Gloucester Railway Station - History

History

The railway development at Gloucester was very complex involving four different railway companies and five distinct railway stations. The first company onto the scene was the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, which was a standard gauge line opening 4 November 1840. This line from Cheltenham was built by the Birmingham and Gloucester railway on a formation built by the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway (see below). The first station was a terminus built on land near the cattle market. This was seen as a temporary structure to be replaced by a more permanent structure nearer the docks when more finance was available, but this never happened and this structure determined the site of the station today.

The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway (C&GWU) opened a 7 ft 0 1⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) broad gauge line from Swindon to Gloucester on the 8 July 1844, and built their station adjacent and to the north of the Birmingham and Gloucester station. The line from Gloucester to Cheltenham was upgraded to mixed gauge so that the C&GWU could share tracks to Cheltenham, which meant trains had to reverse at Gloucester.

At the same time as the C&GWU opened, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway also opened a broad gauge line from Bristol to Standish Junction a few miles south of Gloucester, and shared the tracks of the C&GWU into Gloucester station. In 1845, the Midland Railway, which had already bought the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, also absorbed the Bristol and Gloucester Railway. Similarly, the Great Western Railway had taken over the C&GWU, which resulted in a jointly-owned (MR & GWR), mixed-gauge station from which trains ran on shared mixed-gauge track both northwards and southwards from Gloucester.

In 1847, the GWR opened the Cheltenham Loop line which completed the triangle junction east of the station. This allowed GWR trains to avoid the reversal at Gloucester, but so as to allow GWR passengers to access Gloucester, a link line was built to a station on the loop called the Gloucester T station. Carriages were detached from trains at the T station, turned on turntables and taken into the main Gloucester station. This operation was not very successful and so was abandoned, along with the loop line, in 1851. Hereafter, GWR trains from London to Cheltenham continued to reverse at the main station, a practise that continues to this day.

On the 19 September 1851, the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway and the South Wales Railway opened a line south westwards from Gloucester towards the Forest of Dean, Chepstow and South Wales. A new, 2-platform through station was built immediately north of the existing station, although this was rebuilt in 1855 with a longer, single platform after it was found the original station was too small.

On 22 May 1854, the Midland Railway opened a new, standard gauge railway between Gloucester and Standish Junction, thus avoiding running on the ex-CGWU line into Gloucester. This new line paralleled the old route as far as Tuffley, before swinging into Gloucester and looping back onto the main Bristol to Birmingham line (the Tuffley loop). The MR also rebuilt the old 1840 station, lengthening platforms and adding new buildings, but because this was still a terminus and the Tuffley loop headed eastwards, trains still had to reverse in and out of the station. This anomaly was not sorted out for another 40 years until the MR opened a new station on 12 April 1896, south-east of the existing station, on the Tuffley loop. The old station was demolished to be replaced by sidings, and the new MR station was linked to the GWR station by a 250-yard long covered footbridge.

In 1901, the Cheltenham Loop, now known as the Gloucester avoiding line, was re-instated primarily for goods traffic, but also for passengers from 1908. Between 1914 and 1920, the GWR station was expanded with a second long platform north of the running lines, 2 centre tracks for through movements and bay platforms. The 2 main platforms were also split in two with a scissors crossing in the middle. In 1951, the Western station was renamed Gloucester Central and the Midland station renamed Gloucester Eastgate to avoid confusion.

By the mid-1960s, plans were floated to rationalise the stations - the 1914 upside platform at Gloucester Central was reduced to a parcels-only platform and Gloucester Eastgate was reduced to 2 platforms. There was also a proposal for an entirely new station on the triangular junction east of the existing stations, to avoid the troublesome reversals, but this wasn't taken further. Even then, Gloucester Eastgate was seen as a hindrance because the Tuffley loop line had 5 level crossings causing a lot of traffic problems. Therefore, in 1975, Gloucester Eastgate and the Tuffley loop line were closed and all operations were concentrated at Gloucester Central. This station was redeveloped and re-opened in 1977 with new station buildings and an extended platform at 1977 ft, long enough to take two Inter-City 125 trains then being introduced to the Western Region. In 1984, the 1914 parcels platform was bought back into use at a passenger platform and a new footbridge was opened to provide access.

Gloucester's second station, Gloucester Eastgate, was connected via covered footbridge until that station closed in 1975, due to level crossings affecting the city's road traffic. Eastgate station provided sharply curved through platforms on the Bristol-Birmingham (former Midland Railway) Line, avoiding the current problems with trains having to reverse.