Rhos was one of the original stations of the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway (S&CR) which opened throughout on 14 October 1848. The S&CR was formed in July 1846 out of a merger of the North Wales Mineral Railway (NWMR) and the Shrewsbury, Oswestry & Chester Junction Railway (SO&CJR). The NWMR had been formed on 6 August 1844 to create a line between the industrial areas around Wrexham and Chester. They started construction of a 14½-mile line later that year. The SO&CJR was set up to create a route between Shrewsbury and Chester and the merger enabled that task to be carried out through an extension of the NWMR line. The NWMR section of the line opened on 4 November 1846 and passenger trains started to run between Chester and Rhosymedre.

The station at Rhos opened with the Rhosymedre and Shrewsbury section of line. It was located in a remote spot almost a mile to the east of the settlement after which it was named. The station was to the south of a road overbridge which carried Corkscrew Lane over the line. No images of the station have come to light and it does not appear on any large scale maps so nothing is known about its appearance.

Rhos was served by trains that ran between Shrewsbury and Chester and also onto the Oswestry branch. The March 1850 timetable showed five trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday as shown in the table below. On Sundays there were two trains in each direction.

On 1 September 1854 the S&CR was taken over by the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR considered Rhos to be unremunerative and they closed it in March 1855. It appears to have been demolished after closure and nothing is shown at the location on an 1872 six-inch scale map other than a signal post.

Under the GWR the former S&CR went on to become a main line that linked Birmingham to the River Mersey at Birkenhead via Chester.

On 1 October 1901 the GWR opened a branch to Rhos. It diverged from the main line a mile to the south of Wrexham at Rhos Junction. A station called Rhos was opened on the branch which remained open for passenger services until 1 January 1931 and for goods until 14 October 1963.

Route map by Alan Young

Sources:

• A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - Volume II North & Mid Wales - Peter E Baughan - David & Charles 1980.
• Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies - Christopher Awdry - Guild Publishing 1990.
• Paddington to the Mersey - Dr R. Preston Hendry & R. Powell Hendry - Oxford Publishing Company 1992.
• Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - a Chronology - Michael Quick - Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009.

To see the other stations on the Shrewsbury - Chester General line click on the station name: Shrewsbury S&C, Leaton, Oldwoods Halt, Baschurch, Stanwardine Halt, Haughton Halt, Rednal & West Felton, Whittington Low Level,
Weston Rhyn, Llangollen Road, Whitehurst Halt, Rhosymedre, Cefn,
Rhosymedre Halt, Wynnville Halt, Johnstown & Hafod, Rhosrobin Halt,
Gresford, Rossett, Pulford, Balderton and Saltney

To read more about the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway company click here