History

The Manchester and Birmingham Railway, opened from Manchester to Stockport in 1840, was only 5.5 miles (8.9 km) long at the time and ran into a temporary station at each end. Stockport's stood at the north end of the uncompleted Stockport viaduct, a temporary station which was later renamed as Heaton Norris, and remained Stockport's only station for more than two years.
After the viaduct's completion, the M&BR decided to build a new station at the south end of the viaduct, on an experimental basis. The decision was prompted by complaints that the existing station was a long way from the industrial parts of town and even farther from the residential districts on the south side.
The station was opened on the current site on 15 February 1843, under the name Edgeley. By 1844, it had become the principal station and the one at the north end of the viaduct eventually closed in 1959.
After operation by the London and North Western Railway, it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway, in 1923.
In 1948 British Railways ran the system.
The lines into the station were electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires, under the British Railways 1955 Modernisation.

The station is high above the valley of the River Mersey in which Stockport lies and is linked to both central Stockport and Edgeley by a pedestrian underpass.
The station has many of the various facilities of a modern mainline station including full staffing during opening hours, a ticket office and ticket machines, customer service points, shops, toilets, waiting rooms and step-free access to the platforms with the use of lifts from the station subway.
In 2009, the station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment and it is set to receive a share of 50m funding for improvements.
Some improvements to the station have begun with changes to the signs to make them clearer.

Services
Current passenger routes
Trains running north-west all serve Manchester Piccadilly, with some continuing to Manchester Oxford Road and beyond to Liverpool, Preston, Blackpool, Wigan, Southport and Barrow-in-Furness.
South-east from Stockport, express services run to Sheffield and onwards to Cleethorpes, Nottingham and Norwich with local services running to Hazel Grove and Buxton.
The two southern (West Coast Main Line) routes are via Cheadle Hulme. The first continues via Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent to London and Birmingham and the second via Wilmslow and Crewe also with through services to London and Birmingham as well as via Shrewsbury and the Welsh Marches Line to Cardiff, Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven. Many trains to Birmingham continue to destinations in the south of England such as Bournemouth via Reading and Bristol Temple Meads.
The Mid-Cheshire Line runs westerly through Altrincham, Knutsford, Northwich and Chester.
The line running north-east from Stockport via Guide Bridge to Stalybridge no longer has a regular passenger service, being reduced in the early 1990s from an hourly shuttle service to a once a week, one direction only skeleton service.

Platforms                 Number of Coaches
    4                            15
    3                            18
    Bay 3A                        7
    2                            16
    1                            17
    0                            11
    Down Goods(DG)               17
    Down Main Loop(DML)          17
Take off one for each loco

Permissive working is allowed in all platforms.

All shunt moves around stockport consisting of more than 1 non-corridor unit must have 2 drivers due to widespread areas of limited clearance and the
inability to change ends safely


Start up screen

CrossCountry Super Voyager DEMU 221125 departs Stockport with a service to Manchester Piccadilly, while Northern Rail Sprinter DMU 150215 arrives with a service to Chester.
Photo taken by Matt Buck

Thank you to all the testers that have helped to get this simulation up and running, and to John and Russ for the PC Rail software and web site.