Evening folks!
All good stories start with "we were in the pub" and this one is no different. Me and a mate were having a lunchtime beer when we started talking about a few recent urbex adventures we had been on recently. I went on to say there was an abandoned railway line in Dudley that id heard about and we should check it out sometime. With that said we'd necked our beers and set off on the 10mins drive to Dudley.
We wasn't exactly sure where the railway actually was but we had a rough idea so started the search, id heard there was a way in near the bus station but with us looking lost and suspicious the local plod was soon on our case and we headed a little further out of town. Anyway, to cut a long story short we eventually found some wasteland and stumbled upon a track. We headed down the track and came across a tunnel which had big gates in front of it, at first we thought our adventure might be over but the gates were actually unlocked and we walked straight in.
The tunnel was longer than we expected and very dark, luckily we'd pick up a torch when leaving the pub. Not much was in there really, just a few shopping trolleys and water dripping from above. At the other end there was no gates but it was a little more overgrown, we battled through and eventually came to the old station building. We had a quick look round in there but again nothing to exciting, just the remains of an old chair.
We continued down the line for about another hour, loosing our bearings along the way. Eventually we noticed the track becoming free of the overgrowth and the line also becoming free of rust which was quite worrying as we thought these tracks were being used. My mate looked up and pointed to a building in the distance claiming it was The Waterfront at Merry Hill, at first I didn't believe his claim but the more we walked, the more I was started to think he was right. To my amazement he was indeed right and we had walked for about 3 mile down the abandoned line which had now turned into a live freight line. We knew we had to get off there sharpish and managed to find a hole in a fence at the top of the bank. We scrambled through and came out onto a main road. We really wasn't feeling the walk back to Dudley so with a friend working close by, we arranged a lift once he had finished work and waited for him in an establishment where this adventure had first started, the pub!
From what I can gather the line opened in the mid 1800's with the station being built 1860. it was a busy passenger line up until the early 1880's with it being a mainly a freight line from 1887, passenger trains still used it up until 1962 but it was a low level service. The line closed to all traffic in 1993 and there are plans to redevelop the station and part of the line to extend The Midland Metro tram network.
Apologies for the poor picture quality.......Enjoy!
Overgrown Line
Entrance to the tunnel
Entering the tunnel
The end of the tunnel
The Station
Inside the station
Remains of a chair
Inside again
Sindy Annual 1984
Graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti
Urban Art
Track eye view
More track
Live freight tracks
Views from across The Black Country
All good stories start with "we were in the pub" and this one is no different. Me and a mate were having a lunchtime beer when we started talking about a few recent urbex adventures we had been on recently. I went on to say there was an abandoned railway line in Dudley that id heard about and we should check it out sometime. With that said we'd necked our beers and set off on the 10mins drive to Dudley.
We wasn't exactly sure where the railway actually was but we had a rough idea so started the search, id heard there was a way in near the bus station but with us looking lost and suspicious the local plod was soon on our case and we headed a little further out of town. Anyway, to cut a long story short we eventually found some wasteland and stumbled upon a track. We headed down the track and came across a tunnel which had big gates in front of it, at first we thought our adventure might be over but the gates were actually unlocked and we walked straight in.
The tunnel was longer than we expected and very dark, luckily we'd pick up a torch when leaving the pub. Not much was in there really, just a few shopping trolleys and water dripping from above. At the other end there was no gates but it was a little more overgrown, we battled through and eventually came to the old station building. We had a quick look round in there but again nothing to exciting, just the remains of an old chair.
We continued down the line for about another hour, loosing our bearings along the way. Eventually we noticed the track becoming free of the overgrowth and the line also becoming free of rust which was quite worrying as we thought these tracks were being used. My mate looked up and pointed to a building in the distance claiming it was The Waterfront at Merry Hill, at first I didn't believe his claim but the more we walked, the more I was started to think he was right. To my amazement he was indeed right and we had walked for about 3 mile down the abandoned line which had now turned into a live freight line. We knew we had to get off there sharpish and managed to find a hole in a fence at the top of the bank. We scrambled through and came out onto a main road. We really wasn't feeling the walk back to Dudley so with a friend working close by, we arranged a lift once he had finished work and waited for him in an establishment where this adventure had first started, the pub!
From what I can gather the line opened in the mid 1800's with the station being built 1860. it was a busy passenger line up until the early 1880's with it being a mainly a freight line from 1887, passenger trains still used it up until 1962 but it was a low level service. The line closed to all traffic in 1993 and there are plans to redevelop the station and part of the line to extend The Midland Metro tram network.
Apologies for the poor picture quality.......Enjoy!
Overgrown Line
Entrance to the tunnel
Entering the tunnel
The end of the tunnel
The Station
Inside the station
Remains of a chair
Inside again
Sindy Annual 1984
Graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti
Urban Art
Track eye view
More track
Live freight tracks
Views from across The Black Country
