Until the 1870s the
Midland Railway had a monopoly of the coal traffic from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield. In 1852 the
Great Northern Railway (GNR) main line had reached
Grantham railway station where it met the
Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway. The GNR agreed with this company to operate its services thereby giving it access to
Nottingham from London. Eventually in 1861 the GNR leased this line and began to develop freight its services from the coalfield in conjunction with its planned
extension into Derbyshire and Staffordshire. In 1870 the GNR purchased of land at Colwick to create a new marshalling yard,
motive power depot, repair workshop and staff accommodation. By 1876 sidings for 1150 wagons were complete. The GNR line from Nottingham to Derbyshire and Staffordshire was opened in 1878 and the new marshalling yard was situated in the ensuing triangle of lines. By 1879 of coal were being handled, and the continued growth necessitated further extension to the sidings in 1881. The completion of the GNR routes into the coalfield brought about further growth in 1890 and 1900. Colwick was one of the largest marshalling yards of the
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) after 1923. The decline in its use of the facility began after the advent of
British Railways (BR) in 1948. During the 1950s, the fortunes of the yard matched the decline in use of coal. In 1954 100,000 wagons were handled each month, but this had fallen to 90,000 by 1957 and 70,000 in 1959. The closure of
Mapperley Tunnel after a rockfall in April 1960, further reduced the traffic using Colwick, so that barely 50,000 wagons were being handled by 1960. The yard was transferred to the
London Midland Region of British Railways in 1966 and its remaining traffic was diverted to the nearby marshaling yards at
Toton. The facility was almost entirely closed 12 April 1970 and is now the site of the Victoria Retail Park. ==Motive power depot==