GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Olton Station: gwro1021

Postcard of Olton station looking towards Birmingham Snow Hill with the down platform on the left and the up platform on the right, with a barrow crossing in the foreground. There was no footbridge here passenger access to the platforms was via two pairs of footpaths which lead down to the public road underbridges at each end of the station (see image 'old_olton_map'). The original station arrangement was neat and compact compared to others on the line. The extra wide 'six foot' - the distance between the two tracks - reveals Brunel's broad gauge heritage of the route when the rails of each track was set 7'-0¼" apart. When the route was converted to standard gauge – 4’-8½" between rails - the distance left between the two tracks was greater as seen above. The main station building on the left was on the down platform. This had two chimneys whilst the up platform had only one indicating that the booking office was situated on the down platform. The platform was paved with tiles and had a stone edging.

In the distance is the second signal box built in June 1913 to control the entrance into the quadrupled section of track, which would eventually provide main and relief lines all the way from here to Moor Street. It is thought that this photograph was taken shortly after this date. In the foreground on the right, is the aperture in the up platform wall for the point rodding and signal wires from the original signal box seen in image 'gwro2304'.

Robert Ferris

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