Wolverhampton Station

1852 - Present

Opened by the LNWR in 1852, Wolverhampton High Level Station is, unlike its Low Level counterpart, still going strong - although, when you consider the above elevation from Railway Drive taken September 2003 compared with that of the Low Level Station, it does make one wonder if the right decision was made! Wolverhampton is an important stop on South to North trains that travel through the Midlands via Stafford and as such a wide variety of passenger and goods vehicles can be seen passing by.

Above-left we are on the central platform looking through the station towards Stafford. Above-right we are in roughly the same spot but this time looking back towards Birmingham. Just to the left, barely visible above the platform sign, is the Wolverhampton signal box. I have to admit to not being able to think of much constructive to say about this station - it has been greatly redeveloped since it's LNWR days and other than its foundations there seems little of original character. The whole station unfortunately seems to have taken on a 'Birmingham New Street' look and feel to it which, for those who have visited New Street, is far from a good thing!

Above-left we are again on the central platform (I lost track of the platform number - 2A I think?) looking at the lines curving away towards Stafford. Above-right we are in the same spot but looking across to platform 4 where a single-unit DMU awaits a green light.

Above we are again on the central platform but looking across the engineers sidings to the extreme right - over the wall on the far-right side is the drop down in levels to the Low Level Station (there is an almost reverse of this shot on the Low Level page). For those of you wanting to get a closer look at the engineers vehicles in the distance, click on the 'Train Photos' link on the left-hand menu.

Update: September 2006

Since my original visit to the site in September 2003, a new platform has appeared on what was the site of the engineer's sidings seen in the above phtographs so I felt it time to revisit and see what had been done.

Above-left we can see that a new overhead concourse has been built to span the station with stairwells dropping to each platform. This concourse was constructed to facilitate entry to the new Platform 4 - furthest from camera. Above-right we are standing on the concourse with the site of the engineer's sidings to the left of the DMU pictured. I have to admit, for once, that it's nice to see some investment going into the region's railways and any new structures could hardly dimish the aesthetics of such an uninspiring station as this. In fact, in my humble opinion, the new structure adds some visual appeal/interest to the site!