Not on the train thankfully but waiting for it to take me back home The train dangling over the road made national headlines, and as a result the track was shortened then the station repositioned.
Must have been well scary for those on the train. This was before my time - just a kid in Surrey back then - but I think I may have seen a picture of it. I can remember the two slightly more recent incidents where trains attempted to enter the bus station, though.
I would say that my main gripe with the branch is how the Town station is tucked away behind the bus station. It's a legacy of the "it's going to close eventually anyway" mentality of BR, which saw a number branch lines cut back in a similar fashion. You can see where the platform ramp of the original station used to be adjacent to the present-day bufferstops.
As I think I've said before, I have found the service much more useful with a 10 minute frequency. I always seem to
just miss the Town Car when I catch the train to Stourbridge (I think that this is because it's timed to connect with services from the Birmingham direction) and am quite happy to wait 9 minutes but not 14 as in the old days, when I usually opted to hoof it.
Stourbridge is bigger than Bromsgrove and the Junction is up a whacking great hill, as proven by the fact several units have had issues coming down it... Interesting that Beeching didn’t kill it, though. I wonder if the original justification was helped by the line continuing down to Stourbridge Basin.
Yes of course, Stourbridge is a valley town whereas it's usually hilltop towns which have a lengthy walk to the station because the railway either runs along a nearby valley or underneath in a tunnel. So the topography as well as the presence of a goods branch would most likely be the reason for Stourbridge having this unusual feature.