LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Tamworth
The Birmingham & Derby Railway (B&D) opened for traffic
on 12th August 1839 and the section of the route which falls within the county
border, was different to the route used by passengers today. Originally it was
planned to connect with the London & Birmingham Railway at Stechford just
outside Birmingham, where there was the possibility it would also meet with the
Birmingham & Gloucester Railway. London bound traffic would be catered for
via a short branch line from Whitacre to Hampton which was for a very short
time the only route to the north from Euston. The Hampton interchange for
London bound traffic soon proved to the B&D that sharing with the L&B
was unsatisfactory and that the Stechford interchange would also be
problematic. Consequently they applied to parliament to vary their powers for
the yet to be built Whitacre to Stechford route so that they could run
independently into the Lawley Street, adjacent to the L&B's and Grand
Junction's Curzon Street station.
This meant that the route from Whitacre would now run along the
River Tame valley connecting Castle Bromwich, Water Orton and Forge Mills. On
the 10th February 1842 the new section of line opened to passengers with goods
traffic following on 11th April and mail trains on 1st July 1842. The pictorial
story of the Birmingham to Derby route is explained in Bob Pixton's thoroughly
enjoyable book 'Birmingham-Derby
Portrait of a Famous Route'. The Midland Railway, which was formed by the
merger of the B&D with the Midland Counties Railway and the North Midland
Railway in 1844, transferred passenger traffic back to Curzon Street via a new
spur on 1st May 1851 and developed Lawley Street into a goods depot. Three
years two months later passenger services were transferred yet again, this time
to the newly opened LNWR's new 'Central' station in New Street station.
As Bob Pixton comments, "so passengers for Derby would have used
three different stations to depart from Birmingham!" In fact as the Hampton
route was initially used for Birmingham to Derby traffic it could be argued
they used four. Through trains however avoided New Street due to the necessity
for a reversal and continued to use the old Birmingham & Gloucester (now
part of the Midland Railway) railway's route via Camp Hill. Being a MR
initiative the company classified traffic direction as starting from Derby
meaning trains travelling to Birmingham were classified as 'down' trains and
trains travelling to Derby were 'up' trains. Later the only significant change
to the route was the adding of a short cut between Water Orton and Kingsbury
used primarily by passenger traffic although fast fitted goods would also be
allowed access at certain times during the day.
Select a station or subheading to view associated images.
Numbers in [brackets] specify the number of photos on each page.
The route then continues on to Derby via Wichnor Junction,
Burton on Trent, Stenson Junction.