Issue 2 May 2016 CONTENTS 2 Birmingham Moor Street to Hockley 4 Winson Green to Smethwick West 6 Rood End to Old Hill 8 Cradley Heath to Lye 10 Stourbridge Junction to Blakedown 12 Kidderminster to Droitwich Spa 14 Fernhill Heath to Worcester Foregate Street 16 Henwick to Great Malvern PLATFORM 3 is published by: The Stourbridge Line User Group, 46 Sandringham Road, Wordsley, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 5HL - 1 - www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info A VIEW FROM THE WINDOW Our journey starts on platform 2 at BIRMINGHAM MOOR STREET, a station beautifully restored in 2005/2006 in 1909 GWR style to replace the functional and ugly 1987 tin sheds on the through platforms and reopen the derelict closed terminus. Birmingham Moor Street As soon as we clear the platform we enter the 635 yard long Snow Hill Tunnel and climb at 1 in 45. While still in the tunnel, a side tunnel joined from our left hand side. This tunnel originated in the basement of the Bank of England building at the junction of Temple Row and St Philip’s Place, and was used by bullion trains that reversed from platform 1 at Snow Hill to the bank. Immediately after leaving the gloom of the tunnel, we enter the gloom of BIRMINGHAM SNOW HILL, opened on 5 October 1987 to replace the much grander GWR station that closed on 6 March 1972. It was unfortunate that, when the new station was built, it was decided to build a three storey car park on top of it and this has served to make the station dark and uninviting. The good news is that there Birmingham Snow Hill are plans to demolish the car park. The bad news is that the plans involve replacing it with a 15 storey office block. Platform 4 at Snow Hill is now unused since the old Snow Hill Metro terminus closed on 25 October 2015 and there are plans to reinstate heavy rail services on platform 4, this time as a through route. As we leave Snow Hill station, the Midland Metro line joins us from the right at the new Snow Hill Metro stop and this will remain to our right to The Hawthorns. The line was diverted from Snow Hill Station on 25 October 2015 and now travels on-road along Bull Street and Corporation Street to a new terminus in Stephenson Street outside New Street station and the Grand Central shopping centre, the terminus being named after the latter. There are plans to extend this line to Centenary Square alongside the International Conference Centre by 2019, while a separate line will leave the current formation in Bull Street to serve the HS2 Curzon Street station and Eastside by 2026. - 2 - www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info St Chad’s Cathedral We cross Great Charles Street Queensway, part of Birmingham’s inner ring road. To our right, St Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, built in 1841 and raised to cathedral status in 1852, is prominent. To our left, the 500 feet high BT Tower built in the mid-1960s rises above the skyline that includes St Paul’s Church, where Matthew Boulton and James Watt worshipped regularly at the end of the 18th century. The church gives its name to the Metro stop to our right just before we pass under Livery Street bridge which was completely rebuilt in 1995 at a cost of £2 million. We now pass through two short tunnels - Hockley No 1 at 136 yards and Hockley No 2 at 160 yards before emerging at JEWELLERY QUARTER station, the first of three new stations opened on 24 September 1995 as part of the reopening of the line from Snow Hill to Smethwick Junction and called the Jewellery Line. A Midland Metro stop accompanies the The approach to Jewellery Quarter main line station. station through Hockley No 2 Tunnel As we leave Jewellery Quarter, we pass Key Hill Cemetery on our right hand side. Amongst the famous people who have this location as their final resting place are Alfred Bird of custard fame, and Joseph Chamberlain (Mayor of Birmingham and father of Neville). When the Metro line was built in 1999, there was insufficient space to build the line and the two Metro platforms alongside the heavy rail platforms, so part of the cemetery was requisitioned, meaning that some bodies had to be dug up and reburied in another part of the cemetery. On the left hand side of the line for the next half mile or so, industrial units now occupy the site of Hockley Joseph Chamberlain Goods Depot, one of the largest in the country. We cross Icknield Street Middleway, a dual Hockley station in 1964 carriageway that is part of Birmingham’s middle ring road. Immediately after this, we pass the site of HOCKLEY station (closed 6/3/1972) although no trace of the station still exists. This station was unusual as, although 4 tracks passed through it, it only had 3 platforms. The reason was simple - there wasn’t enough room for the fourth platform. (Peter Shoesmith) - 3 - www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info Soho & Winson Green station The next Metro stop on our right is Soho Benson (25/11/1962) Road which occupies the site of SOHO & WINSON GREEN station (latterly WINSON GREEN and closed 6/3/1972). On the left hand side, a grassy mound indicates where one of the platforms stood. Just after the station, a small industrial estate on the left occupies the site of the goods depot at Soho & Winson Green and the (Michael Mensing) line then passes under the railway line from Soho to Perry Barr which carries the Birmingham New Street to Walsall semi-fast services, plus Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton services when the line through Sandwell & Dudley is blocked. To our right-hand side are the streets of Handsworth with the skyline dominated by the Gurdwara Sahib Sikh Temple next to St Michael’s Church spire at the junction of Soho Road and Villa Road. The Metro line to our right passes Winson Green Outer Circle tram stop and then climbs steeply at 1 in 30 on a viaduct to enable it to cross Queen’s Head sidings, returning to ground level via a 1 in 60 descent. The viaduct cost £2.7 million to build, making it the most expensive single structure on the Midland Metro line. At this point, a siding to the left serves Cooper’s Metals. Handsworth & Smethwick station The Metro stop at Handsworth Booth Street is on the (21/10/1990) site of HANDSWORTH & SMETHWICK station (latterly HANDSWORTH and closed 6/3/1972) and parts of the platform to the left still exist. In fact, that platform reopened for one day only on Sunday 21 October 1990. A charity walk, organised by the Sunday Mercury, took place along the line from Snow Hill to Handsworth where a DMU was waiting to take walkers back to New Street via Smethwick Junction. After this station, on both sides of the line were the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Works. Amongst locomotives built at this site were BR Class 26, 27, 33 and 81 locomotives, plus the prototype D0260 Lion. They also built Class 104, 110 and 118 DMUs as well as stock for the London Underground. The works closed in 1963. The Hawthorns We immediately pass under Middlemore Road bridge and enter THE HAWTHORNS (opened 24/9/2015) and its associated Metro stop. The station serves the football ground of the same name which is renowned as the highest Premier/Football League ground above sea level. - 4 - www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info After leaving The Hawthorns, we pass under Halfords Lane and the line bends to the left while the Midland Metro line carries straight on towards West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Bilston and Wolverhampton. Perhaps one day it will be an alternative, but far slower, route to Stourbridge Junction via Wednesbury, Dudley and Brierley Hill. At the junction of the two lines stood HAWTHORNS HALT which was in use from 25 December 1931 to 27 April 1968 and used exclusively by visitors to West Bromwich Albion Football Club. The station had four platforms, two on each route. We have been travelling uphill for the majority of our Galton Bridge journey from Snow Hill, but there is now a short downhill section. We cross one leg of the Birmingham Canal, built by James Brindley (1716-1772), which passes into a tunnel to our left and enter SMETHWICK GALTON BRIDGE (opened 24/9/1995). The second leg of the Birmingham Canal, built by Thomas Telford (1757-1834), also passes under us and is spanned to our left by Telford’s magnificent Galton Bridge, built in 1829 when it was the highest single span in the world at 151 feet. It was named after Samuel Tertius Galton (1785-1844), a member of a famous Smethwick family. On departure, the line from Birmingham New Street via Galton Junction joins the line from the left at Smethwick Junction. This section of line was reinstated in April 1966 to enable passenger trains from Stourbridge Junction to operate to New Street rather than Snow Hill from 6 March 1967 and by all passenger trains from 1972 until the Jewellery Line reopened in 1995. What is remarkable is that, although the line was used very infrequently for nearly 50 years, the junction had only been removed 21 months previously on 28 June 1964. Smethwick West Immediately after the junction, we pass through (1960) the remains of SMETHWICK JUNCTION station (renamed SMETHWICK WEST in 1956). In GWR days this was the major intermediate station between Snow Hill and Stourbridge Junction with many Cardiff express trains stopping there.