Evesham was formerly served by two railway companies each with their own station. The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway opened their station in the town on 1st May 1852 whilst the London Midland Railway Station opened on 4th May 1868. The only station now open is the one on the Worcester to Oxford line as the Midland closed on 17th June 1963. The stations were adjacent and shared a common approach road. A small locomotive engine shed stood to the north of the station where the lines to Worcester and Ashchurch diverged. Click here for more information about Evesham Locomotive Sheds. Usually some of Worcester's allocation of 0-6-0 'Pannier' tanks plus a Collett 2-6-0 tender engine or 0-6-0 locomotive were outstationed here. Much fruit from the Vale of Evesham was loaded at the extensive sidings here and latterly shunting duties in the freight yard were performed by a diesel shunter.
This is the view from the 'down' platform in the direction on Oxford.
At the west end of the station a few sidings sometimes used by engineer's trains still remain. The view through the bridge is looking towards the loco shed, the dark shape that is visible through the right hand arch is the signal box (built 1957-1958 replacing the two older ones). The red brick building in the centre of the picture had three users during steam operation. The nearest door on the end was the platelayers cabin, the middle doorway was the carriage & wagon examiners cabin and workshop whilst the far doorway was the shunters cabin. A little nearer to the station and set back was a huge water tank to supply the water for the locos. The water was pumped to the tank from a pump house on the river bank on the up side just beyond the signalbox. The pump was worked by electricity controlled by float switches in the tank. Before an electric motor was put in there was a small stationary boiler and all the firemen had to raise steam and fill the tank before going off duty.
The passengers on platform 1 are waiting for a train to Worcester. There is an impressive station building complete with wooden seats on the 'up' platform.
Viewed from the station footbridge is the old LMSR station now called 'The Signal House' beyond the parked cars.
All four photographs were taken by Andrew Smith on 12th July 2002.
Tom Cook provides this interesting anecdote about Evesham:
'Just came across your website it is very interesting with the information on the sheds. My grandfather John Cook ran a business which was in the LMSR Goods Yard and after he retired my father ran it till it was closed in 1969. My Father was Stephen Cook (Steve) the business was called The British Basket & Besto Ltd - it did chip baskets and punnets for fruit, as I remember the Baskets were made in Wisbech and came to Evesham to be distributed. I always remember spending a lot of time with Dad's secretary Beryl Sadler and a girl called Phyllis they always took me to see the trains. I have some great memories of the railway in Evesham. It was only a few years ago the last bit of Dad's warehouse/offices were demolished, but i managed to get in before that and on the wall was my two sister's mine and my brother's heights and ages were still on the wall. I will try and get some photos sorted for your website. Kind Regards Tom Cook.
Doug Carver has supplied this interesting article:
'Dear Andrew, I was looking through an old magazine the other day and there was a picture of 78008 on a local from Kingham (Wos sub shed) to Oxford. there's only one cop of the 78xxx 2MT and that is 78008 (78008 was at Worcester from 1953 to 1962 - ACS). we had 78004 (on loan from Gloucester? - ACS) sent to Evesham to work the 7.03 turn two trips Leamington, with the covered tender the idea was to work without turning the loco, we were made up with comfy seats, injectors in front very handy, and a speedometer, we found that we peaked 75 to 80 mph between stations, with station stops and water stops we averaged 30 mph for the whole journey. Our back working the 9.05 am Leamington to Evesham loaded anything from 6 to 10 coaches with return stock working and through coaches from Paddington to Stratford upon Avon (full of Yanks) so at times the 78xxx was very overloaded and really struggled up Hatton bank. When going tender first and the coal was down a bit there was a howling gale across the footplate bringing lumps of coal and slack with it. The fire hole doors had a tendency to stick closed when they got hot the only way to open them was heavy work with the coal pick and levering with the fire irons, due to the overloading they were removed from the passenger work at Evesham. They were then tried on local pickups but to reverse during shunting it was 24 turns of the reverser to change direction, causing delay to the shunting and exhaustion to the Driver. The 82xxx 3MT were tried for a bit, but they disappeared after a short time.
My Brother sent me a photo of the LMSR river bridge also the loco in the background taken about 1924, interesting is that the GWR shed roads are full of vans, no coal or ash wagons. was the shed out of use? '
Doug Carver
The following extract is from a 1930 Ordnance Survey map and clearly shows both stations and the complex of lines.
Click here for Littleton & Badsey
Click here for more on the Oxford line
Click here for more on the Redditch line
Click here for Evesham Vale Railway
Click here for Evesham Country Park