Alcester Railway

History

Origin

On 10 October 1860 the Stratford on Avon Railway Company opened a 9+1⁄4-mile-long single-track branch line; it ran from Hatton on the Great Western Railway Oxford and Birmingham line to Stratford-upon-Avon, and was mixed gauge. There were intermediate stations at Claverdon, Bearley and Wilmcote. Only narrow (standard) gauge trains ran after 31 December 1862 and the broad gauge rail was removed in 1869.

Alcester was a minor, but significant manufacturing town, and encouraged by the Great Western Railway, the Alcester Railway Company was incorporated by the Alcester Railway Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. clxx) on 6 August 1872, to build a railway line from Bearley to Alcester, a distance of 6+3⁄4 miles. Alcester had a station on the Evesham and Redditch Railway, which was worked by the Midland Railway. It was to be a narrow (standard) gauge single line. The junction at Bearley was arranged to allow through running to and from Leamington.

Opening and early years

The line was opened on 4 September 1876. At Alcester it made a junction with the Midland Railway, and used that company's station. There was initially one intermediate station, at Great Alne (2+1⁄2 miles). Services on the line were operated from the outset by the Great Western Railway, and maintenance of the line was handed over to the GWR on 4 September 1877. On 22 July 1878 the Great Western Railway Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. ccviii) authorised the acquisition of the Alcester Railway Company by the GWR, but it was not until 1883 that the vesting took place.

Train service and engine power

The train service showed little change over the years: there were five trains each way in 1887 and 1910 and six in 1938, the only variety being the times taken for the journey being twenty minutes, seventeen minutes and twenty-five minutes respectively.

The branch was originally worked by outside frame 0-6-0STs, then various 0-4-2Ts including No. 203 early in the twentieth century, followed by No. 537 and finally No. 4848. Usually the engine hauled an auto coach, the locomotive being at the Bearley end. In 1938, of the six trains each way, two were mixed, the latter having a brake van branded 'Bearley RU'. The auto car made one through trip to Stratford Mondays to Fridays and three on Saturdays.

Location list

Bearley, Alcester Branch Junction; renamed Bearley [East] Junction from 1907;

Bearley North Junction; apex of Bearley triangle, and divergence of North Warwickshire Line;