Changes

[[File:Coalport Postcard.jpg|thumb|300px|Postcard of Coalport circa 1900]][[File:Coalport-DMU-1962-09-29.jpg|thumb|300px|A Northbound DMU at Coalport in September 1962 . The signal box can be seen in the far distance. ([[Sellick Collection]])]]

==LocationHistory==The station opened on 1 February 1862 with a single platform. On 28 February 1894, GWR General Manager Henry Lambert proposed that the station should become a crossing place with the addition of a second platform and [[File:Coalport OSBrick & Tile Works Siding|additional sidings for Exley & Sons' traffic]] at a total cost of £4,062.JPG <ref name=Marshall108>[[Bibliography#Books| 500 pxMarshall (1989)]]p. 108.<br/ref>Like The [[IronbridgeList of signal boxes#List of historical Signal Boxes and Ground Frames|signal box]], the station was inconveniently a GWR <noglossary>Type 5</noglossary> brick signal box with a 31 lever frame comprising 24 working levers and 7 spares. It was situated on the opposite bank some way south of the river from the town it servedstation. The town loop was most noted for the Coalport China Works longest on the Severn Valley Branch with a length of John Rose & Co1,476ft,<ref name=Marshall108/> and for that reason a two-lever ground frame, although this was mainly served by sidings of the nearby LNWR branch line locked from Hadley Junction near Wellington on the opposite side of signal box, worked the river to loop points and FPL at the SVR line. The LNWR branch terminated at their Coalport East station, which was located almost directly opposite north end of the GWR station. Perhaps for these reasons Coalport was, in 1895, Col. Yorke gave approval of the last new works on behalf of the Severn Valley Railway's stations to be upgraded by the provision Board of second platform with passing loop and fully interlocked signal boxTrade on 22 January 1896.<ref name=Marshall108/>

On 27 May 1903, approval was given for an additional bedroom for the Stationmaster’s house at a cost of £84<ref name=Marshall108/>. [[SVR staff in 1922#Severn Valley Railway (North of Bridgnorth)|GWR staff records for 1922]] show the station had a staff of 4. The ground frame at the north end of the passing loop was removed and replaced by motorised points around 1930.<ref name=Marshall108/> {| class="wikitable |+ Station Masters at Coalport|-!Name!!Born !! data-sort-type="date" | From !! data-sort-type="date" | To !! Comments|-|George Broad||1824, Chute, Wiltshire|| By 1881|| ||Joined Midland Railway by 1841, then West Midlands Railway in 1847. Died 1886.|-|Daniel Merrett||1829, Standish, Gloucestershire|| November 1887|| October 1899 || Resigned. Died 1911|-|William Charles Weyman||1857, Berkeley, Gloucestershire|| 17 October 1899|| After 1918 || |-|John Thomas||1865, Buildwas|| By April 1923|| || Also station master at [[Linley]] 1904|-|Frederick Harold Jones||1890, Burwarton, Shropshire|| By July 1926|| By September 1928 || |-|Edward Parry Jones||1884, Welshampton|| By October 1928|| By April 1932 || |-|} From 1941 Coalport came under the supervision of Ironbridge and Broseley. During the BR era the station was renamed 'Coalport West',<ref>[[Bibliography#Other References|Butt (1995)]]</ref> presumably to differentiate it from the nearby ex-LNWR 'Coalport East' station. The change seems to have had little impact in practice, as use of the original name "Coalport" continued in [[Engineer's Line References]], [[Timetables in commercial service|BR Working Timetables]], and on the platform running in boards.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Mitchell and Smith (2007)]] fig. 83.</ref> The 1963 BR notice of closure of the line also referred to the station only as Coalport. However the 'Coalport West' name was used from time to time, such as on a 1957 excursion poster and in the 1960 Sectional Appendix to the Working Time Table.<gallery mode=packed heights=200px style="text-align:left">BR Excursion Poster 1957.jpg|1957 Easter Monday excursion poster showing 'Coalport West'Closure Notice.jpg|1963 closure notice showing 'Coalport'</gallery> The station closed to passengers from 9 September 1963. The signal box was closed on 2 December 1963 after through freight services ended. The station building is now a private house. In May 2017 it was offered for sale at a price of £950,000.<ref>[http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66631712.html Rightmove.co.uk] retrieved 1 August 2017</ref> ==Coalport passing loop operating instructions==The [[The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership# Timetable extracts | BR(W) Working Timetables]] for 1948 and 1959 include the following operating instruction specific to Coalport: ''When a Freight Train is standing in either of the sidings on the Up Side at Coalport, waiting for a train to pass, the Guard must divide his train to provide space for the Signalman to pass through for the purpose of exchanging train staffs with the passing train''.<br> In 1960 the loop capacity was 27 wagons, plus engine and brake van.<ref>Sectional Appendix to the Working Time Tables and Books of Rules and Regulations, Birmingham Traffic District, October 1960</ref>  ==Traffic statistics=={| class="wikitable"The station closed along with the Severn Valley Line |+ [[Traffic statistics in 1963. The station building is now a private house.commercial service]] for Coalport, selected years 1903 to 1952|-! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" | Freight Traffic !! |-! Year !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue (&pound;) !! Tons received &amp; despatched !! Revenue (&pound;) !! Total revenue (&pound;)|-|1903||style="text-align:right"|7,906||style="text-align:right"|1,325||style="text-align:right"|493||style="text-align:right"|11,021||style="text-align:right"|3,820||style="text-align:right"|4,313|-|1913||style="text-align:right"|6,622||style="text-align:right"|1,257||style="text-align:right"|490||style="text-align:right"|6,823||style="text-align:right"|1,850||style="text-align:right"|2,340|-|1923||style="text-align:right"|8,984||style="text-align:right"|1,885||style="text-align:right"|754||style="text-align:right"|9,253||style="text-align:right"|3,857||style="text-align:right"|4,611|-|1933||style="text-align:right"|5,771||style="text-align:right"|690||style="text-align:right"|412||style="text-align:right"|5,950||style="text-align:right"|2,750||style="text-align:right"|3,162|-|1938||style="text-align:right"|5,741||style="text-align:right"|1,257||style="text-align:right"|366||style="text-align:right"|4,937||style="text-align:right"|1,771||style="text-align:right"|2,137|-|1942||style="text-align:right"|7,621||style="text-align:right"|161||style="text-align:right"|580||style="text-align:right"|6,132||style="text-align:right"|X||style="text-align:right"|X|-|1947||style="text-align:right"|7,145||style="text-align:right"|138||style="text-align:right"|541||style="text-align:right"|499||style="text-align:right"|X||style="text-align:right"|X|-|1952||style="text-align:right"|4,675||style="text-align:right"|261||style="text-align:right"|367||style="text-align:right"|X||style="text-align:right"|X||style="text-align:right"|X|-|}X: Information not recorded

*[[The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership# Map of the Route and Nearby Railways | The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership]]*[[Maps#Schematic maps of the pre-closure SVR | Pre-1963 map]]*[[Shropshire Historic Environment Record]]*[[Variant spellings of SVR station names]]