page_title: Hamstead railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hamstead railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: "Looking towards Perry Barr under the arch of the overbridge carrying Old Walsall Road with the original station's down platform on the right. This view must have been taken in late 1898 or early 1899 as the new station opened in 1899 part of which can be seen under construction through archway. It is believed that the original 1862 station was built with staggered platforms, one platform being either side of the bridge with the down platform being opposite the signal cabin. When the new 1889 station was built it was only the new down platform and its associated station buildings which were resited opposite the original up platform."
context_page_description: Hamstead railway station serves the Hamstead, Great Barr and Handsworth Wood areas of Birmingham, England. It is located at the junction of Rocky Lane and Old Walsall Road, Hamstead, at Birmingham's border with the borough of Sandwell. It is situated on the Birmingham-Walsall Line, part of the former Grand Junction Railway, opened in 1837. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by West Midlands Trains.
  A bridge carrying Old Walsall Road over the railway serves as the only means for passengers to cross from one platform to the other.
context_section_description: The station was opened by the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) on 4 July 1837, and was named Hamstead and Great Barr; it was renamed Great Barr by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR, the successor to the GJR) on 1 May 1875. The same year an LNWR Type 3, 'size C' signalbox was erected at the station. The platforms were originally on opposite sides of the road bridge, with the down (Walsall-bound) platform to the west, but that platform was resited opposite the up platform on 25 March 1899. Sidings, controlled by the signalbox, served the adjacent Hamstead Colliery, west of the station and north of the line.
  The line through the station was electrified in 1966 as part of the London Midland Region's electrification programme. The actual energization of the line from Coventry to Walsall through Aston took place on 15 August 1966. The road bridge was replaced and the signalbox removed as part of the works (the nameplate from the signalbox is now in Chasewater Railway Museum). The station was renamed Hamstead on 6 May 1974.
  Occasionally, such as during Storm Dennis in February 2020, the nearby River Tame overflows and floods the station.
caption: The signal box and old station building, just before the latter's 1899 closure, with the new down platform seen under the original arched road bridge (replaced in the mid-1960s, when the line was electrified).
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