Official Handbook of Stations


The Official Handbook of Stations was a large book listing all the passenger and goods stations, as well as private sidings, on the railways of Great Britain and Ireland. It was published in 1956 by the British Transport Commission and provides an historical snapshot of the railways of the time.
Each station or depot was shown against its county, railway region, and parent station. If the station had a crane then its weight limit was also shown in tons & cwt.

Classes of traffic

In six columns the classes of traffic handled at the station was shown as follows:
Column 1 - G = Goods Traffic
Column 1 - G* = Coal Class, Mineral and Station-to-Station Traffic in Truck Loads.
Column 2 - P = Passenger, Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic.
Column 2 - P* = Passenger, but not Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic.
Column 2 - P† = Parcels & Miscellaneous Traffic.
Column 3 - F = Furniture Vans, Carriages, Motor Cars, Portable Engines and Machines on Wheels.
Column 4 - L = Livestock
Column 5 - H = Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans.
Column 6 - C = Carriages and Motor Cars by Passenger or Parcels Train.