Stourport Road Bridge

Stourport Road Bridge

Bridge 5 carries the A451 Stourport Road over the SVRSevern Valley Railway. It also carried the Kidderminster and Stourport Electric Tramway between 1898 and 1929.

The bridge dates from the construction by the GWRGreat Western Railway of the Kidderminster Loop Line in the 1870s. The Loop Line specification and contract issued in 1874 referred to it as the 'Bridge at 1m 61.15ch' (that distance being measured from the Bewdley South junction). It comprises a segmental arch which, like other bridges on the loop line, is built of brick rather than the sandstone favoured on the original Severn Valley Branch.

Construction of the Kidderminster and Stourport Electric Tramway began in 1897 and was completed in 1898. The bridge was crossed by a single-track section of the tramway, the nearest passing loop being a short distance to the north. The GWRGreat Western Railway imposed conditions on the tramway's construction to ensure that stray currents from the tramway did not interfere with the low voltage signalling on the railway.

From its opening, the tram service competed for the GWRGreat Western Railway's passenger traffic, providing as it did a direct connection between Kidderminster and Stourport while the journey by rail required a change at Bewdley or Hartlebury. In January 1905 the GWRGreat Western Railway introduced a steam railmotor service in a bid to improve local services. At the same time a new halt, Foley Park Halt, opened to the south of the railway adjacent to the bridge and accessed from the pavement which crossed it.

In 1925 Foley Park Halt was moved to the north of the railway to accommodate the new Foley Park sidings to the south. By 1929 services on the tramway via the bridge had ended, although the Halt remained in use until passenger services between Kidderminster and Bewdley ended in January 1970.

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  The later Foley Park Halt and the Stourport Road Bridge

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  The same area in 2015

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  Foley Park Halt and sidings seen from the Stourport Road Bridge

When the SVRSevern Valley Railway purchased the section of line southwards from Alveley Colliery in 1972, Stourport Road Bridge effectively became the new southern limit of the railway, the transition with British Railways property being a few yards nearer Kidderminster. Although regular services continued to terminate at Bewdley, in September 1976 the first Autumn Enthusiasts Weekend (forerunner of the Autumn Steam Gala) saw the first "top-and-tailed" steam services as far as the bridge. In early 1977 two sets of points were moved from Alveley Sidings to Foley Park to act as trap points, one in each direction. The points were controlled by two two-lever ground frames, each controlling one trap point and associated FPLFacing Point Lock, equipment that physically locks points so that they cannot move., with an SVRSevern Valley Railway GF controlling traps in one direction, and a BRBritish Rail or British Railways GF controlling traps in the other.

See also

Towards Kidderminster
List of infrastructure
Towards Bridgnorth