Lydney Junction railway station

Lydney Junction
Lydney Junction
Station on heritage railway
General information
Location	Lydney, Forest of Dean ; England
Coordinates	51°42′55″N2°31′51″W / 51.71534°N 2.53086°W
Grid reference	SO633020
Operated by	Dean Forest Railway
Platforms	2
History
Original company	Severn and Wye Railway

Last updated November 01, 2024

Lydney Junction railway station is a railway station near Lydney in Gloucestershire. The station is now the southern terminus of the Dean Forest Railway. It is located to the south of Lydney, near the A48 road.

History

Lydney Junction was the name of two separate but adjacent stations on two different railway lines. The Great Western Railway station, which remains open as Lydney railway station, opened in 1851 on the Gloucester to Chepstow section of the South Wales Railway. To the west of this station, the freight-only line of the Severn and Wye Mineral Railway crossed the GWR line on its north–south route taking coal and iron from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Lydney.

In 1875, the Severn and Wye started passenger services and built a new terminus station at Lydney Junction for passenger trains to and from Drybrook, near Cinderford. Four years later, this first station was superseded by a new one as the Severn and Wye joined with the Midland Railway in building the Severn Bridge Railway, which linked Lydney across the river Severn with the Midland's Sharpness Branch Line, enabling access for the Forest of Dean minerals to the new and more extensive docks at Sharpness.

The new Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) station was linked by a long footbridge to the GWR's station. It was built on a curve which took the line away to the east from the north–south line of the original freight railway, and there were extensive freight yards, which provided the only rail link between the Severn and Wye and the Great Western lines. The two stations worked closely together, particularly after 1894, when the Severn and Wye Railway was bought by the Great Western and the Midland. Finally, in 1955, under British Railways, the two stations were formally merged into one.^[1]

Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) was used as a through-station for passenger services to and from Berkeley Road railway station and over the Severn Railway Bridge. These services either terminated at Lydney Town railway station, which was in the centre of Lydney, or continued on northwards into the Forest of Dean to terminate at Lydbrook Junction on the Ross to Monmouth line. These services ceased abruptly in October 1960^[2] when the Severn Railway Bridge was damaged beyond economic repair in a shipping accident. Passenger services were officially withdrawn in November 1964.

Revival

After closure, the up platform and the station building were demolished. The down platform survived and forms the basis of the new Lydney Junction station on the heritage Dean Forest Railway. The station was reopened in 1995 when a signal box was opened to supervise a level crossing - the flat-roofed BR timber structure came originally from Heysham Port station in Lancashire. A row of locomotives, including 73002 and 08734, is on static display.

Services

Preceding station		Disused railways	Following station
Severn Bridge Station closed		Severn Bridge Railway Severn and Wye Railway, later MR and GWR	Lydney Town Station restored
	Heritage railways
Terminus		Dean Forest Railway	St Mary's Halt
	National Rail
Interchange with Lydney railway station on Gloucester-Newport line

Related Research Articles

The Severn Railway Bridge was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Company, primarily to carry coal from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Sharpness; it was the furthest-downstream bridge over the Severn until the opening of the Severn road bridge in 1966. When the company got into financial difficulties in 1893, it was taken over jointly by the Great Western Railway and the Midland Railway companies. The bridge continued to be used for freight and passenger services until 1960, and saw temporary extra traffic on the occasions that the Severn Tunnel was closed for engineering work.

Lydney railway station is a railway station serving the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the Gloucester-Newport line, 133 miles 37 chains (214.8 km) from the zero point at Paddington, measured via Stroud. The station is located a mile south of Lydney, and was originally called Lydney Junction, which is now the name of the nearby station on the preserved Dean Forest Railway.

The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the 7 ftBrunel gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway at the same time.

The South Wales Railway was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to reach Fishguard to engender an Irish ferry transit and transatlantic trade, but the latter did not materialise for many years, and never became an important sector of the business. Neyland was the western terminus of the line until 1906.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Severn and Wye Railway</span> Former railway in England

The Severn and Wye Railway began as an early tramroad network established in the Forest of Dean to facilitate the carriage of minerals to watercourses for onward conveyance. It was based on Lydney, where a small harbour was constructed, and opened its line to Parkend in 1810. It was progressively extended northwards, and a second line, the Mineral Loop was opened to connect newly opened mineral workings.

The Sharpness branch line is a railway in Gloucestershire, England, built by the Midland Railway (MR) to connect the port of Sharpness to the main Bristol and Gloucester Railway. The line opened for goods traffic in 1875 and to passenger traffic a year later. Passenger services were withdrawn in November 1964, but the line remains open for freight traffic to and from Sharpness Docks.

The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly 15 miles (24 km) along the Lower Wye Valley between the towns of Chepstow and Monmouth, crossing several times between Wales and England. Opened on 1 November 1876, it was leased to, and worked by, the Great Western Railway (GWR), before being fully absorbed by the GWR in 1905.

The Forest of Dean Railway was a railway company operating in Gloucestershire, England. It was formed in 1826 when the moribund Bullo Pill Railway and a connected private railway failed, and they were purchased by the new company. At this stage it was a horse-drawn plateway, charging a toll for private hauliers to use it with horse traction. The traffic was chiefly minerals from the Forest of Dean, in the Whimsey and Churchway areas, near modern-day Cinderford, for onward conveyance from Bullo Pill at first, and later by the Great Western Railway.

Berkeley railway station served the town of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, England. The station was on the Sharpness Branch Line, part of the Midland Railway (MR), which connected the Bristol and Gloucester Railway main line at Berkeley Road station with the docks at Sharpness.

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Sharpness railway station served the village and docks of Sharpness in Gloucestershire, England from 1875 to 1964.

The Coleford Railway was a railway company that constructed a short railway from near Monmouth to Coleford, close to the Forest of Dean. The company was sponsored by the Great Western Railway. It was built on part of the course of the Monmouth Railway, a horse-operated plateway, and it was intended that its primary business would be the conveyance of minerals and forest products from the Forest of Dean.

The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of 16 miles (26 km) which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to the ironworks of South Wales, by connecting to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway at Little Mill Junction. The NAHR made the onward connection over its Taff Vale Extension line. The CMU&PR intended to acquire the Monmouth Railway, actually a horse-operated plateway, and convert it to locomotive operation.

The Forest of Dean Central Railway was a mineral railway line designed to connect certain collieries in the central part of the Forest of Dean to a new dock at Brimspill on the River Severn. It was authorised by the Forest of Dean Central Railway Act 1856, but serious difficulties were encountered in raising the money to build it. It opened in 1868 by which time the principal colliery intended to be served had ceased operation. It was unable to finance the construction of the dock at Brimspill and relied on transfer of traffic to the main line of the South Wales Railway.

The Severn Bridge Railway was a railway company which constructed a railway from Lydney to Sharpness in Gloucestershire, England. It was intended chiefly to give access for minerals in the Forest of Dean to Sharpness Docks, and the company built a long bridge, 1,387 yards (1,268 m) in length, over the River Severn. The line opened in 1879.

Ross-on-Wye railway station is a former junction railway station on the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway constructed just to the north of the Herefordshire town of Ross-on-Wye. It was the terminus of the Ross and Monmouth Railway which joined the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway just south of the station.

The Monmouth Railway, also known as the Monmouth Tramroad, was a horse-drawn 3 ft 6 in gauge plateway. It ran for about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Howler's Slade, east of Coleford, in Gloucestershire and Monmouth; there were two branches from other mineral sites. It was intended to bring mineral products of the Forest of Dean to Monmouth, and to the works alongside the River Wye.

Speech House Road railway station is a disused railway station opened by the former Severn and Wye Railway in 1875, it remained open for 88 years until the line, north of Parkend, closed to freight in 1963. Passenger trains on the Severn and Wye Railway, north of Lydney, were withdrawn from 1929.

Cinderford New railway station was a railway station that was opened by the former Severn and Wye Railway to serve the mining town of Cinderford.

The Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway was an independent railway company incorporated in 1871, to provide a northerly outlet for iron ore and coal products from the Cinderford and Whimsey area in the Forest of Dean, to the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line; mineral traffic to industrial centres in South Wales and the Midlands was foreseen.

References

↑ Mike Oakley (2003). Gloucestershire Railway Stations. Wimborne: Dovecote Press. pp. 91–93. ISBN 1-904349-24-2.
↑ Quick, M. E. (2002). Railway passenger stations in England, Scotland and Wales – a chronology. Richmond: Railway and Canal Historical Society. p. 280–281. OCLC 931112387.