Ironbridge and Broseley railway station
Encyclopedia
Iron Bridge and Broseley railway station was a railway station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 with two through platforms on the Severn Valley Railway
Severn Valley Railway
The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route...

 Line in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

The station was on a section of the Severn Valley Line north of Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England, along the Severn Valley. It is split into Low Town and High Town, named on account of their elevations relative to the River Severn, which separates the upper town on the right bank from the lower on the left...

 and was demolished in 1966 to provide car parking space within the Severn Gorge. Until its closure on 25 November 1956, the signal box
Signal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...

 controlled railway traffic around the station and the level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...

 that lead to the Iron Bridge
The Iron Bridge
The Iron Bridge crosses the River Severn at the Ironbridge Gorge, by the village of Ironbridge, in Shropshire, England. It was the first arch bridge in the world to be made out of cast iron, a material which was previously far too expensive to use for large structures...

. Closure of the signal box resulted in the single line token instruments being relocated to the Station Master's office.

Interestingly, photographs of the station running-in board show the station name as "IRON-BRIDGE & BROSELEY" (with hyphen). The cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 nameplate on the signal box read "IRON BRIDGE & BROSELEY SIGNAL BOX" (Iron and Bridge being separate words without hyphen). Although thought by some people to have been closed as part of the Beeching axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

 in 1963 its planned closure pre-dated his report.

Prior to its closure rationalisation took place in the form of closure of the signal box, removal of the upper portion and relocation of the token instruments into the main station building.

Virtually all traces of the station platforms and building have been swept away and a "pay and display" car park presently occupies the site.

Surviving Artifacts

The astute observer can find those few traces of the site's former railway use. Two cast iron GWR style gate posts and one level crossing gate post survive along with rails in the roadway approaching the Ironbridge toll house. On the opposite side of the road an abutment of the footbridge visible in the accompanying photograph remains.
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