page_title: Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Hereford railway plaque and station boundary marker stone, England.
context_page_description: The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.
  Its natural ally seemed to be the Great Western Railway. With other lines it formed a route between the mineral resources of South Wales and the industries of the north-west of England, and this attracted the interest of the London and North Western Railway, which sought access to South Wales. The GWR and the LNWR jointly leased the S&HR line in 1862, later jointly acquiring ownership of it, in 1871. LNWR mineral traffic developed, and after the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886, the line became an important main line for traffic from the south-west of England to the north-west.
  With the decline in local passenger and goods traffic in the 1950s many intermediate stations closed, but the main line continues in important use at the present day.
context_section_description: The engineer for the construction of the line was Henry Robertson.
  1846 was a peak year for authorising railway schemes: there were 435 railway bills in the session as a whole. A financial slump followed, and it became impossible to get money for railway projects, and the directors were unable to proceed. In 1848 and 1849 efforts were made to reduce the estimated cost of construction so as to be able to make some progress. A single track line, and use of the Leominster Canal bed for the formation of the railway might bring the cost down to £480,000.
  In fact the time limit for construction set by Parliament expired and new powers were obtained in 1850. By this time, money had become easier to obtain, and a contract was let to Thomas Brassey for £345,822. The bridges would be made for a double line, but Dinmore Hill Tunnel would be a single line bore. The Shrewsbury station was to be built jointly with other lines: the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway, the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, and the Shropshire Union Railway.
  The days of austerity seemed to have passed, and the Shrewsbury station was of an elaborate character in the Tudor Gothic style. The station was ready and in use by the S&BR and the Shropshire Union Railway joint line (from Wellington) on 1 June 1849.
  The first part of the S&HR line was opened as a single line from Shrewsbury to Ludlow on 20 April 1852, and it was worked by Thomas Brassey, the contractor for the construction. The remainder was ready and opened throughout to the Barrs Court station at Hereford on 6 December 1853. A mile of single line from what became Barr's Court Junction to Barton station at Hereford, connecting in to the NA&HR line, was not opened until 14 days later due to a lack of proper signals at the junction.
  The Barr's Court station was constructed jointly with the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway; for some time the station was in effect two terminal stations, the S&H entering and leaving at the north end only. The HR&GR was a broad gauge line.
  Brassey worked the line at his own risk, paying 3.5% on the cost. From 1 July 1853 this was changed to a lease for nine years; during the final four years he was to pay the company 4% and half of surplus profits. The income from Brassey's contract enabled the company to pay 6% dividends on ordinary shares.
caption: A preserved boundary marker for the S&H at Hereford station in 2011
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