Dudley railway station

Dudley
Dudley
	An auto-train in 1961
General information
Location	Dudley, Metropolitan Borough of Dudley,; England
Coordinates	52°30′53″N 2°04′29″W / 52.5146°N 2.0747°W
Grid reference	SO950907
Platforms	5
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Key dates
1 May 1850	Opened
6 July 1964	Closed for passengers
1967	Closed completely

Dudley railway station served the market town of Dudley, in the West Midlands, England. It was built where the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line and the South Staffordshire Line diverged to Wolverhampton, and to 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 to Dudley, via Walsall). The latter eventually became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The station was completed in 1860^[3] and had a goods shed.^[1]

A racecourse had been situated just north of the station until the mid-1840s, when it was closed to make way for the railway. 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.^[4]

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 II decline, although not as heavily as most others on the line.

Preceding station	Disused railways	Following station
Terminus	Great Western Railway Later British Rail Bumble Hole (1878-1964)	Blowers Green
Dudley Port	Great Western Railway Later British Rail Birmingham Snow Hill-Wolverhampton Line - Dudley Branch (1852-1964)	Terminus
Tipton Five Ways	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Later Great Western Railway, then British Rail Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton (1852-1962)	Blowers Green
Dudley Port or Terminus	South Staffordshire Railway Later LNWR, then LMS, finally BR South Staffs Line (inc. Dudley-Stourbridge Junction to 1962) (1852-1964)	Blowers Green or Terminus

Closure

The station was popular with local people who appreciated its convenient location 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, although a small number of Sunday trains non-stop between Wolverhampton and Worcester continued to use the line until March 1967. Despite the station's high passenger turnover, 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 in 1964.

Further development

The buildings of Dudley station remained open for parcels until early 1967,^[5] 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. Over the next 23 years, the railway and former station and freightliner terminal sites became increasingly overgrown with vegetation, although this was cleared in early 2017 to make way for the planned reopening of the line to the Midland Metro and goods trains.

Since 1986, there have been plans to redevelop the station to become part of the local West Midlands Metro tram network. The line between Wednesbury, Dudley Port, Dudley and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre has already reopened, with trams on one track and freight on the other.

After 30 years of delays and difficulties in securing funding, the scheme got the go-ahead from the government in the autumn of 2016, with clearance of vegetation and the remaining track getting underway early in 2017 and full scale work would begin around two years later, with the line being planned to open by 2023.^[6] However, due to cost overruns, work on the new line is still ongoing in 2024 with funding currently only secured to build the line as far as Brierley Hill.

Gallery

The old railway lines that once ran between Dudley Port and the station in 2001.
View southward, towards Dudley Tunnel and Stourbridge Junction in 1951.
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.
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.
Dudley station site and freight terminal following the clearance of vegetation for the metro extension, a new light rail test centre and for freight traffic