Dudley railway station

Dudley Railway Station was a passenger railway station located at Dudley, England, built where the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line and the South Staffordshire Line diverged to Wolverhampton and Walsall and Lichfield respectively.

History

The station was built as a collaboration between the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (which was soon to fall into the hands of the Great Western Railway, and the London and North Western Railway (which had taken control of the South Staffordshire Railway – the company that had constructed the line from Lichfield, via Walsall, to Dudley). The latter eventually became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The station was completed in 1860.^[2]

A racecourse had been situated just north of the station until the mid-1840s when it was closed to make way for the railway, but its name was revived during the 1980s when Racecourse Colliery, a model colliery, was opened on the site as part of the Black Country Living Museum.^[3]

The line had reasonable passenger usage until about the early 1880s, when it began to slump at several stations, leading to the line becoming a largely freight only operation in 1887. It would remain open for goods traffic, which was considerable at this time, as the district had become highly industrialised in the then heyday of the Black Country's industrial past.

As the local industry declined and road transport became more common, the station entered a post-World War 2 decline, although not as heavily as most others on the line.

Closure

The station was popular with local people who appreciated its convenient locations and frequent trains, with high numbers of passengers still using the services as recently as the 1950s. The OW&WR line from Stourbridge Junction to Wolverhampton Low Level closed to passengers in 1962, but Dudley remained as a terminus for trains from Walsall on the South Staffordshire Line, Old Hill on the Bumble Hole Line and Birmingham Snow Hill until the Beeching Axe had its effect in 1964 despite of the station's high passenger turnover at the time.

The South Staffordshire Line's uses were complicated, since some trains terminated at Dudley from Lichfield and Walsall, and some continued through to Stourbridge Junction. Similarly, the same applied with the journey in reverse.

Use since closure

The buildings of Dudley Station remained open for parcels until early 1967, when they were knocked down and replaced by Dudley Freightliner Terminal. It was one of the first of its kind in Britain.

The Freightliner Terminal closed in 1989, and the line passing through Dudley closed to all traffic in 1993. Most of the track remains in place, although a few lengths of track around the site of Dudley Station have been removed and the site of the Freightliner Terminal is now little more than an overgrown field.

Future development

There are plans to redevelop the station to become part of the local Midland Metro tram network, with the line reopening between Wednesbury, Dudley Port, Dudley, and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, with trams on one track and freight on the other; though as of 2014, these plans have not yet come to fruition. Centro has stated that the line would be built in phases in an effort to make the plan more affordable, though no time-scale was placed on these proposals.^[4]

In December 2014, plans separate from the Midland Metro proposals were unveiled to re-open the stretch of line from Dudley railway station to Dudley Port, providing a light rail link to the West Coast Main Line. If the plans went ahead, it would be the first time Dudley town centre would be served by passenger rail since 1964.^[5]

References

Historic imagery of the site

• 

  The closed old railway lines that once ran between Dudley port and Dudley's station come freight liner depot in 2001.

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  View southward, towards Dudley Tunnel and Stourbridge Junction in 1951.

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  A picture of the former Dudley Freightliner Terminal signal box's remnants in 2002, more than 10 years after it was closed and destroyed by arsonists.

• 

  Dudley Town's former station platform in 2011 with an old channel carved in it. The channel is for a former gantry crane at the Freightliner depot that Later covered the station platforms and goods yard.

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  Dudley Town's former station platform in 2011. There is a channel (out of shot) in it for a former gantry crane at the Freightliner depot that later covered the station platforms and goods yard.

• 

  Dudley Town's former station platform in 2011 with some buffers and the same old channel carved in it.

External links

• Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Dudley railway station
• -://chasewaterstuff.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/some-south-staffordshire-railway-byways/

Coordinates: 52°30′53″N 2°04′29″W / 52.5146°N 2.0747°W / 52.5146; -2.0747