Dudley railway station

For The Station currently serving Dudley, see Sandwell and Dudley railway station.
Dudley

An auto-train in 1961
Location
Place Dudley
Area Dudley
Grid reference SO950907
Operations
Original company Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-grouping Great Western Railway
History
1860 Opened
6 July 1964 Closed[1]
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

Dudley Railway Station was a passenger railway station located at Dudley, England, built where the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line and the South Staffordshire Line diverged to Wolverhampton and Walsall and Lichfield respectively.

History

The station was built as a collaboration between the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (which was soon to fall into the hands of the Great Western Railway, and the London and North Western Railway (which had taken control of the South Staffordshire Railway – the company that had constructed the line from Lichfield, via Walsall, to Dudley). The latter eventually became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The station was completed in 1860.[2]

A racecourse had been situated just north of the station until the mid-1840s when it was closed to make way for the railway, but its name was revived during the 1980s when Racecourse Colliery, a model colliery, was opened on the site as part of the Black Country Living Museum.[3]

The line had reasonable passenger usage until about the early 1880s, when it began to slump at several stations, leading to the line becoming a largely freight only operation in 1887. It would remain open for goods traffic, which was considerable at this time, as the district had become highly industrialised in the then heyday of the Black Country's industrial past.

As the local industry declined and road transport became more common, the station entered a post-World War 2 decline, although not as heavily as most others on the line.

Closure

The station was popular with local people who appreciated its convenient locations and frequent trains, with high numbers of passengers still using the services as recently as the 1950s. The OW&WR line from Stourbridge Junction to Wolverhampton Low Level closed to passengers in 1962, but Dudley remained as a terminus for trains from Walsall on the South Staffordshire Line, Old Hill on the Bumble Hole Line and Birmingham Snow Hill until the Beeching Axe had its effect in 1964 despite of the station's high passenger turnover at the time.

The South Staffordshire Line's uses were complicated, since some trains terminated at Dudley from Lichfield and Walsall, and some continued through to Stourbridge Junction. Similarly, the same applied with the journey in reverse.

Use since closure

The buildings of Dudley Station remained open for parcels until early 1967,[4] when they were knocked down and replaced by Dudley Freightliner Terminal. It was one of the first of its kind in Britain.

The Freightliner Terminal closed in 1989, and the line passing through Dudley closed to all traffic in 1993. Most of the track remains in place, although a few lengths of track around the site of Dudley Station have been removed and the site of the Freightliner Terminal is now little more than an overgrown field.

Future development

There are plans to redevelop the station to become part of the local Midland Metro tram network, with the line reopening between Wednesbury, Dudley Port, Dudley, and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, with trams on one track and freight on the other; though as of 2014, these plans have not yet come to fruition. Centro has stated that the line would be built in phases in an effort to make the plan more affordable, though no time-scale was placed on these proposals.[5]

In December 2014, plans separate from the Midland Metro proposals were unveiled to re-open the stretch of line from Dudley railway station to Dudley Port, providing a light rail link to the West Coast Main Line. If the plans went ahead, it would be the first time Dudley town centre would be served by passenger rail since 1964.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 83. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
  2. ↑ http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB145_p_145/
  3. ↑ http://www.bclm.co.uk/map7.htm
  4. ↑ Whittaker, Nicholas, Platform Souls, Gollancz 1995 / Icon 2015, Chapter Two
  5. ↑ "Second line of Midland Metro to be built in phases". Express & Star. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "New £20m rail link between Sandwell and Dudley". Express & Star (1 December 2014). Retrieved 9 December 2014.

Historic imagery of the site

External links

Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Terminus   Great Western Railway
Later British Rail
Bumble Hole (1878-1964)		   Blowers Green
Dudley Port   Great Western Railway
Later British Rail
Birmingham Snow Hill-Wolverhampton Line - Dudley Branch (1852-1964)		   Terminus
Tipton Five Ways   Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Later Great Western Railway, then British Rail
Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton (1852-1962)		   Blowers Green
Dudley Port
or
Terminus		   South Staffordshire Railway
Later LNWR, then LMS, finally BR
South Staffs Line (inc. Dudley-Stourbridge Junction to 1962) (1852-1964)		   Blowers Green
or
Terminus

Coordinates: 52°30′53″N 2°04′29″W / 52.5146°N 2.0747°W / 52.5146; -2.0747

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.