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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 West Midlands Trains and Chiltern Railways using a variety of rolling stock including and diesel units. It is a future aspiration of Network Rail to electrify the entire line, as well as the Chiltern Main Line to London Marylebone. The line is one of two railway routes between Birmingham and Worcester, the other route runs via Bromsgrove. History *The line between Worcester and Stourbridge Junction was opened as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR), in 1852. *Opening in 1867, the line between Stourbridge Junction and Smethwick was built by an independent company; the Stourbridge Railway; at Smethwick this line joined the Stour Valley Line at Galton Junction. *A short link was opened at the same time by the ...
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British Rail Class 172
The British Rail Class 172 is a British diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger train built by Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works for use on inner-suburban passenger services. The class is currently operated by West Midlands Railway. The Class 172 is part of the Turbostar range, similar to the Class 168, Class 170 and Class 171. Technical details and variants There are four sub-classes: * Class 172/0 - two-car, non-gangway train sets with West Midlands Railway for use on the Snow Hill Lines and Leamington Spa to Nuneaton, originally with London Overground. * Class 172/1 - two-car, non-gangway train sets with West Midlands Railway for use on the Snow Hill Lines and Leamington Spa to Nuneaton, originally with Chiltern Railways. * Class 172/2 - two-car, gangway train sets with West Midlands Railway for use on the Snow Hill Lines and Leamington Spa to Nuneaton. * Class 172/3 - three-car, gangway train sets with West Midlands Railway for use on the Snow Hill L ...
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Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 2011 UK census recorded the town's population as 63,298. Geography Stourbridge is about west of Birmingham. Sitting within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley at the southwestern edge of the Black Country and West Midlands conurbation, Stourbridge includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore,Stambermill, Stourton, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley. Much of Stourbridge consists of residential streets interspersed with green spaces. Mary Stevens Park, opened in 1931, has a lake, a bandstand, a cafe, and a mixture of open spaces and woodland. Bordered by green belt land, Stourbridge is close to countryside with the Clent Hills to the south and southwest Staffordshire and Kinver Edge to the west. Closest ci ...
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British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies, and was privatised in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the railway. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction, except for the Vale of Rheidol Railway (a narrow-gauge tourist line). Passengers replaced freight as the main source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsid ...
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Birmingham Snow Hill To Wolverhampton Low Level Line
The Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Line was part of the Great Western Railway's London Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside route. As the name suggests, it ran between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level in England. The line was dual-gauged, both and . The line opened in 1854 and the final section was closed in August 1992, following the closure of other sections during the 1970s and 1980s. The opening was delayed for two months because a bridge collapsed near Winson Green, which caused chief engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to order strengthening on several other bridges. Passenger services had been discontinued in 1972, although parts of the line continued to be used by goods trains. History The Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway was authorised on 3 August 1846. It quickly joined forces with the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway and both companies were bought by the Great Western on 14 November 1846. Construction began at Birmin ...
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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 its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of amalgamations saw it also operate standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. The GWR was called by some "God's Wonderful Railway" and by others the "Great Way Round" but it was famed as the "Holi ...
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Galton Junction
Galton Junction is a minor junction on the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line. With Smethwick Junction, it allows northbound trains from the RBS to join the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line in a westbound direction and vice versa. Until the re-opening of Birmingham Snow Hill for stations to Kidderminster, in 1995, all passenger services routed via Galton and Smethwick Junctions to reach Birmingham New Street. With this re-opening, use of the junction has sharply decreased. This was compounded with the removal of the remaining services between Worcester and New Street in May 2004, and now only selected freight services and charter trains use the junction. It has also been used as a way to divert trains to Cheltenham Spa Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the dis ...
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Stour Valley Line
The Stour Valley Line is the present-day name given to the railway line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, in England. It was authorised as the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway in 1836; the title was often shortened to the Stour Valley Railway. The line opened in 1852, and the line is now the main line between those places. Associated with its construction was the building of the major passenger station that was later named New Street station, and also lines in tunnel each side of the station, connecting to the existing routes. The station was opened in 1854. Before completion, the Company became controlled by the London and North Western Railway, which used dubious methods to harm competitor railways that were to be dependent on its completion. The line was electrified in 1966 and now forms part of the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line, an important and very heavily used part of the railway network. Origins Birmingham's first main railway passenger term ...
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Stourbridge Railway
The Stourbridge Railway was a small independent railway company in England which existed between 1860, and 1870 when it was taken over by the Great Western Railway (GWR). The company built a line from the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR) at to Smethwick, where it joined the Stour Valley Line at Galton Junction. History Opening The act incorporating the company was passed on 14 June 1860, allowing it to build a three and a half mile long line from Stourbridge Junction to , another act was passed the following year to allow it to reach the Stour Valley Line at Smethwick. The route was open in full by 1 April 1867. GWR link to Handsworth The OWWR had come under the control of the GWR by this time, and so in order to integrate the Stourbridge Railway with their system, the GWR constructed a link from the Stourbridge Railway at Smethwick to Handsworth Junction, which was opened at the same time, connecting it to the GWR's Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton L ...
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Smethwick
Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider built-up area subdivision has a population of 53,653. History It was suggested that the name Smethwick meant "smiths' place of work", but a more recent interpretation has suggested the name means "the settlement on the smooth land". Smethwick was recorded in the Domesday Book as ''Smedeuuich'', the ''d'' in this spelling being the Anglo-Saxon letter eth. Until the end of the 18th century it was an outlying hamlet of the south Staffordshire village of Harborne. Harborne became part of the county borough of Birmingham and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire in 1891, leaving Smethwick in the County of Staffordshire. The world's oldest working engine, the Smethwick Engine, made by Boulton & Watt, originally stood near ...
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Oxford, Worcester And Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. The OW&WR and GWR consistently used the spelling ''Wolvercot''. near Oxford to Worcester, Stourbridge, Dudley and Wolverhampton, as well as some branches. Its main line was opened in stages between 1852 and 1853. When the West Midland Railway (WMR) was formed by amalgamation in 1860, the OW&WR was the dominant partner, but the West Midland company amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1863. Several branches and extensions were built in the West Midlands, and the main line was developed as an important trunk route. Much of the original main line is in use at present (2017). Before the OW&WR In 1841 the GWR opened its first main line between London and Bristol. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the track was on ...
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Marylebone Station
Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern terminus of the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham. An accompanying Underground station is on the Bakerloo line between Edgware Road and in Transport for London's fare zone 1. The station opened on 15 March 1899 as the London terminus of the Great Central Main Line (GCML), the last major railway to open in Britain for 100 years, linking the capital to the cities of Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester. Marylebone was the last of London's main line termini to be built and is one of the smallest, opening with half of the platforms originally planned. There has been an interchange with the Bakerloo line since 1907, but not with any other lines. Traffic declined at Marylebone station from the mid-20th century, particularly after the GCML close ...
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