Birmingham and Gloucester Railway query.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There were a number of stations opened by that railway during the short lifetime of its operation which were subsequently closed by that company prior to its absorption by the Midland Railway in 1845. Does anyone know why those stations had such a very short lifetime?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Xenophon PCDGS. Which stations were amongst these earliest closures? Aware of a few stations that closed a little later in 1855, but presume you're looking at those that went a decade earlier.

 

[Gloster]

There were quite a lot of stations: the frequent openings and closings make it difficult to keep track of how many there were at any given time. I wonder if they just simply found that there were more local stations than the traffic on offer justified.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Think I'm right in saying that the original Churchdown station in Gloucestershire (opened August 1842, closed September 1842) was only opened where it was because it was located roughly halfway between Cheltenham and Gloucester, but was soon replaced by a more geographically convenient station, opened at Badg(e)worth in August 1843, although that wasn't all that long lived either, closing October 1846.

Besford in Worcestershire (opened November 1841, closed August 1846) and Pirton/Kempsey (opened November 1841, closed November 1844) seem to have been fairly short-lived also. Presume their relatively remote locations generated little traffic.

Are we missing any others?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The original terminus in Birmingham - Camp Hill - only lasted from Dec 1840 to Aug 1841, services then running to Curzon Street.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

@Xenophon PCDGS. Which stations were amongst these earliest closures? Aware of a few stations that closed a little later in 1855, but presume you're looking at those that went a decade earlier.

Closed in 1840
Croft Farm

Closed in 1843
Cofton

Closed in 1844
Dodderhill
Pirton
Swindon (Glos)

All these were closed prior to the absorption by the Midland Railway in 1845.

 

[Gloster]

There was also the original Churchdown, which was open for a month in 1842, and the first Lifford, which closed in 1844; Badgworth, Besford and Norton closed in 1846. Another half-dozen closed on 1 October 1855, leaving no passenger stations on the line between Stoke Works and Abbotswood Junctions. I wonder if both the B&G latterly and, to an even greater extent, the Midland saw themselves as ’Inter-City’ railways.

 

[geoffk]

I suppose the Midland had running powers early on to run stopping trains over the OW&WR (later GWR) via Worcester Shrub Hill, missing the small stations on the main line. The Stoke Works - Droitwich section was a GWR line served only by Midland trains!

 

[Shrewbly]

Dodderhill (which is local to me) had me puzzled for a while. I couldn't work out where it could have been (let alone why it would have needed a station). I think I have found where it was now, but the location would have been (and still is) the middle of a field, reached by a an unmade track from a narrow lane.
There were a handful of properties in the area, but I feel the question is more why did it open, than why did it close.

 

[Pigeon]

I suppose the Midland had running powers early on to run stopping trains over the OW&WR (later GWR) via Worcester Shrub Hill, missing the small stations on the main line. The Stoke Works - Droitwich section was a GWR line served only by Midland trains!

They started running all their passenger trains that way, closing the stations between Stoke Works and Abbotts Wood, and kept the direct line for freight. I can't imagine those stations would have produced many passengers anyway, but Worcester had been bellyaching for a service ever since the direct line missed it out, and the Midland were the first to oblige as soon as they got their line through to Shrub Hill.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

They started running all their passenger trains that way, closing the stations between Stoke Works and Abbotts Wood, and kept the direct line for freight. I can't imagine those stations would have produced many passengers anyway, but Worcester had been bellyaching for a service ever since the direct line missed it out, and the Midland were the first to oblige as soon as they got their line through to Shrub Hill.

How long was the period when all the Midland passenger trains on the Birmingham & Gloucester route went via Worcester? I didn't know that had ever been the case

 

[Bevan Price]

Several early railways had short-lived stations which were little more than wayside halts at "level crossings" - some crossings being no more than basic farm tracks, and with not much more than a basic shelter for a crossing keeper. The Liverpool & Manchester Railway had several such short-lived "stations" on Chat Moss. With no prospect of much custom, they were soon abandoned.

 

[Taunton]

I can recall more than one magazine photo of a Birmingham-Bristol express in early Peak-hauled days coming nonstop on the through lines at Shrub Hill, and thus long felt expresses went this way. Is there any reason why such a significant traffic centre was always ignored?

 

[Rescars]

I can recall more than one magazine photo of a Birmingham-Bristol express in early Peak-hauled days coming nonstop on the through lines at Shrub Hill, and thus long felt expresses went this way. Is there any reason why such a significant traffic centre was always ignored?

Could this be due in part to old regional rivalries? The B&G was Midland territory. The GWR had its own route to Cheltenham via Honeybourne. Shrub Hill and all of the Old Worse and Worse was very GW.
.

 

[Gloster]

I can recall more than one magazine photo of a Birmingham-Bristol express in early Peak-hauled days coming nonstop on the through lines at Shrub Hill, and thus long felt expresses went this way. Is there any reason why such a significant traffic centre was always ignored?

I would guess that it was because ‘that’s the way we have always done it.’ Shrub Hill and the lines leading to it were ex-GWR, while the line through Oddingley was was MR/LMS: most trains from Birmingham to Gloucester would stay on the former MR/LMR and not go through Worcester. This habit continued into nationalisation and even after the line south of Blackwell passed to the Western Region. I would think that any trains using the through lines were Sunday diversions of trains that would normally run via Oddingley.

EDIT: Having just remembered to look at Quick’s Chronology of Railway Passenger Stations, it seems that a number of the original stops were just ‘police stations’, i.e. signalling locations. Some became proper stations, while others faded away. (See note for 1841 November in Section 5 if you want more details.)