| Harborne Branch Line | |
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Legend
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The Harborne Railway was a short railway branch line that connected the city centre of Birmingham, England with the outlying suburb of Harborne.
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The line was first authorised in 1866, and was a proposed single line to connect Soho on the Great Western Railway Birmingham to Wolverhampton route with Lapal, on a proposed line from Halesowen to Bromsgrove, with a connection to the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) near Monument Lane. However, objections from landowners prevented a lot of the line from being built, and in the end only 2½ miles (4 km) built, from Monument Lane to Harborne. It took five years to build, but finally opened to passengers on the 10 August 1874 and goods on the first of October
There were three intermediate stations, at Icknield Port Road, Rotton Park Road and Hagley Road. The section immediately after the main line crossed the Birmingham Main Line canal, which ran in a deep cutting. Today, only the bridge pillars remain.
The line was independently owned, but was operated from the start by the LNWR, who took 50% of the gross receipts from both passenger and freight traffic. It was a single line throughout, worked by the "one engine in steam" system, with six trains each way on weekdays. "Staff and ticket" working began in 1882, superseded by "electric token" working in 1892. With the continuing growth in traffic, a passing loop was installed at Rotton Park Road in 1903 .
The line was an early example of a commuter route, and highly successful at first, though there were problems recovering the investment. The receiver was called in in 1879 and the line remained under his control for another 21 years.[1]
Nevertheless, at its peak in 1914 there were 27 return passenger workings a day, running from 5:35AM until 11:15PM. The journey time from Birmingham New Street to Harborne was about 16 minutes. The trains were usually hauled by Webb 2-4-2T and 0-6-2T coal tanks.
In 1923, the Harborne Railway, together with its operators the LNWR, became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) at the grouping. The line began to suffer competition with buses, and as trains were frequently delayed due to congestion of routes into Birmingham New Street, passenger numbers fell. Icknield Port Road station closed in 1931, and the other stations closed to passengers on 26 November 1934. The last scheduled passenger train ran on the 3 June 1950.[2]
The line remained opened to freight, however, reverting to "one engine in steam" and serving businesses in Harborne, and Mitchells and Butlers' Cape Hill brewery. This traffic also succumbed eventually to road transport, and the line closed completely on 4 November 1963, when the line was completely closed and lifted. Part of the route has been converted into a footpath, the Harborne Walkway.
| Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
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| Canal bridge | |||
| Icknield Port Road | |||
| Rotton Park Road | |||
| Hagley Road | |||
| Harborne |
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