[1] The railway was quickly taken over by the Midland, whose main line between Bristol and Gloucester it joined at Stonehouse.
In 1885, the Midland Railway built a short branch line from Dudbridge to a new station at Stroud.
[2] The station at Stroud was perched on a high embankment above the Thames and Severn Canal.
The building was wooden and was described at the opening to passenger traffic as "temporary", though it lasted throughout the station's life and beyond.
That 1910 timetable shows the journey between Dudbridge and Stroud taking an average of five minutes, with fewer than 10 trains a day, a few of them directly running to or from Stonehouse.