Ghosts of our past (A requiem for Crewe Works west end buildings)

By the 1860s, the railway workshops originally built by the Grand Junction Railway in Crewe in 1843 had become so confined and difficult to further extend that the London & North Western Railway began construction of a new site. Known as the Deviation Works, this began to the west of what is now Edleston Road and extended, eventually, as far as Merrill’s Bridge some 1.2 miles further west.

The first workshops at the Merrill’s Bridge end of the site were No.9 Erecting Shop, operational from 1903, and the Main Machine Shop. With the construction of these two new buildings, Crewe Works covered 136 acres with 46 acres under roof. Just three years earlier, the Works had constructed its 4,000th locomotive.

Growth and demand continued and by 1923 Sir Henry Fowler wrote that No.9 Erecting Shop “is so congested that I feel sure work cannot possibly be carried out on the best lines.”

Expansion and modification followed between 1925 and 1927. This included enlargement of No. 9 Erecting Shop as “Erecting Shop North”; enlargement of the Main Machine Shop and construction of Erecting Shop South – on the site of a partly-constructed 10 Shop – and a further Machine Shop between No. 9 and the Crewe-Chester railway.

Over the subsequent decades these shops manufactured, repaired and overhauled enormous numbers of locomotives. The site was regarded by many as the largest locomotive works in the world.

The last locomotive to be constructed here was Class 91 number 91031, completed in February 1991. Over the years since, our railway system has changed radically and the need for Crewe Works has declined and diminished. Nothing of the Grand Junction Railway’s original Works buildings remains and of the Deviation Works only a small part now remains and is still in use.

And so, with the inevitable march of progress, the old buildings which even today are still referred to as 10 Shop and Machine Shop have finally passed into history, demolished for a housing development.

All that remains are the echoes of this industrial giant, ghosts of our past… unsettled and disturbed.

Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you.
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The images in this slideshow are also available on Flickr here https://www.flickr.com/photos/1577714...