Start at Froghall
“All trains start and finish at Froghall station”, the railway says, and on selected days they go as far as Leek Brook (CVR FAQs, read 23 October 2026). A regular train calls at Froghall, Consall, Cheddleton and Ipstones on the way out, then comes back the same way (train service). The railway puts the whole line at 11.5 miles (private hire page).
An 1849 railway
The original line was 27¾ miles of double track, formally opened on 13 July 1849, after construction began in September 1847 (CVR history). Consall station closed on 4 January 1965. Cheddleton station, built around 1849, was listed Grade II on 14 May 1974 (list entry 1188818).
Bought back with shares
A new company applied for a Light Railway Order in 1992. In 1995 British Rail agreed to sell, and the company bought seven miles of trackbed from Leekbrook to Oakamoor, paid for by a share issue that raised over £120,000 (company history). The order itself, the Churnet Valley Light Railway Order 1996, came into force on 4 May 1996 (legislation.gov.uk).
The first passenger train ran from Cheddleton to Leekbrook on 24 August 1996, and a service to Consall followed on 11 July 1998. Froghall’s station building had been demolished after closure; volunteers rebuilt it, and the railway says Pete Waterman opened the new building on 19 July 2004, though Wikipedia gives 2003 (Kingsley and Froghall).
Back to Leek
On 31 December 2024 the first heritage train ran from Froghall into the new temporary terminus at Leek, with 400 invited guests aboard. “Today marked the realisation of dreams and aspirations”, the railway wrote. The work restored the missing side of a triangle of track, which the railway describes as an original triangle unique among UK heritage railways (CVR news). It had bought the long leasehold of the whole Cauldon Branch on 6 December 2016.
The engines
Two American-built S160s, 5197, built by Lima in June 1945, and 6046, made their debut together here in 2017, and the railway says they were the first pair of S160s to run in the UK since 1944. LMS 8F 48173 left Crewe in June 1943 and was rescued from Barry scrapyard in 1987, and LMS 4F 44422, Stoke Scot, built at Derby in September 1927, is the subject of a centenary appeal to return it to steam (steam locos).
Planning the day
Parking at Froghall and Cheddleton is free, and there is none at Consall, which has no road access. Well behaved dogs are welcome for a £10.00 fee on every service, and service dogs travel free (FAQs). In winter the railway runs special events and its Polar Express train ride, from 7 November to 23 December 2026. The railway’s contact page gives Kingsley and Froghall Station, Froghall, ST10 2HA (contact).
Photographing the line
Consall is the place. Its platform and waiting room famously overhang the Caldon Canal, near the hamlet of Consall Forge (Consall station). A train beside the water with the old waiting room above it is the kind of picture people keep. Ours would print it on wood, which suits a wooded valley.
Sources: Churnet Valley Railway company history; Leek news report (both read 23 October 2026).
