page_title: Worcester and Hereford Railway
section_title: Conception
hierarchical_section_title: Worcester and Hereford Railway / Conception
caption_attribution_description: English: System map of the Worcester and Hereford Railway in England when it opened throughout in 1861
context_page_description: The Worcester and Hereford Railway started the construction of a standard gauge railway between the two cities in 1858. It had needed the financial assistance of larger concerns, chiefly the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, and the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway. It opened its line progressively from 1859 to 1861, delayed by exceptionally difficult tunnelling at Colwall and Ledbury. The company was purchased by the West Midland Railway in 1860, and that company amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1863.
  The line was double track as far as Malvern at first, but was later doubled throughout except for the two tunnels. The line was conceived chiefly as a through railway for passenger and goods trains; the local traffic remained thin.
  The line remained a secondary main line, and is in operation today.
context_section_description: The London and North Western Railway decided to promote a narrow (standard) gauge Worcester and Hereford Railway in the 1852 session of Parliament. It had allies in the Midland Railway and also the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway, and hoped to reach the rich mineral deposits of South Wales by running over those railways. Its Bill was rejected in the Lords in 1852, but it returned with a revised route in 1853. The Broad Gauge interest promoted a different line joining the two cities, intending to keep the LNWR and its friends out of South Wales.
  The narrow gauge line was successful, and its Act was passed on 15 August 1853; authorised capital was £750,000. The broad gauge line was thrown out; but at the time Parliament was suspicious of large groupings of railways in the hands of one dominant company, and it struck out all the clauses in the Bill giving powers of subscribing for shares, or for working arrangements, by the LNWR or the Midland Railway.
  The Worcester and Hereford Railway was therefore authorised, but left on its own, and it found itself unable to raise capital to build its line. A return to Parliament in the 1855 in an attempt to have the assistance clauses reinstated was also rejected. This left the W&HR in a state of stagnation.
  After a year or more the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway took up the cause of the W&HR, encouraged by directors of the NA&HR who had become also members of the Worcester and Hereford Railway board, and later the Midland Railway joined in the group of potential suppliers of funds. An application for the necessary powers was made in the 1858 session, and by now Parliament had softened its position, and the Bill was passed.
  Construction could now be started and a double line was in the process of being constructed from Worcester to Malvern, and a single line from there to Shelwick Junction, where the line would join the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway a few miles north of Hereford. At Worcester there was to be a triangular junction. A triangular junction had been authorised at Shelwick also, but this was never made.
caption: The Worcester and Hereford Railway
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