Stourbridge Junction railway station

The station was opened in 1852 on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway line, at a slightly different location to the present station, under the name of Stourbridge. The junction came about when the Stourbridge Railway built their line to Lye and beyond.

Stourbridge become a double junction on 1st October 1879 when the branch to Stourbridge Town and goods was opened.

On 1 October 1901 the new station opened 400 yards to the south of the original.

In 1962 the OW&WR closed north of Stourbridge to passenger services under the Beeching axe.

The station was previously a four platform station, comprising of two island platforms. The southern divergence to Platform 1, which is now solely served by the Stourbridge Town branch, was taken up some years ago and the end of the line is surrounded by fencing. Inside this fencing is a shed which houses the experimental Parry People Mover that was used on the branchline on Sundays for a 12 month test period during 2006. Platform 4 was also closed some years ago, with the adjacent carriage sidings being removed to make way for a car park. Track has also been rationalised in the yard to the north in recent years.

[edit] Railway operations

From Stoubridge Junction, the main trains in service are Centro/Central Trains BR Class 150 DMU units. They usually run to Birmingham Snow Hill via the Black Country stations and Smethwick Galton Bridge, to Hereford via Worcester Shrub Hill and Great Malvern and to Stratford, Shirley, or Dorridge

Chiltern Railways also provide a peak time service to London Marylebone, comencing at Kidderminster and running via Birmingham Snow Hill.

Charter trains can often be seen either stopped or routed through the station on weekends, since Stourbridge Junction is en route to Kidderminster, where a lot of tours operate from or to; and the line is also an alternative to travelling through the busy Birmingham New Street on the way to Cheltenham Spa and the South West.

On weekdays, three EWS steel trains headed by Class 60s and Class 66s route through the station (except Fridays where just one train operates), headed for Round Oak Steel Terminal. These trains are from Margam and Llanwern. Four trains (three on Fridays) do the journey in reverse. These are spread periodically through the day. There is also an occasional scrap train from Round Oak, which operates when required on Fridays. Other freight has been known to pass through on it's way to Galton Junction to route onto the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line. This includes a nuclear flask train from Bridgwater which operates when required.

Trains operating from the Junction to Stourbridge Town are a lone single unit Class 153.

There is a vast array of sidings to the north of the station and they are often used to rest various maintenance vehicles and trains, and they are home to a Chiltern Railways LMD (light maintenance depot) where at night, and on Sundays, many Class 168 trains can be seen stabled.

[edit] External links

Train times and station information for Stourbridge Junction railway station from National Rail
Street map and aerial photo of Stourbridge Junction railway station from Multimap.com

Preceding station		Following station
Lye	Central Trains Leamington-Worcester	Hagley
Lye	Chiltern Railways London-Kidderminster Peak Hours only	Hagley
Terminus	Central Trains Stourbridge Town Branch Line	Stourbridge Town
Disused Railways
Brettell Lane	Great Western Railway "The Wombourne Branch" (1925-1932)	Terminus
Brettell Lane	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Later Great Western Railway, then British Rail Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton (1852-1962)	Hagley
Brettell Lane	South Staffordshire Railway Later LNWR, then LMS, finally BR South Staffs Line Dudley-Stourbridge Junction Section (1852-1962)	Terminus

Railway stations in the West Midlands county
Main line:	Birmingham International Birmingham New Street Birmingham Moor Street Birmingham Snow Hill Coventry Wolverhampton
Local:	Acocks Green Adderley Park Aston Berkswell Bescot Stadium Blake Street Bloxwich Bloxwich North Bordesley Bournville Butlers Lane Canley Chester Road Coseley Cradley Heath Dorridge Duddeston Dudley Port Earlswood Erdington Five Ways Four Oaks Gravelly Hill Hall Green Hampton-in-Arden Hamstead Jewellery Quarter Kings Norton Langley Green Lea Hall Longbridge Lye Marston Green Northfield Old Hill Olton Perry Barr Rowley Regis Sandwell and Dudley Selly Oak Shirley Small Heath Smethwick Galton Bridge Smethwick Rolfe Street Solihull Spring Road Stechford Stourbridge Junction Stourbridge Town Sutton Coldfield Tame Bridge Parkway The Hawthorns Tile Hill Tipton Tyseley University Walsall Whitlocks End Widney Manor Witton Wylde Green Wythall Yardley Wood
Disused:	Blowers Green Brettell Lane Brierley Hill Brockmoor Halt Bromley Halt Brownhills Curzon Street Dudley Great Bridge North Handsworth & Smethwick Harts Hill Moseley Round Oak Pelsall Pensnett Halt Rushall Soho & Winson Green Wednesbury Town West Bromwich Wolverhampton Low Level
Heritage:	Birmingham Railway Museum Halt
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Transport in the West Midlands Centro Midland Metro