Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&W, OWW, or OWWR) was an independent railway company that was formed to build a railway between its three named cities, authorised on 4 August 1845[1]. It began at Wolvercot Junction, near Oxford, from which it ran North-West through Honeybourne and Evesham to Worcester. It then proceeded towards Wolverhampton via Droitwich Spa, Hartlebury, Kidderminster, Stourbridge and Dudley. Due to its overall poor management, the company is sometimes referred to using its derisive nickname, "The Old Worse and Worse".
History
The company suffered from financial mismanagement early on, and ran out of funds in 1849, before any major part of the line was opened. A protracted legal battle then began as the GWR refused to complete the line (a condition of the act of parliament), before realising that its competitors, the Midland Railway and LNWR, were also interested in the line - the GWR finally agreed to lease the line in 1851. The line was eventually completed, still as an independent company, in July 1853, being opened throughout on 1 December 1853[2].
The company is possibly best known for the Round Oak accident on 23 August 1858, which involved two portions of a special excursion train returning to Wolverhampton. Having been divided into two portions at Stourbridge, a broken coupling on the first portion caused 18 vehicles to run backwards, colliding with the following portion. The collision killed 14 passengers and injuring 50 more, and was stated to be the worst railway accident to have ever occured in the UK at that date [3][4].
Links to the Severn Valley Railway
The Severn Valley Railway was proposed to build a line from a junction south of Hartlebury, this later being moved past Hartlebury as a cost-saving measure. The OW&W was heavily involved with the Severn Valley Railway despite nominally being independent companies, with several directors holding positions in both companies, and the OW&W's Engineer John Fowler being appointed as the SVR's engineer in 1855. The OW&W formally agreed to lease the SVR on 14 June 1860, shortly before OW&W merged with the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway and the Worcester & Hereford Railway, forming the West Midland Railway on 1 July 1860.