Notes: Penns station was opened by the Midland Railway (MR) on 1 July 1879. It was on the double-track Castle Bromwich / Water Orton and Walsall line which was authorised on 6 August 1872 as the Wolverhampton, Walsall & Midland Junction Railway (WW&MJR). The MR was a backer of the scheme, seeing it as a means of gaining access to Wolverhampton from its Birmingham and Derby main line. At Walsall the line had a direct connection with the Walsall and Wolverhampton (W&W) Railway which came into MR ownership in 1876. The line opened to all traffic on 1 July 1879.

Penns was located in a cutting a short distance west of Walmley and north-east of Penns Hall. The main facilities were located on the up platform (Castle Bromwich direction) and were reached by a driveway from Penns Lane, which passed over the line on a bridge. The building was a single-storey red-brick structure, and cross-gables with prominent parapets faced each elevation; small windows were set into the gables at ‘first floor’ level to light the interior.

On the down platform (Walsall direction) there was a single-storey building containing waiting facilities with a pitched roof and a tall chimney stack. To reach the down platform passengers used a barrow crossing at the southern end of the station.

Penns had goods facilities but they were not adjacent to the station. Situated a short distance to the south-east of the station on the down side of the line there was a large goods shed constructed from brick. There were also two sidings and cattle pens.

At the time of opening the Penns was served by trains between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton High Level via Walsall.

The December 1895 timetable showed twelve up and eleven down trains Monday-to-Saturday. There were three trains each way on Sundays.

In January 1909 the MR altered the route of most of its trains so that they ran between Walsall and Wolverhampton along an LNWR route that had been created in 1881; this was to avoid a reversal at Walsall. The April 1910 timetable showed Penns as having thirteen up and thirteen down trains on Monday-to-Friday, as shown in the table below. There was an extra up and down train on Saturdays and four in each direction on Sundays.

By 1922 the service had reduced to ten up and ten down on Monday-to-Saturday with no trains on Sundays.

On 1 January 1923 both the MR and the LNWR became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). The summer 1932 timetable showed the same level of service but by this time the trains serving Penns ran mostly between Birmingham New Street and Walsall only, passenger services over the former W&W line having ceased on 5 January 1931.

By the September 1936 timetable the service had ten up and ten down trains Monday-to-Friday. On Saturdays there was one extra down train and there were two each way on Sundays.

On 1 January 1948 Penns became part of British Railways (London Midland Region). The summer 1949 timetable showed only five trains each way Monday-to-Friday with one extra down train on Saturdays. The service did not improve in the 1950s with the summer 1957 timetable showing only five trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday. In the late 1950s BR fitted totem name signs in the station.

By 1962 there were only four trains in each direction Monday-to Friday running between Birmingham New Street and Walsall operated in the main by DMUs. On Saturdays there were two extra down trains and one extra up. There was no Sunday service.

The 1963 Reshaping of British Railways (‘Beeching’) report recommended the withdrawal of the passenger service between Birmingham New Street and Walsall via Penns. The formal proposal of closure was published on 15 October 1963. As it was down to only a handful of trains per day there was little protest, and on 10 September 1964 Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport, announced his decision that the line should close. The passenger service was withdrawn on Monday 18 January 1965, the last trains having run two days earlier.

The goods facilities at Penns closed on 1 February 1965.

The line through Penns had always been a major freight artery and it remained so in July 2013.

Tickets from Michael Stewart, timetable from Chris Totty and route map by Alan Young

Sources:

• A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 7 The West Midlands , by R Christiansen, David & Charles 1973.
• Bradshaw Timetable December 1895.
• Lost Lines, Birmingham and the Black Country, by N Welbourne, Ian Allan 2002.
• Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain a Chronology, by M Quick, Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009.

To see other stations on the Castle Bromwich and Wolverhampton line click on the station name: Castle Bromwich, Sutton Coldfield Town, Sutton Park, Streetly, Aldridge, North Walsall, Short Heath, Bentley, Willenhall Stafford Street,
Wednesfield and Heath Town

See also Brownhill branch stations: Walsall Wood and Brownhills