It agreed to joint construction with others of the costly Wolverhampton to Birmingham section, the so-called Stour Valley Line.

By this time it was obvious that the LNWR was an impossible partner, and the S&BR allied itself to the Great Western Railway, which reached Wolverhampton in 1854.

With the S&BR and other absorbed railways, the GWR obtained a through route between London and the River Mersey at Birkenhead, and to Manchester and Liverpool by the use of running powers.

It was these lines that went to the 1845 session of Parliament as the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway, but the scheme failed Standing Orders and was rejected.

This changed the competitive situation completely, and both factions within the LNWR abandoned their support for any Shrewsbury line.

The directors instructed that the major structures on the line be made suitable for broad gauge track, in case that were to be laid later.

This extended to illegal acts; the worst of these took place around Chester, involving the two railways that opposed the LNWR there.

[13] Further south the LNWR engaged in a price war, in which fares dropped to unreasonably low levels, in an attempt to coerce the S&BR.

[9] The S&BR was alienated from the LNWR, and turned to the Great Western Railway, which was building its own line towards Wolverhampton.

[16][17][18] LNWR actions included packing shareholders’ meetings with nominees, the forging of a S&BR company seal, and numerous other improper procedures.

As the S&BR and S&CR became increasingly aligned to the GWR, LNWR aggression turned to the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway.

Nevertheless, in 1851 the Associated Companies (the GWR, the S&BR and the S&CR) obtained running powers over the BL&CJR, giving them ultimately access to Birkenhead, Liverpool and Manchester.

It was evidently physically completed, but the LNWR now adopted underhand tactics to delay opening that would permit the S&BR trains to run on the line.

The matter dragged on, with alleged unsafe factors on the line being used to delay opening, in some cases assisted by the Board of Trade inspector.

The LNWR was still able to prevent the S&BR trains running, by failing to agree operating rules at Wolverhampton and Birmingham stations, and numerous other artificial difficulties.

Its course passed through the S&B locomotive and carriage works at Stafford Road; this was quite new, and many modern buildings were demolished to make way for the new connecting line.

[25][26] The Shrewsbury lines which the GWR now absorbed were not greatly profitable; and they had huge indebtedness in debentures and guaranteed preference shares.

[29] From 1854 the Great Western Railway had a through route from Paddington to the Mersey at Birkenhead., albeit with a break of gauge at Wolverhampton.

Oxley marshalling yard was developed just north of the divergence from the Stafford line, and a large carriage servicing depot was later established there.

The Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway network gave direct access for goods trains to Liverpool and Manchester.

The BL&CJR was now owned jointly by the GWR and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as successor to the LNWR.

The main line railways of Great Britain were nationalised in 1948, but the train service pattern remained largely unchanged for some time.

The loss of heavy industry resulted in diminished mineral traffic; and the common ownership of alternative routes led to diversion of much trunk freight to other lines.

[31] Oxley Sidings had become an important carriage servicing depot, and the line from there to Wolverhampton High Level was electrified in 1972.

In 2009 a rail freight depot known as Telford International Railfreight Park was opened, partly funded by generous Government grants.