The Longbridge Car Works: The Rail Connection and the Decline of Industrial Rail Traffic скачать в хорошем качестве

The Longbridge Car Works: The Rail Connection and the Decline of Industrial Rail Traffic

Founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin, the Longbridge car works grew into a vast industrial complex that eventually spanned both sides of the Bristol Road. At its peak, the site functioned almost as a self-contained town, complete with its own power station, test track, foundry, and internal transport network. For most of its operational life, rail traffic played a vital role in keeping Longbridge running. The factory had an extensive railway infrastructure that connected directly to the national network, linking into the Halesowen/Lickey route of the Midland Railway near Longbridge station—today part of the Cross-City Line between Birmingham, Redditch, and Bromsgrove. By the late 1960s through the 1980s, the rise of road haulage began to replace many of the traditional rail movements. Finished vehicles increasingly left the plant on transporter lorries, and as production methods changed and the works contracted, many of the once-busy sidings were closed or removed. A visit to the site in 1998 captured the final remnants of rail activity in and around the factory, including a brief look inside the signal box that once controlled traffic within the sprawling works complex.