Chasewater Railway Museum
Some Midland Railway mineral invoices
Some of these passed through the site of the Chasewater Railway’s Brownhills West Station, and others started at Walsall Wood.
(Click to enlarge)
The Midland Railway Walsall Wood Extension Railway
In 1880 the Midland Railway gained permission to build their long-awaited foothold into the Cannock Chase coalfield. The Walsall Wood Extension Railway would enable them to link their line from Aldridge with the Cannock Chase & Wolverhampton Railway near Chasewater.
The line opened in 1882 to bring coal out of the pits, but two years later, was also opened to passenger traffic as far as the Brownhills Midland Railway Station, between the Chester Road and the A5. The passenger service was not a great success and was closed in 1930.
The Midland Railway continued as a mineral only line until September 1960 when, following the demise of the coalfield, it was closed.
The Brownhills West Station and the first half-mile or so of the track of the Chasewater Railway is on the former Midland Railway line.
Chasewater Railway Museum 