Lydney Junction railway station is a
railway station
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 prep ...
near
Lydney
Lydney is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been bypassed by the A48 road since 199 ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
. The station is now the southern terminus of the
Dean Forest Railway
The Dean Forest Railway is a long heritage railway that runs between Lydney and Parkend in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
The route was part of the former Severn and Wye Railway which ran from Lydney to Cinderford. The society that ope ...
. It is located to the south of Lydney, near the
A48 road
The A48 is a trunk road in Great Britain running from the A40 at Highnam, west of Gloucester, England, to the A40 at Carmarthen, Wales. Before the Severn Bridge opened on 8 September 1966, it was a major route between England and South ...
.
The diesel department of the preserved line uses Lydney Junction as a base of operations.
History
Lydney Junction was the name of two separate but adjacent stations on two different railway lines. The
Great Western Railway station, which remains open as
Lydney railway station, opened in 1851 on the Gloucester to Chepstow section of the
South Wales Railway
The South Wales Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd De Cymru) was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to ...
. To the west of this station, the freight-only line of the
Severn and Wye Mineral Railway crossed the GWR line on its north–south route taking coal and iron from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Lydney.
In 1875, the Severn and Wye started passenger services and built a new terminus station at Lydney Junction for passenger trains to and from Drybrook, near
Cinderford
Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census.
The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of Cinde ...
. Four years later, this first station was superseded by a new one as the Severn and Wye joined with 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 ama ...
in building the
Severn Bridge Railway
The Severn Bridge Railway was a railway company which constructed a railway from Lydney to Sharpness in Gloucestershire, England. It was intended chiefly to give access for minerals in the Forest of Dean to Sharpness Docks, and the company buil ...
, which linked Lydney across the
river Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
with the Midland's
Sharpness Branch Line, enabling access for the Forest of Dean minerals to the new and more extensive docks at
Sharpness.
The new Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) station was linked by a long footbridge to the GWR's station. It was built on a curve which took the line away to the east from the north–south line of the original freight railway, and there were extensive freight yards, which provided the only rail link between the Severn and Wye and the Great Western lines. The two stations worked closely together, particularly after 1894, when the Severn and Wye Railway was bought by the Great Western and the Midland. Finally, in 1955, under British Railways, the two stations were formally merged into one.
Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) was used as a through-station for passenger services to and from
Berkeley Road railway station and over the
Severn Railway Bridge
The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...
. These services either terminated at
Lydney Town railway station
Lydney Town railway station is a railway station on the Dean Forest Railway in Lydney in Gloucestershire.
History
The station which is situated in the centre of Lydney opened with rather basic facilities on 23 September 1875, these facilities ...
, which was in the centre of Lydney, or continued on northwards into the Forest of Dean to terminate at
Lydbrook Junction on the Ross to Monmouth line. These services ceased abruptly in October 1960
when the
Severn Railway Bridge
The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...
was damaged beyond economic repair in a shipping accident. Passenger services were officially withdrawn in November 1964.
Revival
After closure, the up platform and the station building were demolished. The down platform survived and forms the basis of the new Lydney Junction station on the heritage Dean Forest Railway. The station was reopened in 1995 when a
signal box was opened to supervise a
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...
- the flat-roofed BR timber structure came originally from station in Lancashire. A row of locomotives, including
73002 and
08734, is on static display.
Services
References
Further reading
*
{{Transport in Gloucestershire
Heritage railway stations in Gloucestershire
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1875
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1995
Former Severn and Wye Railway stations
Lydney