The Wellington and Drayton Railway was a standard gauge line in Central England which carried through freight and local passenger traffic until closure in the 1960s.

Most ran between Crewe and Wellington, some continued to/from Manchester to the north and Worcester or Wolverhampton (for Paddington) to the south, or included through coaches for the extended routes.

Following the establishment of several RAF airfields in the area during World War II, the railway gained a new purpose, transporting personnel from the Wellington mainline station to the rural camps.

Typically there were about twenty trains a day in each direction, of which two would be local goods, and the remainder would be through traffic, either non-stop over the line or stopping only at Market Drayton.

In 2017, the Shropshire Star reported that the 2017 Conservative parliamentary candidate for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Owen Meredith, suggested a feasibility study into reopening part of the line, to connect Newcastle with Stoke and HS2.