Golden Valley Past & Present

This book looks at 'The Golden Valley Line'. Like so many other areas of the United Kingdom, the railway line from Swindon to Gloucester, sometimes known as 'The Golden Valley Line', not to be confused with 'The Golden Valley Railway' on the other side of the River Severn, was a product of the 'Railway Mania' of the mid-19th century. Originally built as the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in the 1840s, the main section of the route swings south-eastwards at Standish Junction, on the north-south Birmingham-Bristol main line; to run through the Golden Valley, via Stroud and Kemble, to a junction with the Great Western main line immediately to the west of Swindon station. The line climbs progressively from Gloucester, with very few level areas, with the steepest stretch from St Mary's Crossing into Sapperton Tunnel, including 1-in-60 around Frampton. From the confines of Sapperton Tunnel it then traverses a gentler falling gradient, at a ruling of around 1-in-400.