The S&UR series is made of 8 easy-to-find traditional caches hidden what remains of the old line of the Staffordshire & Uttoxeter Railway in Stafford. Each cache gives you a bit of the history of the entire line. If you are a ‘beginner’ geocacher also look out for two “EarthCaches” nearby to #1 and #6, which don’t always show up on beginners’ phone apps.
S&UR History, Part Six – the Great Northern Railway era (1879-1923)
In 1879 a Bill was approved that allowed the GNR to operate over the Stafford and Uttoxeter, and further – to allow the SUR and GNR to use their own trains on the North Staffordshire line between Uttoxeter and Derby (Egginton Junction), as long as the NSR could also use the S&UR line. This linked Stafford directly with both Derby (Friargate) and Burton upon Trent. The NSR also ran trains along this line directly from Stafford to Nottingham, via Castle Donington and Shardlow.
The extra income allowed the S&UR company to buy a second engine in 1880. This was an 0-4-4 saddle tank by Beyer Peacock, bought second-hand from the North London Railway and named Ingestre. However, the end was near for the line as a separate company and, in 1881, the GNR bought it outright for £100,000.
Not only had there not been the finance to modernise the line, it was, by this time, completely run down. GNR therefore invested £40,000 in improving the facilities at Stafford Common, providing passing loops at each station, and block signalling. It made the most of its penetration of rival territory by opening through service from Grantham via Nottingham and Derby to Stafford.
The old Common station was dismantled and a grand new station opened on the bridge itself, with two platforms on the north side along Aston Terrace and covered steps from the station building down to the platforms. You can still see the platforms between geocaches 5 and 6 – very overgrown now!
During the First World War passenger services and facilities were reduces, but there was a lot of freight traffic westwards from the armament factories at Branston and Chilwell. Afterwards there were plans for extensions, particularly at Stafford Common, but the new government, who had experienced the benefits of running a nationally-integrated railway organisation during the war, decided to force a complete reorganisation on the industry. In 1923, the S&UR line became part of the hugely enlarged regional monopoly known as the LNER – the London and North Eastern Railway.
Text from Jones P (1981) The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway, Salisbury: The Oakwood Press, via Wikipedia