GWR Route: Alcester to Bearley

Alcester Station (MR): gwra474a

A close up of the Alcester Branch Engine Shed on 28th February 1953.. The single road engine shed was constructed in 1876 by Messrs Scott and Edwards for the sum of £733 19s 4d. The shed was closed in WW1 on 1st November 1915, fourteen months before the branch line was closed, but it reopened on 1st August 1923 when the line was reinstated. The engine shed closed for the final time at the start of WW2 on 27th October 1939.

Difficulties with the Midland Railway over the junction arrangement, meant that the connection to the engine shed had to be made to GW metals via a short head shunt instead of as intended from the MR goods yard. The entrance seen here would have been the front if the original plan of the Alcester Railway Engineer, William Clarke, had been accepted.

To the left of the entrance is the water tower, while to the right is brick remains of a later coaling stage constructed in April 1900. Originally this coaling stage had a wooden platform 20ft long by 9ft wide.

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