Erdington railway station

Erdington railway station has been open since 1862 when it was built by the London & North Western Railway₁ as a station on the Birmingham Cross-City Line. An alternative route for the railway line through Erdington would have gone along Tyburn Road and Wood End Lane with a possible station on Mason Road - Orphanage Road (e.g. where the Library is now). On the road bridge just before the station (over Station Road) the letters LMS, the London Midland Scottish Railway later owning the station before nationalisation, can still be seen.

There was a collision in 1875 between a standing goods train at the station was hit from behind by a passenger train en route to Sutton Coldfield₂. The driver of the passenger train is thought to have ignored the danger signals. Luckily there were no serious injuries or fatalities. Another accident was narrowly averted in 1966 when a barricade built across the line by materials looted from a railway store just outside the station was spotted by a passer-by who ran to the signal box to get the trains stopped₃.

The station is a very basic one nowadays with just 2 through roads and a manned ticket office on one platform. However when first built the station did have a goods wharf although there were complaints that facilities were insufficient and the lack of a covered unloading area a problem for unloading goods such as coal and lime₄.

1) Miscellaneous News and Home Gossip. The Huddersfield Chronicle and West Yorkshire Advertiser (West Yorkshire, England), Saturday, July 28, 1860; pg. 2; Issue 541. 19th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II.
2) Railway Accident at Erdington. Birmingham Daily Post (Birmingham, England), Friday, February 5, 1875; Issue 5169.
3) Rail wreckers build a 'wall' across line. Daily Mirror, Thu 20 Oct 1966 Page 17.
4) Correspondence. Birmingham Daily Post (Birmingham, England), Friday, June 12, 1891; Issue 10287.