The Snow Hill station which I knew was everything that New Street was not elegant, spacious and, as far as was possible during the ‘Golden Age of Steam’, clean. Furthermore, since it was built as recently as 1906-1912, it was designed with the benefit of nearly three quarters of a century of experience in running trains in this country. Its layout, logical and easy to understand, was created with ease of operation in mind. It was a typical product of the Edwardian age, which was one of opulence and optimism and which for the Great Western Railway (GWR) was probably its finest hour.
In the 1870s and ’80s the Great Western had been for many people something of a joke, the most backward of the great railway companies, certainly of those north of the Thames. In its early years, the 1840s and ’50s, it had led the country if not the world, with its magnificent broad gauge trains bowling along on ‘Brunei’s billiard table’ at 50 or 60mph. Since then, though, it had sunk into a profound lethargy; its trains were slow, infrequent and old-fashioned and wags often pointed out that the letters GWR really stood for Great Way Round. Trains from Paddington to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall were routed via Brunel’s original line to Bristol, those to South Wales had to go via Gloucester in order to cross the Severn and those to Birmingham made a great detour via Reading, Didcot and Oxford.
But then, in the late 1880s, a new spirit started to make itself felt It began with the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886, greatly reducing the distance to South Wales and then, in May 1892, the GWR finally rid itself of the incubus of the broad gauge. From then until the outbreak of the Great War, this ‘great awakening’ gathered pace. Cut-offs were opened from Wootton Bassett on the Bristol main line to the Severn Tunnel (1903) and from Reading West to Cogload Junction near Taunton, avoiding Bristol and shortening the journey to the West Country by twenty miles (1906).
Most important from our point of view was the completion in 1910 of a new route from Paddington to Birmingham. This was, in part, a joint project with the Great Central Railway. The Great Western & Great Central Joint line ran from Northolt Junction through the Chilterns to Ashendon Junction and was opened to passengers in November 1905. The GWR built connections at either end of this, from Greenford to Northolt Junction (April 1906) and Ashendon Junction to Aynho Junction just south of Banbury, where it joined the old Oxford-Birmingham line (July 1910). At 110¾ miles, the new Paddington-Birmingham route cut 18¾ miles of the old route and it was actually two miles shorter than the London & North Western Railway’s route from Euston. The GWR was now able to give Euston a run for its money!
Jibes about theCheltenham. Trains could now continue to Bristol and the West Country or to South Wales. A direct Birmingham-Bristol service was instituted in July 1907. At last, the GWR was compensated for the humiliation of 1846 when the Midland Railway had snatched both the Bristol & Gloucester and Birmingham & Gloucester Railways from under its nose.
