Changes

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 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 in it's its early days.). 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.

One purpose of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway was for freight traffic to gain access to the expanding markets of the West Midlands. However at the time of opening, this journey would require traveling to the SVRs southern terminus at [[Hartlebury]], with a reversal to reach the West Midlands via [[Kidderminster]]. This was hampered by a lack of siding space at Hartlebury and resulted in frequent delays, leading to construction of the '[[Kidderminster Loop Line]]' from Bewdley to Kidderminster. After the GWR built 'The Loop', the majority of services from Stourbridge and Kidderminster to Bewdley continued on the Wyre Forest Line.