Galton Junction

Galton Junction is a minor junction on the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line. With Smethwick Junction, it allows northbound trains from the RBS to join the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line in a westbound direction and vice versa.

Until the re-opening of Birmingham Snow Hill for stations to Kidderminster, in 1995, all passenger services routed via Galton and Smethwick Junctions to reach Birmingham New Street. With this re-opening, use of the junction has sharply decreased. This was compounded with the removal of the remaining services between Worcester & New Street in May 2004, and now only selected freight services and charter trains use the junction. It has also been used as a way to divert trains to Cheltenham Spa via Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Shrub Hill. In addition, the first and last CrossCountry services of the day to/from Cardiff Central, which start and terminate at New Street, use this junction for operational reasons.

References

http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/smethwick_galton_bridge.php

Coordinates: 52°30′01″N 1°58′39″W / 52.5003°N 1.9776°W