Nantwich and Market Drayton Railway
1860 This company was provisionally formed as the Market Drayton and Madeley Railway
1861 Name changed to Nantwich and Market Drayton Railway.
The single track line was built from the London and North Western Railway Crewe and Shrewsbury Railway line just south of Nantwich to a terminus at Market Drayton, a distance of 10 miles.
1862 Construction started
1863 the line opened in October
1868 Engineer is John Gardner.[1]
Proposals were for the railway to be worked by the LNWR, but instead the Great Western Railway took on this role and worked the nominally independent line until it was taken over by the GWR in 1897.
The line was doubled during 1866–67, to match the Wellington and Drayton Railway which opened in October 1867, thus providing a link for the GWR between the Midlands and the North West.
1889 Engineer is John Gardner.[2]
1870 The North Staffordshire Railway line from Stoke to Market Drayton opened in January 1870, joining the line at Silverdale Junction, just north of Market Drayton.
An engine shed and turntable, which had been built at Market Drayton, were no longer needed when the Wellington and Drayton Railway opened, as locomotives were then based at Wellington, so they were sold to the North Staffordshire Railway.