British Railway History in Colour Volume 10: Branch Lines to Leominster and Kington

£35.00

Leominster today is a two platform station on a double line of plain track, but once it was the junction for branch lines heading east to Bromyard and Worcester, and west to Kington and New Radnor. Before reaching Kington, this latter branch passed through Titley Junction, where further branches from Eardisley, on the Hereford, Hay & Brecon line, and Presteign also came in. All of these branches are now long gone, with some having much longer working lives than others, but all once performed a vital function for the communities they served. The earliest branch, to Kington from Leominster, opened in 1857 and along with the branch to Presteign (which BR had more correctly renamed Presteigne), it was also the last to go when the freight service was withdrawn on 24th September 1964, outlasting the branch from Worcester to Bromyard by two weeks.

In British Railway History in Colour Volume 10: Branch Lines to Leominster and Kington, the author, Neil Parkhouse, follows the route, travelling through some of Britain’s most rural countryside in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Radnorshire. The journey starts at Worcester Shrub Hill station and includes a visit to the engine sheds. Then heading over the River Severn and through the western outskirts of the city, at Bransford Road Junction the route follows the line to Bromyard and Leominster. Work began on building the line in 1864, mired in financial difficulties from the start, it was only completed in 1897, then fifty-five years later the last section from Leominster closed in September 1952, leaving the rest as a branch to Bromyard. The route then travels to Leominster, before heading off west to Kington, then to Eardisley, up an obscure branch to Titley Junction (opened in 1874) and then via Kington to New Radnor (opened in 1875) and finally Titley Junction to Presteign, also opened in 1875.

Passenger service withdrawals west of Leominster were early, all pre-Beeching, with Eardisley to Titley Junction going in 1940, to New Radnor and Presteign in 1951 and Leominster to Kington in 1955. Features ex-GWR steam, both passenger and goods trains, ex-GWR diesel railcars and Class ‘122’ units. In a departure from previous volumes in this series, there is a fine selection of early postcard views, mainly sepia, along with the usual array of colour photographs, which show these stations in their heyday. Track plans are included, courtesy of OS extracts, and a fine selection of colour plans of the lines to Kington from GWR 2-chain surveys.

281 images. 50 maps and track plans. Hardback. 208 pages.