Station Name: GRANGE COURT JUNCTION[Source: Darren Kitson]
Grange Court Junction: Gallery 1 11 May 1872 - Early 20th Century  It is 11 May 1872 and gauge conversion work is about to get under way on the South Wales line. Of the three men in the foreground two are believed to be Mr Lancaster Owen, Assistant Divisional Engineer, and Mr J. W. Armstrong, Divisional Engineer, who were in charge of the operation. Presumably, going from the attire, these two men at those on the left and in the centre. Nothing is known about the third but his presence with the other two might suggest he was somebody in authority, a foreman perhaps. The track is that most familiar in photographs; Baulk Road with bridge rail affixed to longitudinal baulks and cross ties maintaining the gauge. Brunel's original method was to have the baulks supported on piles driven into the ground and unsurprisingly this proved wholly unsatisfactory. As familiar as Baulk Road may be, the GWR broad gauge used other types of track including chaired bullhead rail on transverse sleepers. Upon conversion to standard gauge much Baulk Road remained, the relatively simple expedient of moving the outer rail being used. Grange Court Junction station may be seen through the arch on the right but at this time the Up branch (from Ross and Hereford) platform had yet to appear. Note the slotted post signal on the left, probably newly installed. This is the only photograph which has come to light showing the original West signal box, here seen towering above the bridge for sighting purposes. It appears to have unglazed windows but whether this was indeed the case is not known. The tracks are, from right to left, Down South Wales, Up South Wales, siding, Hereford branch of which the latter appears to be hidden under piles of clutter. One little quirk worth mentioning concerns the St. Ives branch in Cornwall. This line opened on 1 June 1877, five years after the line through Grange Court was converted to standard gauge, and was the final line to built using Brunel's broad gauge. This came about because the line to Penzance was destined to be the final
conversion in May 1892. Photo courtesy Great Western Trust Photo Archive  
This rather poor quality plan from 1870 gives an idea of the track layout at the time along with mileages from Paddington via Stonehouse. The Up Hereford platform had yet to be shown as had the loop on the Down Hereford line. The original East and West signal boxes are shown but not labelled as such.
Click here for a larger version.  The OS 6in map surveyed in 1879 shows Northwood Green as a mere scattering of houses and cottages amongst woodland. The Junction Inn can be seen at its then location north of the railway. Grange Court, after which the station was named, can be seen right of centre. The Up Hereford line platform and loop had yet to appear as had any form of buildings in the 'V' formed by the divergence of routes. The original East and West signal boxes may be seen. Note at the entrance to the goods yard a weighing machine and hut are indicated, features which would later disappear. The mileage, 121 from London, was and still is via Swindon and Stonehouse. Click here for a larger version
The 1899 1:2,500 OS map shows the station had gained the Up Hereford Platform, its loop and an expansion of sidings. The second East and West signal boxes are marked as are the yard crane and cattle pen. No longer marked is the weighing machine although the hut is still there. It is thought that provision of the Up Hereford platform coincided with provision of the station footbridge. The Albion Carriage & Wagon Works has now appeared. This outfit was liquidated in 1903 and the site subsequently occupied by various other businesses. Fast forward to the time of writing and it was occupied largely by Severn Valley Woodworks but satellite imagery suggests none of the original buildings survive.
 The OS 6" revision of 1901 shows Northwood Green had grown little despite the presence of the railway. At the station goods yard the weighing machine hut has now disappeared. Church Lane Crossing was controlled by a ground frame; today (2025) the crossing keeper's cottage is extant as is the trackbed on the west side of the road. Westbury Crossing is now AHB (Automatic Half Barrier) and the cottage now longer exists. Both crossings were on Church Lane and the title "Westbury Crossing" was no doubt used to avoid confusion. The village of Westbury-on-Severn is about one mile south-west of the level crossing and between 1928 and 1959 was provided with a halt served by a railmotor or autotrain between Gloucester and Newnham ('Autotrain' is GWR/BR(W) parlance for a Pull & Push train). Westbury-on-Severn Halt was perched on the embankment between the bridges over the A48 and Westbury-on-Severn Road. Access to the halt was via the latter and today is a Network Rail access point.
The OS 1:2,500 revision of 1922 shows a few changes. Northwood Green is showing signs of becoming more populous and Frocester House now stands where the original Junction Inn once stood. If maps are to be relied upon (it is not always so with revisions) the former inn became Frocester House. The second Junction Inn can be seen on the west side of Grange Court Road, south of the railway where it remains today Click here for a larger version
 This was the cartographical scene in 1972, eight years after the station closed and nine years after the goods yard closed. The station house is marked as is the surviving part of the building which stood on the Down South Wales platform. Oddly the former weighing machine hut has reappeared or, more likely, another hut has appeared in its place. It will be noticed that the houses of Northwood Green, are named. Northwood Green is famous for this (or infamous if you happen to be a delivery driver), residents preferring names to numbers even though numbers are allocated.
Just west of the station on 11 May 1872 poses a gauge conversion train. The men are determined to be in the scene, with all vantage points apart from on the locomotive being utilised. In 1872 having a photograph taken was still something of an occasion. The train is sitting on the Up side siding and the 0-6-0 locomotive appears to be a 'Standard Goods' with later design of cab. Of interest are the signals which are of the 'Disc & Crossbar' type. There was a disc mounted above the crossbar and set at a right angle to it, but for whatever reason the discs are invisible in this photograph. However, the man standing atop the signal to the left of the other appears to have his left hand resting upon the disc. Another possibility is the discs having been removed as part of the replacement of these signals and the presence of an apparently new slotted post signal in the other 1872 photograph may suggest this was the case. These Disc & Crossbar signals rotated through 90° in the horizontal plane; if the disc faced a driver it indicated 'clear' or in the parlance of the time 'All Right' or 'All Is right'. On the other hand if the crossbar faced a driver it meant 'stop' or 'All is not right'. Both crossbar and disc were perforated to make them less vulnerable to the wind. During the hours of darkness oil lamps were used, two of which can be seen on the signal to the right. These lamps were also set at 90° to each other and operated by the same method as the disc and crossbar. The arrow-like device is a 'Fantail' signal, the purpose of which was to advise 'caution'. This part of the gauge conversion work took place over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 11/12 May 1872 and the first standard gauge train ran on the South Wales line on Monday 12 May. The line to Ross and Hereford had of course already been converted by 1872 (in 1869) and how the section between Grange Court and Gloucester was operated in the interim is unclear. It may have been mixed gauge on both tracks or it may have been operated as two single lines of different gauges. The other 1872 photograph shows a crossover between the siding and the Hereford line, suggesting at least one of tracks between Grange Court and Gloucester was temporarily
of mixed gauge Photo courtesy Great Western Trust Photo Archive old10.jpg)
Looking south-west on an unknown date in the early years of the twentieth century and certainly after 1896 as the original and lofty West signal box has disappeared. The platforms, which are still oil lit, must have been quite pleasant with the bushes and other enchantments. Behind the station on the left is the rather forbidding-looking stationmaster's house, extant at the time of writing. Part of the building on the far, Down South Wales, platform is also extant.
Photo from John Mann collection
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Grange Court Junction, as the station was always named, was an elaborate affair for what was in essence little more than an interchange between the two original railway companies and their successors the Great Western Railway and British Railways. It lay to the west of the point of divergence of the lines to Hereford and South Wales, a situation which resulted by necessity in the provision of four platforms; one side platform for Up trains from Hereford; an island platform for Down Hereford and Up main line trains (the South Wales Railway); one side platform for Down South Wales trains. On the latter platform was the main building, with waiting and staff facilities on the island platform and a simple waiting room on the Up Hereford platform. All buildings were stone with quoins and all were provided with canopies. The roof of the building on the island platform and only this building had the ends of its spandrels hidden by Grotesques but why this was done remains a mystery. There were originally a total of twelve Grotesques but as the years marched on many disintegrated or disappeared entirely as is evident in photographs. All platforms were linked by a covered footbridge. Originally the railway through Grange Court Junction was to the Great Western Railway's broad gauge (7ft 0¼in) as was usually the case with smaller companies who were on good terms with the Great Western. If maps are to be relied upon, the Up Hereford platform and waiting room along with the footbridge were provided at a later date; these features were not shown on the OS 6in map of 1879 but were present on the 1901 edition to the same scale. 
The line was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 29 July 1862 but by this time the writing was on the wall for the Great Western's broad gauge and in 1864 the decision was taken to convert from broad to narrow gauge. 'Narrow gauge' was a commonly used term at the time for what is now known as 'standard gauge' or less commonly 'Stephenson gauge', 4ft 8½in. Conversion had to be planned on an individual line basis in accordance with circumstances while minimising disruption to traffic and conversion of single track lines posed a particular problem in respect of disruption. In the case of the Hereford, Ross & Gloucester the line closed for conversion on 15 August 1869 with road transport substituted. The line was divided up into four-mile sections and then subdivided into quarter-mile sections, each entrusted to a gang of twenty or so platelayers who were able to complete their sections in about four hours. A broad gauge train dropped the gangs off at the various points along the line and then travelled to the end of that day's section. At the end of the day a narrow gauge (standard gauge) train would pick the men up and travel to the point where the broad gauge train had stopped, the process being repeated the next day. Obviously the task was highly labour intensive with most of the work being done with hand tools and no small degree of the proverbial elbow grease. The work was completed in just five days, a very creditable performance for the time. 
However there was a problem. Engineering difficulties with the bridge over the Wye at Chepstow saw trains from Gloucester having to use a temporary station which has come to be referred to as Chepstow East. The location of this temporary station is something of a mystery, some sources claiming it was at Sedbury Lane with others claiming it was much closer to the River Wye, near to the site of the later and fairly short-lived Tutshill for Beachley Halt. Wherever it was, passengers were conveyed by omnibus, horse-drawn of course, between the two Chepstow stations until a single track over the Wye bridge was ready on 19 July 1852 when Chepstow East was closed. The second track over the bridge was brought into use on 18 April 1853.
The final broad gauge passenger train out of Paddington was the 5pm to Plymouth via Bristol on Friday 20 May, hauled by 4-2-2 locomotive Bulkeley* as far as Exeter where Iron Duke* took over. Locomotive Bulkeley returned to Paddington with the Night Mail arriving considerably late at 5.30am on Saturday 21 May. This was the final Up broad gauge service. All that then remained was to move stock to Swindon, where some fifteen miles of sidings had been specially laid, for scrapping or conversion. This was not quite the end however as a couple of isolated lines, nothing to do with the GWR, retained the broad gauge and one of these was the Holyhead Breakwater line, finally converted in 1913. On the Azores island of São Miguel a harbour line at Ponta Delgada, built to Brunel's gauge and using British built locomotives continued in use as later as circa 1970. At the time of writing two of the locomotives were believed to be still in existence. Finally a taste of the broad gauge can be had at the Didcot Railway Centre where the broad gauge has been recreated with a short running line.
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