Railways in Worcestershire

RAILWAYS IN WORCESTERSHIRE
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Lines > Upton Line
Malvern to Ashchurch Railway

Malvern to Upton upon Severn, Tewkesbury and Ashchurch

This was a Midland Railway branch line from Ashchurch that made a connection with the Hereford and Worcester Railway at Malvern. The line opened in the 1860s but was not a great success.

The line started from a bay platform at the south end of the 'down' platform at Great Malvern. Trains for the line to Ashchurch shared the Hereford and Worcester Railway tracks for about a mile before diverging to the east to run parallel to St Andrew's Road at Malvern Wells. After passing through a road bridge on Peachfield Road the line went south to the first station at Hanley Road (on the other side of the road from the Three Counties Showground. The line then turned south-east to pass under the B4208 (Malvern to Gloucester) road (infilled c1970), over a minor road (demolished c1965) to Brotheridge Green. About a mile further on there is another intact bridge where the line passes under the Welland to Upton upon Severn minor road to reach Upton on Severn on an embankment No trace remains of the station of Upton upon Severn. The line then crossed the River Severn before passing under a minor road at Saxon's Lode. The road bridge at the former station at Ripple is also still extant as is the station itself (in use as a private house). The railway then ran parallel to the minor road for about a mile before passing into Gloucestershire. A major relic is a bridge over the M50 motorway. From Ripple the line went to Tewkesbury and joined the Midland Railway at Ashchurch. Both Tewkesbury and Ashchurch are in Gloucestershire.

The section from Upton upon Severn to Ashchurch closed on 14th August 1961. A photo taken on this date can be found here.

The section of line from Malvern to Upton upon Severn was closed in 1952 except for a short siding from the junction with the Hereford and Worcester Railway to Peachfield road that saw occasional goods traffic until closure in the early 1960s.

Upton timetable 1955

This is the advertised timetable for the period from 13th June 1955 to 18th September 1955. Judging by the sparsity of services and inappropriate scheduling it is hard to envisage more than a handful of passengers on any service.

The service from Upton-on-Severn (sic) to Ashchurch was three trains:

08:00 from Upton; 08:05 Ripple; 08:12 Tewkesbury to Ashchurch at 08:18 Monday to Friday) (07:45 departure from Upton on Saturdays).

13:30 from Upton; 13:34 Ripple; Tewkesbury 13:44 to Ashchurch at 13:38 (this train ran on Saturdays only).

17:45 from Upton ;17:57 Ripple (after an 8 minute station stop!); 18::07 Tewkesbury to Ashchurch at 18:10.

This meagre service was augmented with three extra trains from Tewkesbury to Ashchurch at 08:53; 11:00 (Saturdays only); 13:44 and 16:20.

It was an even worse service from Ashchurch to Upton-on-Severn (sic)with only one train during the week:

11:15 from Ashchurch; 11:22 Tewkesbury; 11:31 Ripple to Upton at 11:37 (Saturdays only!)

Extra trains ran from Ashchurch to Tewkesbury ran at 08:35: 09:24; 14:25 and 18:20.

17:10 from Ashchurch; 17:17 Tewkesbury; 17:25 Ripple to Upton at 17:30

Connections at Ashchurch were good for trains to Cheltenham and Gloucester.

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