Hartlebury

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Railcar W22W at Hartlebury in 1959
Next stations pre-closure
Towards the south Towards Shrewsbury
The Severn Valley Line ended at Hartlebury, joining
the former OW&WOxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway line south towards Worcester.
Stourport (3 miles)

Hartlebury is a village in Worcestershire, approximately 3 miles south of Kidderminster. The railway station, which is located 138 miles 68 chainsAs a unit of measurement, 22 yards or 1/80th of a mile 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 station remains in use in modern times, with regular services between Worcester and stations to Birmingham and beyond.

Hartlebury Station

Hartlebury station in 2009

The OW&WOxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway 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.[1]

Between 1862 and the opening of the Kidderminster Loop Line in 1878, goods traffic from the Severn Valley branch and the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway bound for Kidderminster and the West Midlands needed to travel to Hartlebury, reversing onto the OW&WOxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway line there.

The 1901 revision of the OSOrdnance Survey 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.[2] The turntable in the larger goods yard north of the station was in place until 1925.[3] The footbridge has two flights of steps on each platform.[4] Although the OSOrdnance Survey Map refers to the station as Hartlebury Junction, the station itself was never give this name, always appearing in timetables as 'Hartlebury'.

GWR staff records for 1922 show the station had a staff of 24.

Cattle pens, and sidings to cope with additional fruit traffic were constructed in 1924.[5][6]

It was announced that the yard crane was to be replaced by a standard 6-ton hand crane in 1927[7]

The goods yard closed on 1 February 1965,[8] while the footbridge and platform canopies were also removed during the 1960s.[9] The station buildings had been closed by 1994 and the waiting room replaced by a simple ‘bus shelter’.[10]

Severn Valley Line

The line for the Severn Valley Railway left the OWWOxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway line at Hartlebury Junction which was situated 27 chainsAs a unit of measurement, 22 yards or 1/80th of a mile north of the station. Through passenger traffic to Shrewsbury ended on 9 September 1963, although passenger services between Hartlebury and Bewdley continued until 5 January 1970. The line as far as Stourport remained open for coal trains serving Stourport Power Station until coal trains ceased in March 1979,[11] the line itself finally being taken out of use on 12 January 1981.[12]

Signalling

Hartlebury Station Signalbox in 1985

Hartlebury originally had one signal box to the south of the station on the DownIn reference to the direction of travel means away from the major terminus (i.e. towards Bridgnorth on the present day SVR) side of the line controlling the station and junction.
In 1876 this was replaced by a McKenzie and Holland Type 2 box on the UpIn reference to the direction of travel means towards the major terminus (i.e. towards Kidderminster on the present day SVR) side of the line, having 21 levers and working to Droitwich on the block system, plus a second box to the north of the station controlling the junction. The later 1910 30-lever frame was replaced by a panel on 29 November 1982.[13]


See also

Pre-1963 map

References

  1. Marshall (1989) p. 87.
  2. Western Main Lines, Worcester to Birmingham via Kidderminster, Mitchell and Smith (2007), ISBN 9781904474975, VIII
  3. Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 27
  4. Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 23
  5. Great Western Railway Magazine, January 1924
  6. Great Western Railway Magazine, February 1924
  7. Great Western Railway Magazine, January 1927
  8. Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 25
  9. Wikipedia
  10. Siviter (1995) p. 84.
  11. Mitchell & Smith (2007)
  12. Vanns p. 94.
  13. Mitchell & Smith, Western Main Lines, 26

Links

Network Rail live departure board