page_title: Stratford on Avon Railway
section_title: Connecting the branches
hierarchical_section_title: Stratford on Avon Railway / Connecting the branches
caption_attribution_description: Castle Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe on the Shakespeare Express Wilmcote 14-08-2011
context_page_description: The Stratford on Avon Railway was a branch railway line opened in 1860, to connect the town to the Great Western Railway main line at Hatton, in England. It was worked by the GWR. In 1861 it was connected through Stratford on Avon to a branch line from Honeybourne, and this later enabled the development of a through mineral traffic. The company was absorbed by the GWR in 1883.
  In 1906 a trunk route was opened from Honeybourne to Cheltenham, so that the GWR now had an independent route from Birmingham to Bristol, partly over the Stratford Railway, which was modernised for the purpose. In 1907-1908 the GWR’s position was further enhanced when North Warwickshire Line opened, making a shorter route from Birmingham and joining the original line at Bearley
  .
  The heavy mineral traffic, and later the through passenger traffic, was diverted away from the line, and it was curtailed at Stratford. It remains in passenger use as the Stratford upon Avon branch of the Chiltern Main Line, and the Stratford end of the North Warwickshire Line.
context_section_description: There were now two Stratford branches approaching the town from opposite directions, and there was a gap between them. On 24 July 1861 the line was extended from the OW&WR's temporary terminus to a junction with the Stratford on Avon railway. The link was made by the Stratford-on-Avon Railway. At first the connecting line used the OW&WR station, which was temporary, and by-passed the original Stratford-on-Avon Railway terminal at Birmingham Road; trains may have reversed into it from the connecting line. Through trains started running between Leamington, Worcester and Malvern from 1 August 1861.
caption: Wilmcote station in 2011
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