The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was a railway company intended to link Cheltenham, Gloucester and Swindon, in England. It was authorised in 1836 but it found it very hard to raise money for the construction, and it opened only a part of its line, between Swindon and Cirencester, in 1841. It sold its business to the Great Western Railway, which quickly built the line through to Gloucester in 1845 and Cheltenham in 1847; part of that route was shared with other companies.
From 1903 the route introduced railmotors, small self-powered coaches, that enabled the opening of numerous low-cost passenger stopping places.
The Cirencester branch (as it had become) closed in 1964 but most of the 1845 network is still in use as a main passenger line between Swindon and Gloucester.
Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway
The first railway in the Cheltenham area was the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, authorised by the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway Act 1809 (49 Geo. 3. c. xxiii). It was operated as a horse-operated plateway of gauge, chiefly intended to bring building stone down from quarries at Leckhampton, and to carry coal and other supplies from the docks then under construction at Gloucester. Cheltenham was growing in importance due to the supposed healthy qualities of the waters, which encouraged well-to-do residents to settle there. The line opened in 1811.David Bick, The Gloucester & Cheltenham Tramroad and the Leckhampton Quarry Lines, Oakwood Press, Usk, second edition 1987,
Great Western Railway
In 1835 the Great Western Railway was incorporated, to build a trunk railway from London to Bristol. The engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the line was to be built on the broad gauge and it would use locomotive power. It opened through Swindon on 17 December 1840, although at first there was no Swindon station.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway: volume I: 1833 - 1863, part 1, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1927, page 119
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Birmingham promoters could see that if they could build a railway from their city to Gloucester, onward river-borne transport would connect with Bristol, at the time an important port serving the transatlantic trade. They were successful in promoting the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, which obtained its authorising act of Parliament, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. xiv), on 22 April 1836.Colin Maggs, The Birmingham Gloucester Line, Line One Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, 1986,
Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway authorised Even before the Great Western Railway had been authorised, people in Cheltenham had determined to promote a line from Cheltenham through Gloucester and Stroud to join the planned Great Western Railway near Swindon; they appointed Isambard Kingdom Brunel as their engineer, and he advised that a suitable line could be built. Enthusiasm was weak in Gloucester, which was already connected to Bristol by water, and which was planning expansion to its docks. The cost of construction of the line would be £750,000.Colin G Maggs, The Swindon to Gloucester Line, Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, Stroud, 1991, , pages 6 to 31
Accordingly they submitted a bill for the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in the 1836 session of Parliament. It was passed on 21 June 1836 as the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lxxvii), with authorised capital of £750,000.MacDermot, volume I part 1, page 162 onwards It is likely that stationary steam engines were intended to work the steepest gradient near Sapperton Tunnel.Humphrey Household, Sapperton Tunnel, Western Region, Railway Magazine, February 1950
The line was from Cheltenham, and from Gloucester, joining just east of there, to Swindon, with a branch to Cirencester. The proposed alignment of the C&GWUR and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway was almost identical between Gloucester and Cheltenham, and the two companies, being authorised in the same session of Parliament, agreed a collaborative arrangement. The C&GWUR was to make the half of the line between Gloucester and Cheltenham that was nearer Gloucester; the Birmingham company was to pay half the cost of construction and have sole control of the line as if they had made it themselves. They were to construct the Gloucester station, and the C&GWUR were to make the Cheltenham station, and both companies could use both stations.
The C&GWUR was destined to be broad gauge, and the Cheltenham to Gloucester line was to be built on the narrow (), but the C&GWUR could lay additional rails for their broad gauge trains, at their own expense. The C&GWUR were obliged to complete their portion near Gloucester in time for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway's opening. Both companies shared the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramway, already purchased for £35,000 by the Birmingham and Gloucester company; as a plateway its route was unsuitable for use as a main line railway but its advantage was the access it had created to Gloucester Docks.Barnes, page 117 onward
Squire Gordon of Kemble, near Cirencester, made considerable objection to the railway and had to be bought off with a substantial cash sum in compensation. Moreover he insisted that the railway should pass through his land in a tunnel, and no public station was to be built in his lands.
Construction
Contracts for construction were let in May 1837, and some investigatory work was done for the Sapperton Tunnel, but in November 1837 the C&GWUR reported that the condition of the money market was such that they were going to be unable to build all of their line in the foreseeable future. Accordingly they proposed to concentrate on the section between Swindon and Cirencester, which had the best chance of bringing in income. The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway were alarmed by this as they relied on the C&GWUR to build part of the shared Gloucester to Cheltenham line. The C&GWUR needed an act of Parliament, the (1 & 2 Vict. c. xxiv), passed on 11 June 1838, for an extension of time, and the Birmingham company secured clauses in it enabling them to build the relevant portion themselves if the C&GWUR did not proceed with the construction in a timely way. The act also authorised two independent stations at Gloucester, and it was later agreed to make separate stations at Cheltenham as well. The alignment through Sapperton Tunnel was substantially changed in the act, substituting two tunnels for the earlier long one, which would have been curved throughout its length.
The C&GWUR decided to alter its priorities, and it let contracts for construction and acquired land at Gloucester for the station. Some work was done but the state of the money market was so difficult that in November 1839 the Directors decided that they could not carry out any significant work at Gloucester, and they invited the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway to do the work it required in accordance with the earlier act.MacDermot, volume I part 1, page 168 onwards
Another railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, had been authorised on 1 July 1839. It relied on use of the C&GWUR between Standish, near Stonehouse, and Gloucester. In the new situation, it was in the same position as the Birmingham company, and together they agreed to purchase the C&GWUR, together promoting a bill for the purpose in the 1840 session of Parliament. However the two companies found that a mutually acceptable negotiated position was unachievable, and the scheme was dropped.
Instead, the Birmingham company decided to take over the Cheltenham to Gloucester construction itself, according to the 1838 powers. They took possession of the works on 18 June 1840, while they opened their own line between Birmingham and Cheltenham on 24 June 1840.
Construction now was straightforward, and the line between Cheltenham and Gloucester was opened on 4 November 1841 as part of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway.
Meanwhile the C&GWUR had managed to construct its southern portion from Swindon to Cirencester; it was double track as far as the intended junction at Kemble and then single. It opened on 31 May 1841. The line was operated on a short term lease basis by the Great Western Railway. The stations were at Purton, Minety and Cirencester.
Sale to the Great Western Railway
The C&GWUR Board had become exhausted by the struggle to get this far and in 1842 they obtained the (5 & 6 Vict. c. xxviii), authorising sale or lease of their line to the Great Western Railway, or to the Bristol and Gloucester Railway or the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. In addition £750,000 of supplementary capital was allowed, with three years extension to the allowed period of construction.
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway was "enjoined" to lay broad gauge rails between Gloucester and Cheltenham, and the Bristol and Gloucester Railway was empowered to construct the Standish to Gloucester section itself; this included the laying of narrow (standard) gauge rails as the Bristol Company still intended construction of its own line on that basis.
Negotiations were quickly opened with the GWR for a sale to them, but they delayed agreeing for some time; however in January 1843 they agreed to purchase, including taking over all the powers and liabilities of the C&GWUR. The transfer took place on 1 July 1843, and the GWR expended £230,000 of capital; the C&GWUR had expended more than £600,000 to get to this stage. Sanction for the sale was obtained by the Great Western Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. iii), which also authorised an extension at Cheltenham from the Lansdown station to a more central location at St James Square.
Construction from Kemble to Gloucester The GWR proceeded urgently with construction from Kemble to Gloucester; the power to buy back the C&GWUR half of the Gloucester to Cheltenham line depended on completion to Gloucester by 21 June 1845, and the Bristol and Gloucester railway had been promised that Standish to Gloucester would be available to them by April 1844. In fact it was 8 July 1844 when the Standish to Gloucester section was ready, constructed by the Bristol company itself. The main section included Sapperton Tunnel, in length; the shorter tunnel was long.MacDermot, volume I part 1, page 181 onwards
In the section from the tunnel to Stroud there were nine timber viaducts. General Pasley, in making an inspection for the Board of Trade, enumerated them as follows:
Frampton, twelve spans; Slip, twenty-two spans; St Mary's, one skew span of over a canal; Bourne, seventeen spans including one of on the skew over the canal; Capel's, eighteen spans; Canal, four spans including one of over the canal; Watt's, eight spans; Stratford, eight spans including one of ; Cainscross, four spans of .
Lewis records that there were nineteen timber structures (that is, viaducts and ordinary overbridges and underbridges) on the line, all of them in the Stroud Valley. The last recorded reconstruction was of Capel's and Canal viaducts (forming a single structure) at 101m 60c in 1892.Brian Lewis, Brunel's Timber Bridges and Viaducts, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, 2007,
Stations were at Tetbury Road, Brimscombe, Stroud and Stonehouse. At Gloucester the C&GWUR used a platform on the north side of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway's station; this was already in use by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway. The line into it crossed the Birmingham line at the mouth of the station area. The line opened on 12 May 1845.
Between Gloucester and Cheltenham