GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Olton Station: gwro258

Photograph of Olton station taken a short time prior to the start of its reconstruction in 1932. Viewed from the Leamington end of the up platform with the second signal box in the distance. This signal box and the signals mark the start of the existing five mile section of quadrupled section of track, which had by then reached Moor Street station. Olton station developed from a mainly rural outpost to a busy commuter station on the route to Birmingham. There were approximately 30 weekday passenger trains in each direction stopping at Olton in 1927 and this had increased to more than 40 weekday passenger trains in each direction in 1934, but the increase in capacity did not however lead to an increase in station staff, as Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith in their book 'Banbury to Birmingham' record that staff numbers fell from eleven in 1923 to seven in 1935.

Robert Ferris

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