Former railway bridge over Tifford Canal

The Oldbury Branch Railway was a short branch line which ran from Langley Green on the

Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line The Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line is a railway line which runs from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester via Stourbridge and Kidderminster in the West Midlands, England. It is one of the Snow Hill Lines, with trains operated by We ...

to the town of Oldbury. It also served the Oldbury Division of the manufacturing company,

Albright and Wilson Albright and Wilson was founded in 1856 as a United Kingdom manufacturer of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus for the match industry. For much of its first 100 years of existence, phosphorus-derived chemicals formed the majority of its produ ...

. It was owned and operated 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 ...

Opening

The Dudley and Oldbury Junction Railway was incorporated on 21 July 1873 for a line from Langley Green, Dudley to Halesowen; there were also to be two branches. The company entered into a working agreement with the

(GWR) in 1876, and on 11 August 1881 the name was altered to the Oldbury Railway. The line was opened for goods in 1884, and to passengers the following year; services were operated by the GWR under the working agreement of 1876. The Oldbury Railway was fully absorbed by the GWR following an Act of 31 July 1894. The line was built in 1885 by the Great Western Railway and was built on a short stub of line near the present day, Halesowen Street. There was also a goods yard on an embankment via a bridge on Seven Stars Road, a short distance north of the station.

Closure

The station at Oldbury had a very short lifespan, closing in 1916 as a result of the first world war and never reopened, although the line remained in use for goods traffic to the local factories until 1960s when the section from Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division to the site of Oldbury was severed by the building of the

M5 Motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

. This meant the stub north had been closed but the section near Langley Green remained open for freight traffic until 1996 when the entire line was put out of use.

Present Day

Today, the station site at Oldbury has been redeveloped for both industrial use near the former goods yard and the station site is now a

Mecca Bingo Mecca Bingo (formerly called Top Rank) is a British operator of bingo clubs, with 76 locations throughout the country. Mecca Bingo is owned by the Rank Group, which operates bingos, casinos and online gambling in Belgium, Spain and Britain. The Ra ...

hall. The trackbed to Tat Bank Road near the former Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division has been blocked by the M5 Viaduct and the section built on by both housing and road realignments. There is still quite a lot of track still in situ around the former sidings at Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division and the bridge over the Tifford Canal. The track has been dismantled and fenced off at the former Oldbury Platforms at Langley Green although still extant.

Former Oldbury platforms at Langley Green

References

{{reflist

External links

*http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/oldbury.php *http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/langley_green.php *http://www.miac.org.uk/oldbury.html *http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB146_PHS_1241/ Early British railway companies Great Western Railway constituents Railway companies established in 1873 Railway lines opened in 1884 Railway companies disestablished in 1894