The Great Northern Railway (GNR) had running powers to Uttoxeter and was persuaded to acquire the company, which it did in 1881.

The GNR spent a considerable sum on improving the line, but it never made money and it was closed to passengers on 4 December 1939.

Uttoxeter itself had numerous smaller-scale manufacturing activities, but later became the home of J C Bamford, a large-scale maker of, at first, agricultural machinery, and later construction and excavating machines.

[2] On 4 July 1837 the Grand Junction Railway opened, forming a north–south trunk link through Stafford.

In support of the line were the interests of the growing shoe-making industry in Stafford and the Leighton Ironworks in Uttoxeter, of the Bamford family.

Support had come initially from the Shropshire Union Railway, for transport of cattle from Wales, but when the SUR was taken over by the LNWR this was withdrawn.

[1][7][6] The line was to be single track, 12+1⁄2 miles long, from Bromshall Junction,[note 2] on the North Staffordshire Railway near Uttoxeter, to Stafford.

[9] Colonel Yolland of the Board of Trade inspected the line on 23 May 1867, but found a number of deficiencies.

Chief among these were the quality of the rail chairs, which he considered were too light; in addition holding-down bolts for longitudinal timbers on underbridges were to be improved.

[10] A reinspection took place on 25 September 1867 under Lt Col Hutchinson, and although not every detail had been rectified, he approved the opening of the line.

[note 4] Instead of employing booking office staff, the Company issued tickets on the train, and there was little in the way of telegraphic or signalling equipment.

In the summer of 1875 the Board of Trade sent Colonel Rich to report on its condition, and he required certain improvements to ensure safety.

In 1878 a representative of the major creditor approached the Great Northern Railway, proposing that they should take over the working of the line.

[11] Further negotiations took place, and notwithstanding the poor state of the S&UR infrastructure, a price of £100,000 was agreed: the purchase was authorised by Act of 18 July 1881, effective from 1 August.

[15] Wrottesley is frank about the dubious value the GNR got for its outlays: Not very willingly, the GN came into possession of the Stafford & Uttoxeter.

The GNR operated a through passenger service from Grantham via Nottingham and Derby to Stafford, and about the end of the nineteenth century Boston enginemen worked a lodging turn to Stoke.

[15] The Great Northern Railway set about considering what needed to be done to put its newly acquired line to rights.

[20] In 1892 large salt deposits were discovered at Stafford Common, and this brought considerable mineral traffic to the line.

There were two ordinary stations, Dove Bank (to the north, on the Churnet Valley line) and Bridge Street to the east, towards Bromshall.

Now in 1881 the North Staffordshire Railway provided a new west-to-north double track curve, completing a triangle.

Royal Engineers personnel who had been trained at Longmoor Military Railway were drafted in to work parts of the line.

[22] With the outbreak of World War II, passenger services were reduced to one return train a day from 2 October 1939, and on 4 December 1939, all civilian passenger services were suspended, as a means of dealing with staff shortages resulting from enlistment.

On 28 November 1975 the final movement from RAF Stafford took place, and the line was now closed completely.