The first railway in the world to use steam locomotives was the Stockton & Darlington railway in the north-east of England, which opened in 1825. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson to haul minerals.

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was the first modern railway carrying both passengers and freight. Following its success The Grand Junction Railway (Liverpool-Birmingham) opened ;in 1837 followed by the London & Birmingham Railway. By 1870 Britain had 13,500 miles of railway track.

Barnstone Station was on the line of the Great Northern and London & North Western Joint Railway. This ran from Saxondale Junction to Melton Mowbray with connections to Leicester and Nottingham. The station opened for goods and  passengers in 1879.

The station was originally called Barnston (without an 'e'), but this was soon changed to Barnstone at the insistence of the Barnstone Cement Company.  (See Placenames.)

There was a small goods yard here with cattle pens and a weighbridge and office near the entrance gate. A connection was made with with Barnstone Cement works in 1880 a quarter of a mile from the station.

Line closures

In the end the Victorians built too many railways and not all of them ran at a profit. After the First World War 1300 miles of unprofitable railway lines were closed by the railway companies and a similar amount after World War 2 as more and more people began to own cars and more goods were transported by lorries on the roads.

Passenger services at Barnstone stopped in 1953; goods traffic continued until 1962 when the line between Saxondale Junction and the Barnstone Cement works closed.

Barnstone Railway Cutting Site of Special Scientific Interest

The area around the old railway bridge is a special place. There are rare moths here and other insects to be found in the long grass, as well as a wide variety of interesting wild plants. 

Click to watch this BBC Bitesize video about the early development of the steam engine.

The first railway engine was used for pulling coal for short distances. In 1829, there was a competition to build a steam engine capable of running 50 km between Liverpool and Manchester. The winner was George Stephenson's 'Rocket', which could pull passenger trains at 50 km/hour. Before the steam-train, it took 12 days to travel from Edinburgh to London on horseback. By 1888 the Flying Scotsman service took just 8½ hours to cover the same distance.

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