The Nantwich and Market Drayton Railway was a standard gauge railway line which began as a single line branch in the early 1860s and rapidly became part of the Great Western Railway's (GWR) double track Wellington-Crewe line. It carried through freight and local passenger traffic until its closure in the 1960s. Market Drayton was renowned for the manufacture of gingerbread, hence the line acquired the nickname the "Gingerbread Line".