Stratford on Avon Railway
In 1861 it was connected through Stratford to a branch line from Honeybourne, and this later enabled the development of a through mineral traffic.
[1] The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) opened its main line throughout in 1854; it passed through Honeybourne, somewhat to the east of Evesham.
[2][3][4][page needed] While the OW&WR branch line was under construction, interested parties promoted the Stratford-on-Avon Railway.
This was to run to Stratford from the GWR (Birmingham and Oxford) line at Hatton, to the west of Leamington.
[3] A new Stratford-on-Avon joint station was opened on 1 January 1863, used by the Great Western Rail (GWR) and the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.
The original Stratford on Avon Railway (SoAR) terminal became a goods depot from the same day.
[12][13] The East and West Junction Railway was conceived to convey Northamptonshire iron ore to South Wales, but it never fully achieved that aim.
[18][9] A North Curve was installed at Hatton, forming a triangular junction and giving a direct run towards Birmingham came into use on 1 July 1897.
The GWR accelerated its services between Birmingham and Stratford using the curve, and bringing the fastest time to about forty minutes.
[19] On 1 August 1899, the Great Western Railway (GWR) obtained an authorising act of Parliament[which?]
for a high speed line from Honeybourne to Cheltenham; the maximum gradient was to be 1 in 108 and the tightest curve radius was to be half a mile.
This gave the GWR a route between Birmingham and Bristol via Stratford and Cheltenham independent of the Midland Railway.
[21][page needed][22] Stratford station was enlarged, a footbridge provided, and awnings were added over the platforms in 1899.
[5] With the creation of the new route from Birmingham to Cheltenham early in the twentieth century, double track from Bearley to Stratford was brought into use on 9 December 1907.
[23] In the 1880s and later there was growing dissatisfaction with the service provided by the Great Western Railway in its area of influence.
They all called at Stratford for two to five minutes on their way to the stop at... Cheltenham at the south end of the Great Western’s 1906 line... By 1939 the number of Birmingham-Bristol trains on ordinary week-days had fallen to four, [and] one to Swansea...
As part of the work, the original Claverdon passenger station was closed and replaced by a new one west of the overbridge.
The main part of the train ran from Paddington to Wolverhampton, but three coaches were uncoupled at Leamington and taken on to Stratford, often by 2-6-2T No.
