps encourage them to have a look to see if anything remained of the trackbed and infrastructure. The map covers the NSR area mainly in the Potteries and South Cheshire and easterly as far as the Leek and Manifold Light Railway.

Railways in that era depended on and serviced the vast amount of industrial establishments like collieries, tileworks, potteries, iron and steel foundries and others, where most linked to the main lines via their own private network of railways. These were mainly standard gauge but there were also a lot of narrow-gauge and tramways that littered the area. To make my map more complete I had to try and include these too, even if some were closed before the NSR era commenced.

It is impossible to create a 'snapshot' of a particular day in the NSR era as track layouts were often changed, added and demolished, so I have tried to supply a composite view of everything that was ever in existence during its time. Obviously due to the importance of the collieries and industrial workings, I have supplied the locations of these too.

It must be understood that I cannot guarantee the completeness or total accuracy of what I have supplied, but I have done my best to show where everything was in NSR days.

I would appreciate feedback on any inaccuracies, omissions, or suggestions for inclusion in a later update. Please contact me click here to e-mail me

I would like to thank railway authors Roger Hateley for his help in allowing me to refer to his own maps and Allan C Baker for his encouragement.