Worcester shrub hill station. Heritage line??

[whole diary]

[martvw]

Hello, I am a newcomer to the forum so bear with me. I live here in Worcester and have been a long time railway fan. I am always interested to see what is going on on the local rail scene all over Hereford and Worcester. I would like to see Worcester shrub hill station brought in to the present day. I find it so frustrating that more isn't done to update the old place.The main Cheltenham to Birmingham line runs past the city some three miles to the east with direct trains to the north and south. If a Worcester passenger wants to catch one of these trains they have to go to either Cheltenham or Birmingham to get on the main line. The daft thing is that any time there is a major problem with the main line the north/south trains are diverted through Worcester shrub hill station anyway so even with the old signalling it just about copes. My point is that with a signaling and track upgrade (the line from Droitwich to Stoke works would need to be double track) and perhaps a new through platform no3 at the back of shrub hill station 'it could be done', (trains would not need to call at Droitwich" london midland services could provide a good connection to/from Worcester) some of these trains 'not all' could call at Worcester. Perhaps this would be more appealing to the train operators than calling at a new parkway station to the south of the city at norton. Not that a south Worcester parkway station would not be useful but why not use shrub hill to its full potential? Worcester is down to have new signals and track layout at some point later this century I believe !!!

[JayMac]

A very warm welcome to the forum martvw. 

I regularly travel to Worcester and it is a little annoying that it isn't on the 'Cross Country' network. That's probably an accident of geography, as well as the Victorian era railway builders who concentrated on the link between Birmingham and Gloucester which bypassed Worcester. There was also opposition to the railway entering Worcester in this era from landowners in and around the city (see: http://www.canbush.com/at308-tma061.htm for some background to these issues). Add to the mix British Rail's 'rationalisation' of the area in the 1960s and 1970s.

Such an area does deserve better, both the connection with London and services north and south.

Without major upgrading of the infrastructure I don't foresee long distance cross country services returning anytime soon to Worcester.

[CLPGMS]

I think that the problem of InterCity trains missing a large City like Worcester can be traced back to a more recent issue.  The Cotswold Line Promotion Group tried to persuade Central Trains to operate its Nottingham-Cardiff trains via Worcester Shrub Hill, but they refused to do so because of the way it would affect their share of the revenue.  Apparently, we were told, if a Central Train went via Worcester and, in the process, was overtaken by a CrossCountry one, then Central would lose its share of through revenue. 

Obviously, now that Cross Country has taken over all the services on that route, the only real objection would appear to be the time factor.  CrossCountry does not appear to be very receptive to the idea of delaying its trains by 10 to 15 minutes and, it may cause timing problems elsewhere.

Another major factor was the lack of signalling between Droitwich and Worcester producing a long time gap between trains.  This has now been removed by intermediate signals being installed about half way between the two stations.

[martvw]

I would think that with new signals and track layout the time delay to cross country services would be minimal, as I said perhaps every other train could call but not all, and without a Driotwich stop! The idea of a platform 3 at Worcester Shrub hill could be achieved by making the southbound freight line bi-directional and building a platform out to the new alignment,roughly where the first siding is, the windows in the back wall on platform 2 could be made into archways for access. With all the improvements going on around (cotswold line part redoubling / new signals on the stourbridge line) it seems that Worcester keeps missing out! but one day!!

[martvw]

I meant to say the northbound freight line which runs close to the end of the platform siding at Shrub hill.

[chuffed]

As a student at Worcester College of Education 1972-76 I returned the other day and walked down from Shrub Hill to the City Centre. They are still trying to fix the rare tiles on the platform at Shrub Hill ....can anyone shed any light on what these are please ...and I was staggered by the beauty of the imposing large factory building with the clock tower in Shrub Hill road  lit up by the  late afternoon sun.a A  few local enquiries in Lowesmoor which had not changed one bit in 40 years, proved fruitless. I guess the buiding has had some restoration clean up work done  in the last 40 years, which is why i had never really noticed it my student days....

[swrural]

I meant to say the northbound freight line which runs close to the end of the platform siding at Shrub hill.

Is there (besides all you write, which makes sense) a case for a new station at the triangle north of Shrub Hill (indeed a triangular station)?  It seems there is oodles of land, either already railway or storage yards, that could be used. 

[Nottage_Halt]

... the beauty of the imposing large factory building with the clock tower in Shrub Hill road  lit up by the  late afternoon sun.a A  few local enquiries in Lowesmoor which had not changed one bit in 40 years, proved fruitless. I guess the buiding has had some restoration clean up work done  in the last 40 years, which is why i had never really noticed it my student days....

I hope the moderators don't mind the diversion ...

The building was once the Heenan and Froude engineering works.  You can find a little about them here:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=045-705-411&cid=2#2

and here

http://www.miac.org.uk/heenan.htm

The site is now Shrub Hill Industrial Estate, the buildings having been divided up into workshop units.

The works was once rail connected, via the "Vinegar Branch", which ran from somewhere near the locomotive sheds, under the Rainbow Hill curve (between Shrub Hill Station and Foregate Street Station) into the Heenan works and on, below what has recently been known as "Isaac Maddox House" (formerly the works of Mackenzie and Holland, railway signalling contractors)  on the west side of Shrub Hill, across Pheasant Street, and into the Hill Evans Vinegar factory in Lowesmoor.  Details here:

http://www.miac.org.uk/vinegarmap.htm

The road traffic at Pheasant Street Level Crossing was controlled by GW^▸ (Great Western) style LQ semaphore signals.

Nick

[martvw]

The station is in the best location where it is, anyway the London Midland fuel/storage depot would need to be moved which has had a lot of work to upgrade it in the last few years. It would be good if the Elgar house tower block in front of the station could be demolised or at least reduced in height, leave say two or three floors and turned into a much needed multi level car park? That way, the station would be more visible from the road.

[chuffed]

Many thanks for that info on Heenan and  Froude. As they were the major contractors for the Blackpool Tower and the Great Northern rail warehouse complex in Manchester, it would explain why they constructed such an imposing building as their HQ^▸ (Headquarters) on their move to Worcester in 1903. I do hope it has 'listed' status.

[ellendune]

I would think that with new signals and track layout the time delay to cross country services would be minimal, as I said perhaps every other train could call but not all, and without a Driotwich stop! The idea of a platform 3 at Worcester Shrub hill could be achieved by making the southbound freight line bi-directional and building a platform out to the new alignment,roughly where the first siding is, the windows in the back wall on platform 2 could be made into archways for access. With all the improvements going on around (cotswold line part redoubling / new signals on the stourbridge line) it seems that Worcester keeps missing out! but one day!!

Surely 4 through platforms could be achieved using a Gloucester style arrangement making the most of the very long platforms and the a and b ends.  The middle siding would need to be restored to one or two through roads though.

[eightf48544]

Unfortunately Worcester railway infrastructure suffers from the original buiding of the Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway in the 1850's.

It's nickname of the Old Worse and Worse sums up comtemporary feelings and although Brunel was the engineer it was built on the cheap and it's linspeed has always been less than the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line).

In the 1840's the  Birmingham and Gloucester line choose to ignore Worcester by passing to the East. Then of course it was all mixed up with the broad gauge/standard gauge controversy with the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) being basically broad and the B&G^▸ (Bristol and Gloucester Railway) being standard which meant the notrious gauge change of trains at Gloucester.

One thing I criticise Beeching for is that he didn't tackle places like Worcester where services were basically pre 1922,I am sure possible line upgrades and service reroutings could have given  Worcester  a much more useable train service. although privatisation has given some more through journey options from there I'm not sure if Brighton is a popular through destination.

See post in the lighter side.

[IndustryInsider]

Surely 4 through platforms could be achieved using a Gloucester style arrangement making the most of the very long platforms and the a and b ends.  The middle siding would need to be restored to one or two through roads though.

The platforms at Shrub Hill are hardly Gloucester length - they can only accommodate around eleven 23 metre carriages.

[ellendune]

Surely 4 through platforms could be achieved using a Gloucester style arrangement making the most of the very long platforms and the a and b ends.  The middle siding would need to be restored to one or two through roads though.

The platforms at Shrub Hill are hardly Gloucester length - they can only accommodate around eleven 23 metre carriages.

Oh well. Sounds like a need for some sort of study of how the line could be improved to minimise journey time reductions and what would be required to improve Shrub Hill.  Or was this done before the parkway proposal was made?

[Chris from Nailsea]

I hope the moderators don't mind the diversion ...

No, we don't mind a bit: this is actually a fascinating discussion!