Trustworthy
3
edits
Changes
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→The completed line: Correction of a re-occurring error.
[[File:WyreForestRailcarColour.jpg|thumb|300px|right|In this photoshop 'colourised' image, an ex-GWR railcar runs through the Wyre Forest on a typical branch line service]]
Following the completion of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway in 1864, the GWR took over the working of traffic over the Tenbury Railway section on behalf of the joint companies, with the LNWR also having running powers. As part of this process, the GWR telegraph system was extended to Woofferton; also the LNWR agreed to a turntable being installed at Woofferton Tenbury to be paid for by the GWR. This turntable was moved from Bewdley and re-erected in the goods yard at Tenbury. (Some confusion has occurred in the past, as there was a small wagon turntable at Woofferton.). The completed line ran north from the GWR station at Bewdley on a single line track alongside the Severn Valley Line for a distance of about a mile before diverging to the west to cross the river Severn at [[Dowles Bridge]] (the viaduct referred to by Capt. Tyler), the remains of which are visible from trains on the SVR. The abutments where the line passed over what is now the B4194 remain in-situ. The line continued to Woofferton via Wyre Forest, Cleobury Mortimer, Neen Sollars, Newnham Bridge, Tenbury (later renamed Tenbury Wells) and Easton Court.
The route acquired a number of names. A platform sign at Woofferton station referred to 'The Bewdley Branch', while passengers at Bewdley could take 'The Tenbury Branch'. Informally the route was often referred to as 'The Wyre Forest Line' or 'The Tenbury Line'. The [[Engineer's Line References]] were TBY for 'Tenbury & Bewdley' and WTW for 'Woofferton and Tenbury Wells', while the 1905 Ordnance Survey map describes it as the 'GW&L&NW Joint Railway - Woofferton & Tenbury' and the 'GWR - Tenbury & Bewdley Branch' [http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/print.cfm#zoom=15&lat=52.3167&lon=-2.5987&layers=171]
In January 1869, ownership of the Tenbury Railway was transferred jointly to the LNWR and GWR. It nominally remained an independent company until nationalisation in January 1948. The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway ceased to exist as a separate company when ownership was transferred to the GWR in February 1870. Both the GWR and the Tenbury Railway became part of British Railways Western Region after nationalisation.
In 1908 the [[Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway]] opened. This connected with the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway at Cleobury Mortimer and ran as a spur for 12½ miles to Ditton Priors.
==A Shropshire Lad==
