Highley railway station is a station on the

Severn Valley Railway The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and c ...

heritage line in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, near the west bank of 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 ...

and just under a mile south-east of the village of

Highley Highley is a large village in Shropshire, England, on the west bank of the River Severn and 7 miles south east of Bridgnorth. The closest cities being Wolverhampton and Birmingham. History Highley began as a rural farming community, includin ...

. Highley is the only staffed single-platform station on the line. Other stops with one platform are unstaffed halts.

History

Highley station opened to the public on 1 February 1862 and closed on 9 September 1963, before the Beeching axe closures. Highley station was important as the transport hub of a

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

district, with four nearby

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mines linked to the Severn Valley line by standard and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

lines, cable inclines and aerial ropeways . There were extensive sidings along the line, and wagon repair works at

Kinlet Kinlet is a small village and civil parish in the south-east of the county of Shropshire, England. The parish is on the northern edge of the Wyre Forest and is in the Bridgnorth District of Shropshire. The parish incorporates the hamlets of Kin ...

, half-a-mile south. The station was inconveniently far from Highley so the arrival of a bus service seriously affected use of the station. The signal box opposite the platform remained in use until 1969 when Alveley colliery closed and freight traffic ceased. The station site was disused until preservation.

Preservation

Little demolition took place at Highley after closure, the station buildings and the signal box remained intact, however the footbridge was dismantled in the early 1970s for safety reasons. In 2009 Severn Valley Railway erected a new footbridge to ease congestion on the station after the opening of the

Engine House __NOTOC__ An engine house is a building or other structure that holds one or more engines. It is often practical to bring engines together for common maintenance, as when train locomotives are brought together. Types of engine houses include: * m ...

Between April and mid-May 1974, Highley was the southern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway. The single platform and the signal box

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

prevent two trains carrying passengers from passing here; although it is possible to pass one passenger train and that of another type i.e. light engine(s), engineer's train etc.

The Engine House

The SVR has built a

visitor centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

, known as the ''Engine House'', a little south of the station.

Railway infrastructure damage June 2007

After torrential overnight rain on 19 June 2007 areas of the railway near Highley collapsed in landslides. Highley Up Starter signal and the embankment it stood on were washed away. After repair the line between Northwood Halt and

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

was restored for passenger use and the first public train was on Friday 21 March 2008.

References

External links