Development of Railways in Gloucester

We opened our 2022/23 season with a presentation on The Development of Railways in Gloucester and Gloucestershire by Tony Conder. The Birmingham and Gloucester arrived first. The Bristol and Gloucester brought broad gauge to the City – Horton Road Level Crossing (which is still there) was the meeting point for the three gauges (there was an early tramway in the mix too!) as the rivals landed alongside each other pretty much where the current Gloucester Station resides. The problem for all of them, back in the 1840s, was the need for trains going north, south, and east all needing to reverse direction. A direct north/south line was built with a T station at the top of the triangle allowing carriages for Gloucester to be unhitched, turned through 90 degrees on a turntable, and taken down to the city centre. Later the Midland built a new city centre station at Eastgate which allowed their trains to serve the city and then continue without the need to reverse direction. The Midland and Great Western stations were linked by a long footbridge which was still gas lit up to the time of its closure when Eastgate closed in the early 1980s and everything once again concentrated on the site of the Great Western station – with trains for the north, south, and east all having to reverse direction!