SALT TOWNS RADIO 29th October 2025

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A tribute to the little train which ran between Crewe and Northwich via Sandbach and Middlewich from 2011 until 1960. 

Words by Dave Roberts, Music by Eamon Myles and Albert Inchcape

THE DODGER

NOW AVAILABLE!

MUSIC MEMORIES, first broadcast

 23rd October 2025

 CHESHIRE FOLK, first broadcast 

26th October 2025

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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT 

can be heard at 12 noon and 6pm every day and also throughout local programmes on STR

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This also appears on THE QUEEN STREET COLLECTION

THE DODGER

 

THE DODGER

A little musical tribute to The Dodger, the little train which once served Middlewich Station on the London Midland Region.
Find out more about The Dodger here

This also appears on THE QUEEN STREET COLLECTION

WHERE AND WHAT IS SNJ?

When this was first published on Facebook at the start of June 2011, we presented it as a bit of a 'puzzle picture'.

 Here's the original description:

A bit of a puzzle picture today. Where is this sign? There are various clues: one is the blue brick to which the sign is attached; another is the pleasingly traditional design of the sign and a third is the lettering which does, in fact, tell you exactly where the sign is if you know what 'SNJ' stands for. Despite its rather old-fashioned look the sign hasn't been there very long (probably about 7 or 8 years) and, finally, thousands of people pass it every day.


This picture was first published on Facebook on 2nd June 2011. Below is the original feedback. If you haven't seen this before, why not try to figure out what 'SNJ' means before reading on?


Tim Moon  S stands for Staffordshire, J for Joint?

Dave Roberts Sorry, Tim. No and no.

 ‎...but I think you're on the right...er...track...

Tim Moon North Junction?


Dave Roberts Correct, Tim. So you've only the 'S' to figure out. You obviously already know what kind of sign this is.


Sherry Hill-Smith Sandbach north junction in 3 miles & 935 yards? But where it is - don't know. Can't come up with a blue building is it a train sign or a canal sign?


Dave Roberts Very good, Sherry. 'SNJ' is indeed 'Sandbach North Junction' (Sandbach South Junction disappeared many years ago). The blue brick is the brickwork of the Holmes Chapel Road bridge, close to where the old station was and, indeed, close to where the new station will be. I've always thought it odd that this sign, which is obviously for the benefit of railway personnel, should be on the 'road' side of the bridge rather than the 'railway' side. Railway distances are still measured in miles, yards and chains, btw.

 ‎...oh, and '12' is simply the number of the bridge, of course.


Tim Moon Bridge plates are often on the outside as maintenance staff would often travel to a site on the road.

Dave Roberts In fact, there are at least two of these signs on the bridge; the one shown in our picture, and one on the 'Northwich' side of the bridge at track level. This can just be made out on the photo included in the 'Subterranea Brittanica' link below.

See also:
SUBTERANNEA BRITANNICA - MIDDLEWICH STATION 2005

First published 7th July 2011

Re-formatted and re-published 25th November 2018

GHOSTS OF MIDDLEWICH STATION

I take my place on the cold platform

'Tis nothing new, it's quite the norm.

Facing South, I watch and wait;

Should've been here by half past eight.

I stand and wait to see my boy.

When he arrives I'll jump for joy.

They let him out at dawn today

For misdemeanours he did pay.

The stationmaster locks his door,

This starry night he'll work no more.

Bids me goodnight, it's oh so late,

Says, 'when you go, please close the gate'.

'I will, kind sir, see you tomorrow',

He looks at me with such deep sorrow,

For he'll be back same time next night.

A slow train stops. No one alights.

A fast train roars through without a hitch.

For trains stop no more at Middlewich.

The station-master, he's mine host

But, alas, like me, also a ghost...

© Trevor Burton

Lewis Battersby, Middlewich Stationmaster 1920
Photo: David Broughton

This atmospheric poem was written by author Trevor Burton, who was born in Manchester and has lived in Middlewich since 1998. Trevor is, perhaps, better known for his detective fiction.

 Here's a link to his blog, containing  further links to his novels, which are available through Amazon.

Trevor Burton, Author

MIDDLEWICH - KEY TO THE NORTHERN POWERHOUSE?

'One immensely effective way in which the impact of the Northern Powerhouse could be widely realised would be the reopening of Middlewich railway station to passengers—a campaign that thousands of residents of Middlewich have supported for many years.

That would open up rail access directly from Crewe, right through Cheshire and into Manchester, and relieve pressure on the M6.

It also has the support of many surrounding constituency MPs.

I urge Ministers to look into that and to revert back to me with their considerations.'

Fiona Bruce MP, House Of Commons, 13th July 2015

With thanks to Ian Tresman, Andrew Malloy and

MIDDLEWICH RAILWAY STATION FACEBOOK PAGE

This item also appears on

THE MIDDLEWICH RAILWAY STATION WEBSITE

MIDDLEWICH, BILLINGE GREEN AND CLEDFORD

Middlewich Station in 1963, three years after closure to passengers. Photo: H B Priestley From 'Disused Stations'

Our sister site, Middlewich Station, which campaigns for a new passenger service on the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich line, is celebrating a major update to Subterranea Britannica's Disused Stations site in which many more photographs of Middlewich Station, old and new, have been added, together with maps, timetables and examples of tickets etc. There are also two new entries on the line's other two 'stations', Billinge Green and Cledford Bridge.

MIDDLEWICH STATION: DISUSED STATIONS UPDATE

MIDDLEWICH STATION 1965

Photo courtesy of Frank Smith and Bill Eaton

This photograph and article also appear on our sister site, Middlewich Station

by Dave Roberts
This photograph recently found its way back to The Middlewich Diary by way of Bill Eaton, who was given a lot of material written and collected by the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, an early contributor to the Middlewich Heritage Society and its Newsletter.
Bill has been passing on various bits of material for publication on the Middlewich Diary and MRLC websites, rightly thinking that it would be of interest to readers of both.
I was intrigued when he emailed this photo to me, with my own handwriting on the bottom giving details of its origin.
Obviously, in the early years of the Heritage Society, when I was editing the MHS Newsletter, I must, at some point, have given Frank this photo for his records.
This would have been sometime in the mid-late1980s.
The somewhat dubious quality of the picture betrays its origins as a photocopy of an original photograph by Alan Wilkinson, who lived in Middlewich in the 1960s and is well known as a railway photographer and author.
It came originally from a book called The Stanier 8F 2-8-0 published by D Bradford Barton and the Stanier 8F Loco Society, and the originally caption for the photo reads:

'Saturday afternoon bustle on a Cheshire by-way.

Crewe South's recently outshopped 48505 (D44)

slows for a brisk tablet exchange at Middlewich,

heading the 12.25 Stanlow -Egginton Junction

tanks in January 1965.'

Railway enthusiasts will, of course, have little need for any explanation, but for the layman/woman, here are some explanatory notes:

The engine shown here is, as indicated, a Stanier 8F - a very common type of  engine on the Middlewich line in the 1960s and 1970s, when freight traffic was very heavy.
One very important type of traffic was oil, which came from Stanlow via the West Cheshire route from Helsby to Mouldsworth on the Mid-Cheshire line* and then via Northwich and  Middlewich  to Sandbach and (until 1971) along the Sandbach-Kidsgrove line  to the Stoke area without having to pass through Crewe.
The 'tablet exchange' is the handing over of the token which enabled the train to travel over the single line section from Northwich to Middlewich. The signalman can be seen with his arm out of the signal box window, ready to take the token from the engine driver.
Note the water tower on the left, and the familiar MIDDLEWICH sign on the signal box.
This sign is now in the possession of the MRLC Committee, having been retrieved from Uttoxeter.
Its story is told here.

* the official title of MCRUA's Middlewich sub-committee (the Middlewich Rail Link Campain), which aims to build a new Middlewich Station and introduce a new passenger service from Crewe to Manchester via Sandbach, Middlewich and Northwich, is the Middlewich & West Cheshire Committee.
The West Cheshire line has been lifted, but the trackbed is protected and we keep an eye on the route with a view to its possible re-instatement in the future

Very belated thanks to ERF Ltd for very much unauthorised photocopying facilities.

SUBTERRANEA BRITTANICA - MIDDLEWICH RAILWAY STATION 2005

Photo: Paul Wright/Subterranea Brittanica

Looking remarkably spick and span, and almost like a proper station, here's Middlewich Station in 2005. The picture shows the rebuilt Holmes Chapel Road bridge (the height above track level of which was raised during the rebuilding to accomodate  electrification of the line some enlightened day) and, to the left, a new brick building on the former Crewe departure platform containing equipment associated with the new signalling system, controlled from Manchester South. The right hand track is the 'Middlewich loop' which extends from Holmes Chapel Road to King Street and enables trains to pass each other here - a useful feature which comes into its own when the line is used for diversions from the main line. Visible under the road bridge is the proposed site for the new Middlewich Station. Below is a link to SB's interesting article on the station. The rest of the site also repays inspection, with details and photographs of hundreds of closed stations throughout the country.

MIDDLEWICH STATION

We'll be returning to the subject of Middlewich's former station, and plans for the new one, in future postings.

See also:

WHERE and WHAT IS SNJ?
(The 'second' SNJ sign can be seen in the above picture, on the left of the bridge. There's also a third one on the 'Sandbach' side of the bridge at track level)