Brettell Lane railway station

Brettell Lane railway station
Brettel Lane station in 2003; the line is still open for freight trains
Location
Place	Dudley
Area	Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
Coordinates	52°28′26″N 2°08′13″W / 52.4740°N 2.1369°W / 52.4740; -2.1369Coordinates: 52°28′26″N 2°08′13″W / 52.4740°N 2.1369°W / 52.4740; -2.1369
Grid reference	SO908862
Operations
Original company	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
1852	Opened
1962	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Brettell Lane railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line built to serve the communities between Brierley Hill and Stourbridge in England.

It was opened in 1852 by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. Local coal mining and steel mills lead to rapid industrialisation of the area and heavy usage of the station in the early 20th century, but numbers had declined badly by the 1960s.

In 1858 a coupling broke on an excursion train at the station and the rear portion rolled back down the gradient from Round Oak railway station towards Brettell Lane where it collided with another train (which was actually part of the same excursion, the train already having been safely divided once due to its extreme length) 14 passengers were killed and 50 more injured.

The line had reasonable passenger usage until about the early 1880s, when it began to slump at several stations, leading to the line becoming a largely freight only operation in 1887. It would remain open for goods traffic, which was considerable at this time, as the district had become highly industrialised in the then heyday of the Black Country's industrial past.

As the local industry declined and road transport became more common, the station entered a post-World War 2 decline.

British Rail closed the station pre-Beeching in 1962. Two railways/routes served the station - originally the OW&WR and the South Staffordshire Railway, which later became the Great Western Railway and London, Midland and Scottish Railway (through amalgamation of the London and North Western Railway) respectively.

Today, only freight trains pass through the former site of the station, for access to the now declining Moor Lane Goods Yard a few hundred yards away on its own spur line. The station has been largely built over with a factory and several warehouses on one side and fenced off on the other.