Hampton Loade is near to the Shropshire hamlets of Hampton and Hampton Loade. The station originally was just a single platform though in 1883 a second platform and passing loop were added.
Information
Type:
Preserved Railway
(Severn Valley Railway)
Opened:
1862 (Closed 1963)
Re-opened:
1970
Platforms:
2
The station was opened as Hampton by the West Midlands Railway in 1862 (the name changed to Hampton Loade within weeks) on it's Severn Valley Railway route from Hartlebury to Shrewsbury and incorporated into the Great Western Railway the following year.
The station closed in 1963 during the Beeching Axe era (though the station had already been listed for closure even before the publication of the Beeching report) along with much of the rest of the Severn Valley Line [1]. The station was re-opened in 1970 as the Southern terminus of the then-new Severn Valley Railway preserved railway [2].
Hampton Loade remained the Severn Valley Railway's terminus until 1974 when the line was extended South to Highley, Arley and Bewdley.
As Hampton Loade retains its passing loop it is still important for SVR operations and is one of the more picturesque stations on the line along with Arley. Hampton Loade is the home of the thirty two mm gauge Paddock Garden Railway and a number of preserved items of rolling stock.
7802 heading for Bridgnorth
Platform store
Main station building
A Class 50 arrives with a Kidderminster bound service
Hampton Loade signal box
Station entrance
[1] Michael Welch, Diesels on the Western (Capital Transport, 2013) p. 44 [2] Chris Heaps, BR Diary 1968-1977 (Ian Allan, 1988) p. 40
Langley Mill is a stop on the Erewash Valley Line in Derbyshire between Alfreton and Ilkeston.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Erewash Valley Line)
Station code:
LGM
Opened:
1847 (Closed 1967)
Re-opened:
1986
Platforms:
2
The station was opened as Langley Mill for Heanor (Heanor being a nearby town) by the Midland Railway in 1847 [1]. The station was renamed Langley Mill and Eastwood (another nearby town) in 1876. Heanor gained it's own station later on though this closed in 1926. In 1933 the station was renamed again as Langley Mill and Eastwood for Heanor! Though it later reverted back to the earlier shorter name.
The station was closed in 1967 due to Beeching cuts though the line it was on remained intact. The station was re-opened as Langley Mill in 1986 thanks to support from the various local councils.
The original station had two platforms facing each other, due to commercial development on the site of one of the old platforms the new station had staggered platforms either side of a railway bridge across Station Road [2], access to the platforms via a ramp or stairs the road level below. Langley Mill is served by Northern and East Midlands Trains.
Northern 158 850 with a Nottingham bound service
A Northern service departs
The platforms are staggered either side of a bridge
The two platforms are either side of this bridge
Another view of one platform to the other
Northern 158 853 arrives
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Ilkeston to Chesterfield (Middleton Press, 2019) Fig. 15 [2] Ibid. 23
The Leighton Buzzard Light Railway was a 610mm narrow gauge line linking sand quarries to the main line in Leighton Buzzard. Traffic began to drop after the Second World War though the railway continued into the 1960s. A preservation society began to run passenger services on the railway at weekends in 1968 with the last mineral trains running to Leighton Buzzard the following year. Unlike a lot of preserved railways the original line never closed.
Stonehenge Works is named after a brickworks that used to be next to the railway. Next to the station are locomotives and rolling stock not involved in passenger service. The railway's main workshops are here in a building which used to be the stables for horses which worked in the quarries.
The line does continue beyond Stonehenge Works and the railway is currently raising funds to extend services over a kilometre towards Double Arches quarry [2].
Stonehenge Works
Part of the impressive collection of ex-industrial locomotives at Stonehenge Works
Marston Green is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Solihull in between Birmingham International and Lea Hall. The station is literally at the end of the runway for Birmingham Airport though Birmingham International is the station for airline passengers as this is near the terminal building.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
MGN
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the London & Birmingham Railway in 1838 on their line between Birmingham and Coventry. The station originally had two goods sidings and a refuge siding. The goods yard was closed in 1964. The signalbox remained in use until 1976.
Due to the proximity of Birmingham Airport (originally Elmdon Aerodrome) there were emergency signals at the station for the event of an aeroplane landing on the railway line!
Both platforms originally had wooden buildings with canopies but following electrification of the line in the 1960s and a rebuild of the station in the mid-1970s nothing of the original station now remains [1]. The station is served by West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway.
TfW 158 838 passes through
Main station building
LNWR 350 107 arrives with a Birmingham bound service
View from the footbridge
View towards Birmingham
A London Euston bound Pendolino passes through
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rugby to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 99
Kidderminster Town is the Southern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway, the station is adjacent to the National Rail station Kidderminster. Unlike most of the other stations on the SVR, Kidderminster Town is not a former network station that was closed and later re-opened but was built new from scratch for the SVR.
Information
Type:
Preserved Railway
(Severn Valley Railway)
Opened:
1984
Platforms:
2
The Severn Valley Line was largely closed to passenger traffic in 1963 though services continued from Kidderminster to Bewdley until 1970. By now the Northern end of the line had re-opened as the Severn Valley Railway. Services from Bridgnorth slowly made their way South as the line was gradually re-opened reaching Bewdley in 1974.
Goods services at Kidderminster ceased in 1982 when the yard was closed, the Severn Valley Railway bought the remaining stretch of the line from Bewdley to Kidderminster. As it was difficult to use the British Rail station it was decided to built a new station called Kidderminster Town in a faux Victorian GWR style (based on the station at Ross-on-Wye) on the opposite side of the car park to the BR station. The station opened in 1984 though some elements of the original plans were not completed until 2006.
The station consists of a single island platform with run-around facilities and storage bay sidings on both sides. Next to Kidderminster Town station is the Kidderminster Railway Museum and nearby is the SVR's carriage shed and Diesel Depot.
A Class 20 waits in one of the bay sidings, the museum is in the background
Visiting Network Rail 73 962 in one of the station sidings
GWR 1450 arrives giving brave van rides
D1062 at Kidderminster
34053 takes on water before another passenger service
