Shuttlefast Lane - Southern Approach to Malvern Hanley Road

Shuttlefast Lane is the name I have given to describe the area south of the Hanley Road Station complex. Heading south from Hanley Road, the line crossed a flat section through the countryside before entering a deep cutting to pass under the humpback road bridge on Blackmore Park Road.

Today, the site marks the eastern boundary of the South Car Park belonging to the Three Counties Showground. The tree line marking the route is still visible (as always!), but the cutting at the southern end of the site has been infilled to a fraction of what it once was. The map below shows clearly how the overgrowth flanking the old line has thickened along the remaining embankment.

Photographs 

This shot is taken from the bridleway off Blackmore Park Road and shows the tree line containing the old line running northwest towards Malvern Hanley Road station.

 

Facing southeast, this picture shows the old railway embankment passing through two small gardens before running on to the Three Counties Showground. The embankment remains low (no more than 2-3 feet high) throughout this section.

Hopping over the fence onto the Three Counties' land, the twin embankments flanking the line are clearly visible among the old trees. This marks the mouth of what was originally a far more serious cutting.

Looking along the line as it runs straight towards the Malverns. The trees are starting to overhang the route a little with no trains to keep them back!

There is not much of the old built environment left in this section, apart from a couple of old drainage culverts built into the small embankment which runs beneath the trees.

Some more drainage clutter, and a section of the original concrete fence posting which I've been using as a guide elsewhere on the route.

Turning around briefly to look southwards along the route we've just come...

I wasn't entirely sure what this is, but the question has been answered thanks to David Beech, who tells me that the 'the railway sleepers were an old silage store from about 30 years ago.'

Another exposed piece of culvert. I think most of the railway peripherals were dismantled when this site was taken over by the Three Counties, but these holes were probably thought too insignificant to bother with.

An old iron box found on the route. This straight section is also being used to store some large sections of concrete pipe.

The embankment all but disappears towards the bottom of this avenue as the route enters flatter ground approaching the Hanley Road site.

The end of the tree line and the entrance to the South Car Park. The tree line continues in the distance in the centre of the picture.

Here we can see the embankment which runs along the western edge of the large plateau containing the old Hanley Road station and sidings site.

This long shot shows clearly the artificial eastern slope of what was once the sidings just south of Hanley Road station. The scrub in the middle is the drainage channel shown below. 

A couple of shots of the very overgrown drainage culvert, cordoned off by some ancient iron fencing. I wasn't sure that the drain was still playing a role, but David Beech has again provided the answer, writing 'the overgrown drainage culvert still works well, you can see and often hear the water running through there. I assume it must be related to the brook running down from Brickbarns Farm to the West.'