The Midlands

The Grand Junction Railway, linking the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (opened in 1830) with Birmingham, was the first to arrive – opening on 4th July 1837 with a temporary terminus.  This was followed almost a year later with the completion of the London & Birmingham Railway.  On 24th June 1838 the L&B opened their Curzon Street station and started a limited service of trains to the capital.  The GJR opened their permanent station immediately adjacent the following year.  These companies merged with the Manchester & Birmingham Railway on 16th July 1846 to form the London & North Western Railway.

Trains of the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway reached Birmingham, via a reversal at Hampton, on 12th August 1839.  Five years later on 10th May 1844, under pressure from George Hudson (the Railway King), the company amalgamated with the North Midland Railway (opened between Derby & Leeds in 1840) and the Midland Counties Railway (opened between Derby/Nottingham & Rugby in 1840) to form the Midland Railway.

Birmingham Snow Hill Station

The last of the major pre-Grouping companies to arrive was the Great Western Railway, which began running trains from London to Birmingham via the broad gauge Birmingham & Oxford Railway on 1st October 1852.  Only a small wooden structure was provided by the Great Western Railway when the station first opened on the site of Oppenheim’s Glassworks in 1852.  Originally named simply Birmingham, then Great Charles Street, later Livery Street and finally Snow Hill in 1858.

In 1871 this, allegedly “temporary”, station was demolished and a much more substantial station provided.  Expanding traffic and train service demands eventually resulted in the station having to be rebuilt again on a much grander scale between 1906 and 1912.  Features included through platforms long enough to accommodate two trains at a time, and a large booking hall with an arched glass roof which also enclosed a cab road and vehicle access.

Completion of electrification of the West Coast Main Line meant the end for Snow Hill.  Long distance services between Birkenhead-Chester-Shrewsbury and Paddington via Snow Hill ceased in March 1967 and Snow Hill Tunnel was closed to all trains in March 1968.  Only a few local trains using one of the north end bays remained, until these were withdrawn in March 1972.  Local trains from the south terminated at Moor Street.  The largely derelict GWR station was then used as a car park until the structure was finally being demolished in 1977, although the solum was preserved.

Midland Metro tram services from Wolverhampton along the former GWR main line started in 1999; terminating in Platform 4 at Snow Hill.  Construction of the 2015 extension to the city centre bypassing the station is seen underway in the last photo.

Moor Street station was opened by the Great Western Railway on 1st July 1909 as a terminus for local services from the south to relieve congestion on the twin-track Snow Hill tunnel.  Permanent buildings were only completed in 1914.  Platforms were not provided on the through lines to Snow Hill, however another terminal platform was added in 1930 east of the 1909 island platform.  More information about and photos of Moor Street are available on the Disused Stations website.

In 1984 the world’s first regular maglev system began public operation between Birmingham International station and Birmingham Airport.  The technology had been developed by British Rail Research and the system was built by the People Mover Group (a consortium of civil engineeering and rail vehicle manufacturing companies).  As a pioneering system it became increasingly difficult to source spares for maintenance and increasing unreliability led to its closure in July 1995.  In 2003 the infrasturctructure was used for a replacement cable-hauled people mover.

The Oxford Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway opened a station to serve Stourbridge in 1852.  That railway amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in August 1863 and in October 1879 the GWR opened a 1.3km (0.8 mile) branch to a “Town” station.  The existing station was then rechristened “Junction” to avoid confusion.  A new larger Junction station opened in October 1901 (as shewn), slightly to the south of the previous 1852 location.  The Town station shewn was demolished in February 1979 and replaced with a simpler structure, shortening the branch by 64m (70 Yards).

The first station at Worcester Shrub Hill was opened jointly by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton and Midland Railways in 1850.  A more substantial replacement (as shewn) was completed in 1865 jointly by the GWR and MR.

The first MCR station in Nottingham was on the opposite side of Carrington Street.  This was replaced by the Midland – following construction of the line to Lincoln – with a larger through station on the present site.  Spurred by the opening of the Great Central Railway‘s “Victoria” station in 1900, the MR appointed the same local architect (A.E. Lambert) to rebuild their “Midland” station.  The station in “Edwardian Baroque Revival” style cost £1 million and opened in January 1904.

Matlock Bath station opened on the same day in 1849 as the rest of the MBMMJ and, apart from a brief period between March 1967 and May 1972, has been open ever since.  The Gondola Lift to the “Heights of Abraham” was added to the local transport scene in Spring 1984.

Derby has a just claim to be one of the earliest centres of railway development.  In 1839 the North Midland Railway set up its works in Derby and, when it merged with the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway on 10th May 1844 to form the Midland Railway, Derby became the combined company’s headquarters.

Thankfully, some of this heritage has survived and been restored – the Roundhouse (1839), Railway Hotel (1841) and Railwaymen’s Cottages (1841/42).  Other historic Midland Railway structures include the Company Offices (1860s), Railwaymens’ Institute (1892) and War Memorial (1921).

After the MR was absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway at the Grouping in 1923, Derby continued to be an important railway engineering and technical centre.  In addition to locomotive and carriage building, the LMS was a pioneer in establishing a purpose built railway laboratory and staff training school.

The “School of Transport” by William Hamlyn (1889-1968) is a noted example of LMS Art Deco architecture.  It features fine period details such as bas reliefs by Denis Dunlop (1892-1959) and murals by Norman Wilkinson (1876-1871) intended to emphasise the progress made (by the LMS) in railway travel.  The Sunken Lounge originally featured a fully signalled ‘O’ Gauge model railway used for training operations staff until the early 1960s.  The School continued as a BR training facility until railway privatisation in the mid-1990s.  Since 2007 the building has housed the Derby Conference Centre.

Shortly before his death in 1873 Matthew Kirtley, Chief Mechanical Engineer, persuaded the Midland Railway to set up a separate Carriage & Wagon Works alongside Litchurch Lane in Derby.  The works opened in 1876 and have continued to produce rail passenger vehicles ever since.  With the creation of the Railway Technical Centre in the mid-1960s Derby became the home of British Rail Research and base for most of BR’s Mechanical & Electrical Engineering activities.  Here are a few shots of various projects and facilities.


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