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Hartlebury is a village in Worcestershire, approximately 3 miles south of [[Kidderminster]]. The railway station , which is located 138 miles 68 chains from London Paddington, opened in 1852 as part of the [[Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway]]. In 1862 it became a junction station as the southernmost station on the Severn Valley Railway, although in practice many Severn Valley services began and ended at Worcester.

Hartlebury staton station remains in use in modern times, with regular services between [[Worcester]] and stations to Birmingham and beyond. ==Hartlebury Station==[[File:Hartlebury_Railway_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_883215.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Hartlebury station in 2009]]The OW&W line through Hartlebury opened on 3 May 1852. Hartlebury station had only minimal facilities with a simple wooden shed. This was still the case when Hartlebury became a junction station on 1 February 1862 with the opening of the Severn Valley Railway. Construction of a new station more appropriate to its new status was authorised on 6 April 1865.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books | Marshall (1989)]] p. 87.</ref> Between 1862 and the opening of the [[Kidderminster Loop Line]] in 1878, goods traffic from the Severn Valley branch and the [[Wyre Forest Line | Tenbury & Bewdley Railway]] bound for Kidderminster and the West Midlands needed to travel to Hartlebury, reversing onto the OW&W line there. The 1901 revision of the OS Map, published in 1903, shows the layout of the station at the time. The original smaller goods yard and cattle dock was south of the station.<ref>Western Main Lines, Worcester to Birmingham via Kidderminster, Mitchell and Smith (2007), ISBN 9781904474975, VIII</ref> The turntable in the larger goods yard north of the station was in place until 1925.<ref>Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 27</ref> The footbridge has two flights of steps on each platform.<ref>Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 23</ref> Although the OS Map refers to the station as Hartlebury Junction, the station itself was never give this name, always appearing in [[The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership#Timetable extracts | timetables]] as 'Hartlebury'. [[SVR staff in 1922#Severn Valley Railway (South of Bewdley)|GWR staff records for 1922]] show the station had a staff of 24.

 Hartlebury was originally the junction The line for the Severn Valley line, with Railway left the OWW line for at [[StourportHartlebury Junction]] and [[Bewdley]] being which was situated just North 27 chains north of the station. The line between Hartlebury and Bewdley remained after the closure of the line towards Through passenger traffic to [[Shrewsbury]] in ended on 9 September 1963, with although passenger services finally ending in between Hartlebury and [[Bewdley]] continued until 5 January 1970. The line to as far as [[Stourport]] remained open until 1979 for coal trains serving [[Stourport Power Station]] until coal trains ceased in March 1979,<ref>[http:[Bibliography#Books | Mitchell & Smith (2007)]]<//enref> the line itself finally being taken out of use on 12 January 1981.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books | Vanns]] p.wikipedia94.org/wiki/Hartlebury_railway_station Wikipedia - Hartlebury railway station]</ref>.

== 1967 Accident See also== On 29 January 1967, a low speed head-on collision occurred between two freight trains at Hartlebury Junction, with diesel locomotives D7038 and D8138 involved. Whilst the locomotives stayed on the rails, several wagons did not, blocking the line <ref>[http://www.miac.org.uk/hartlebury.html[Maps#accident Railways in Worcestershire], accessed 30 Nov 2015</ref>. [http://www.macearchive.org/Archive/Title/midlandsSchematic_maps_of_the_pre-newsclosure_SVR | Pre-26011967-railway-news/MediaEntry/10065.html Contemporary news footage1963 map]] shows the damage.