Wellingborough railway station
Wellingborough railway station
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Wellingborough railway station

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Wellingborough railway station

Wellingborough railway station (formerly Wellingborough Midland Road) is a Grade II listed station serving the market town of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the Midland Main Line, around 65 miles (104 km) from London St Pancras. The station is operated by East Midlands Railway, which is also the primary operator serving the station with passenger services under the Luton Airport Express brand.

As well as Wellingborough itself, the station is also the closest to the towns of Higham Ferrers, Raunds, Irthlingborough and Rushden, although there is no direct public transport link from the station itself to any of these towns apart from Irthlingborough. It is also the nearest station to Rushden Lakes shopping centre.

Wellingborough station was used as a filming location for the film Kinky Boots, standing in for Northampton station. In late 2009, Wellingborough was made a penalty fare station by East Midlands Trains, which means a valid ticket or permit to travel must be shown when requested.

Wellingborough station was built by the Midland Railway in 1857, on its extension from Leicester to Bedford and Hitchin. At the time, the station was known as Wellingborough Midland Road to distinguish from one built by the LNWR in 1866, at Wellingborough London Road for the Northampton and Peterborough Railway, which closed in 1966. A curve linked the two stations from west to north.

The buildings, designed by C. H. Driver, still exist, though in altered form. Much of this occurred when the branch to Higham Ferrers was built in 1894, when the up main platform was substantially altered, removing the original canopies.

Wellingborough also had a large locomotive depot with two roundhouses; the first built 1868 and the second in 1872. The 1872 building, known as No. 2 Shed still exists, just to the north of the station at the far side of Mill Rd bridge; in 1966, it was no longer needed for railway purposes, and later became a warehouse for Whitworths and Totectors. On 2 September 1898, the station was the scene of a serious rail accident, when a trolley ran off the platform in front of a Manchester express train. The crew and five passengers were killed and sixty-five injured. When the roundhouses were no longer needed for railway purposes, they had other uses.

British Rail removed the fourth track between Kettering and Sharnbrook Junction in the 1980s, for cost cutting reasons, making platform 4 unused. Work started in 2019 on rebuilding the platform in preparation for reopening and reinstatement of the fourth track.

There were originally five platforms at Wellingborough station - Platforms 1 & 2 still exist as they were, platform 3 was the bay platform for Northampton trains, which ceased on 4 May 1964. The bay is still there, but fenced off from platform 2. In 1964, platform 4 (the then down slow platform) was re-numbered platform 3. Platform 5 was taken out of use when the Rushden and Higham Ferrers services ceased in 1959.

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