The Birmingham and Bristol Railway was a short-lived

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

company, formed in 1845 by the merger of the

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It ...

and the

Bristol and Gloucester Railway The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the , but it was acquired in 1845 by the Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester R ...

Origin

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

the latter had formed a junction with the broad gauge Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway running into the town on

mixed gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

tracks. In 1843 the C&GWU had been taken over by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

which began putting pressure on the Bristol and Gloucester to join the GWR at Bristol, to subscribe to the proposed South Devon Railway, and to

convert Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

to broad gauge track, to the alarm of the Northern "narrow" gauge railways. The "

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

" at Gloucester was a major problem. It caused pandemonium as whole trainloads of passengers, and their luggage, changed from one to another, together with the

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

of goods.

Formation

Parliament had established a commission to examine the problem and there was a consensus that the track should be unified throughout the line. The GWR made an offer to the Birmingham and Bristol directors. The latter's shareholders held out for more, and the GWR deferred its decision for three days. At this moment the Midland Railway made its move. True or not, the story of how it came about is a part of railway legend, when the Midland's John Ellis was travelling, quite by chance it is said, in a train with two Bristol & Gloucester directors. He overheard them discussing the matter, and took it on himself to offer better terms. In 1846, the Bristol and Birmingham and Midland Railways Act allowed the lines to merge and become part of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

. The bill was managed by Samuel Carter, who was solicitor to both Midland and LNWR. The LNWR was also alarmed at the idea of the GWR's broad gauge reaching the Midlands and it offered to share any losses the Midland might incur. In the event, all that was needed was a nominal rent for the Midland's use of the LNWR's

Birmingham New Street station Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

. There were, of course, still problems with gauge. In 1848 the Midland built its own line into Gloucester, avoiding the GWR ex-Cheltenham & Great Western Union line, and laid

to Bristol. By 1857 the whole line had been converted to standard gauge.

References

* * {{cite book, last1=Truman, first1=P., last2=Hunt, first2=D., year=1989, title=Midland Railway Portrait, location=Sheffield, publisher=Platform 5 Publishing Railway companies established in 1845 Railway companies disestablished in 1846 Early British railway companies Midland Railway British companies disestablished in 1846 British companies established in 1845