Hereford, Ross & Gloucester Railway
The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway (also known as the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway), was a railway which ran for 22 1⁄2 miles (36.2 km) linking Hereford and Gloucester via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge line, it was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1862. In 1869 the railway was converted to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. The railway was closed to passengers on 2 November 1964, freight services between Ross-on-Wye railway station and Grange Court railway station continued on until 1 November 1965.
On 1 June 1851 Parliament passed an act allowing the railway's construction and although construction was delayed by bad weather in January 1853 the line was tested out by locomotives on 31 May 1855; the next day the railway was officially opened, 1 June 1855.
The Illustrated London News on 14 June reported that the opening had been a great success. There were six passenger trains a day from Hereford and five from Gloucester.
On 13 March 1855 the line suffered its first fatality when Charlotte Brian fell asleep on the line while intoxicated and was run over by the 7:30pm train from Hereford. She died of her injuries.
In 1873 another railway was opened to Ross-on-Wye, this was the Ross and Monmouth Railway. The railway remained independent for just over 7 years until the line was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) on 29 July 1862, the GWR operated the railway from then on until the nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948; the line then became part of the Western Region of British Railways until its final closure.
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