Bumble Hole line

Bumble Hole line
Bumble Hole line
	The Greaves Road Bridge at the edge of Netherton Park. The Withymoor Basin branch line passed under this bridge.
Overview
Status	Closed
Termini	Blowers Green; Old Hill;
Stations	4
Service
Type	Heavy rail
Operator(s)	British Rail
History
Opened	1 March 1878
Closed	January 1968 (completely)
Technical
Line length	3 miles (4.8 km)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Last updated October 01, 2024

Bumble Hole Line

Legend

					South Staffordshire Line
					Blowers Green
					Baptist End

					Withymoor Goods Yard
					Windmill End
					Darby End
					Old Hill High Street
					Old Hill (Birmingham to Worcester
					via Kidderminster Line )
					Halesowen Railway

The Bumble Hole line was a short railway located in Central England. It opened in 1878 to give Dudley a direct railway link with Old Hill, over a distance of three miles. It was used as a connection between Dudley town and Snow Hill, and was dual track all of the way, to allow its inclusion into a mainline route. As with most lines of this nature, patronage was extremely poor and passengers would often find themselves alone on the single car Class 122 DMU that operated the service in later years.

Opening

The line was opened by the GWR on 1 March 1878 ^[2] on the same day as the line from Old Hill to Halesowen started service.

Closure

Passenger services along the line were withdrawn in 1964 due to the Beeching Axe. A study showed that just one person per day used the Windmill End station.^[3] The line remained open to goods traffic until January 1968 with the track being removed a year later.^[2]

Remains

By 1980 most signs of the line had been obliterated, at least to the casual observer, though a number of reminders of the line – including embankments, cuttings, three former road bridges over the line (at New Road, St. Peters Road and Greaves Road) and the remains of other bridges including an overbridge in Old Hill – are still in existence some 50 years after the line's closure. With the assistance of a pre-Beeching closure map and the current Explorer Ordnance Survey map of the area (sheet 219) it is possible to trace much of the line either on foot or on satellite images. The OS map shows much of the Netherton end of the line (including the canal branch) is now a footpath and it is possible to walk on the former track bed from the New Road crossing, south of Dudley, to the site of Windmill End station and a little beyond with just a few detours around new buildings. Access to the line is more difficult as it approaches Old Hill but since little has been built on, its route is clearly visible on satellite images. The junction with the former South Staffordshire Line near New Road, Dudley, was obliterated in the late 1990s when the Dudley Southern By-Pass was built, although the South Staffordshire Line itself has been preserved and is set to re-open to goods trains and was an extension to the Midland Metro tram network from 2023 although cost overruns on the other part of the Metro extension has delayed this until 2025 at the earliest.

Related Research Articles

Tipton is an industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands County in England. It had a population of 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham and southeast of Wolverhampton. It is also contiguous with nearby towns of Darlaston, Dudley, Wednesbury and Bilston.

Wednesbury Great Western Street tram stop is a tram stop in Wednesbury, Sandwell, England. It was opened on 31 May 1999 and is situated on West Midlands Metro Line 1. The stop is next to the West Midlands Metro tram depot.

Dudley Port railway station serves the Dudley Port and Great Bridge areas of Tipton, West Midlands, England. Situated on both the Stour Valley Line and Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line, the station is operated by West Midlands Railway.

Netherton is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, 2 miles (3 km) south of Dudley in the West Midlands of England. It was historically part of Worcestershire. The town is part of the Black Country, Netherton is bounded by nature reserves to the east and west, and an industrial area and the Dudley Southern By-Pass to the north.

Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, in the West Midlands county, England, is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, (BCN). It was constructed at a 453–foot elevation, the Wednesbury or Birmingham level; it has no locks. The total length of the branch canal is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) and the canal tunnel is 9,081 feet (2,768 m) long.

The South Staffordshire line is a partially mothballed and active former mainline that connects Burton-upon-Trent to Lichfield in Staffordshire and formerly then to the West Midlands towns of Walsall, Wednesbury, Dudley and Stourbridge. However, Dudley and Stourbridge were already joined to the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway's (OW&WR) line just north of Dudley Station. It in essence, continued to Stourbridge along with Wednesbury and Walsall.

Dudley Freightliner Terminal was opened on the site of Dudley railway station in November 1967, as one of Freightliner's first rail terminals. It was an instant financial success and by 1981 was one of the most profitable Freightliner terminals in Britain, but Freightliner announced plans to close it and transfer the staff to the less successful Birmingham terminal. These plans were shelved in 1983 but resurfaced in 1986, with the terminal finally closing in September 1989. Trains continued to pass the site of the Freightliner terminal until the Wednesbury to Round Oak section of the South Staffordshire Line and Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton line closed in March 1993.

The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh network of connected navigable inland waterways and forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route.

Dudley railway station was a railway station in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, built where the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line and the South Staffordshire Line diverged to Wolverhampton and Walsall and Lichfield respectively.

Brettell Lane railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line which served the town of Brierley Hill in England.

Brierley Hill railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line serving the town of Brierley Hill in England.

Blowers Green railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line in Dudley, West Midlands, England.

Great Bridge North railway station was a station on the South Staffordshire Line that served the village of Great Bridge and town of Tipton in Staffordshire, England.

Wednesbury Town railway station was a station on the South Staffordshire Line.

Windmill End railway station was a station on the former Great Western Railway's Bumble Hole Line between Blowers Green and Old Hill.

The Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Line was part of the Great Western Railway's London Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside route. As the name suggests, it ran between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level in England. The line was dual-gauged, both 7 ft 1⁄4 in and 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge.

The present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit, in Bumble Hole and Warren's Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley No. 2 Canal until the opening of the Netherton Tunnel in 1858 when the loop was bypassed by a new cut, in line with the new tunnel. Part of the bypassed canal loop, which surrounds Bumble Hole, is now in-filled giving access to the pool of Bumble Hole. An area next to the Bumble Hole and Dudley canals is the Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve.

Baptist End railway station was a halt on the former Great Western Railway's Bumble Hole Line between Blowers Green and Old Hill.

Warren's Hall Country Park is a local nature reserve situated in Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in the West Midlands of England. It lies next to Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve. It includes ponds, canals, grassland, small wooded areas and the entrance to Netherton Canal Tunnel.

Netherton railway station served the town of Netherton, Dudley, England, from 1852 to 1878 on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.

References

↑ "How Dr Beeching got it so wrong « Express & Star". www.expressandstar.com. 3 April 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
1 2 Shaw, Dan (6 October 2011). "When the slow train stopped at Windmill End". Black Country Bugle. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
↑ Doherty, Andy (12 November 2008). "Beeching & the Black Country". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2016.

52°29′27″N2°04′08″W / 52.4909°N 2.0688°W / 52.4909; -2.0688

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[1] "How Dr Beeching got it so wrong « Express & Star". www.expressandstar.com. 3 April 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[:BCB:-2] 1 2 Shaw, Dan (6 October 2011). "When the slow train stopped at Windmill End". Black Country Bugle. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

[3] Doherty, Andy (12 November 2008). "Beeching & the Black Country". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2016.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Bumble Hole line

Contents

Opening

Closure

Remains

See also

Related Research Articles

References