The Dursley and Midland Junction Railway was a company formed to build a railway branch line to connect the town of Dursley in Gloucestershire, England, to the nearby main line between Bristol and Gloucester, at Coaley. The line was opened in 1856, but was immediately loss-making, and the company soon had to sell its line to the Midland Railway. The line continued in use as a minor rural branch line, and industry located along it sustained it for many years. However the passenger service was discontinued in 1962 and the line closed completely in 1970. Proposals and opening At the end of the eighteenth century the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal had been opened, and provided efficient and cheap transport to the towns it served. The general area was engaged in woollen cloth manufacture, and there were also carpet mills, and the canals gave the nearby town of Stroud a considerable competitive advantage; accordingly Dursley was declining, not being connected to a means of transport. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway opened its line on 6 July 1844. This appeared to give Dursley the possibility of catching up, but the nearest station was at Frocester, and the B&GR declined to provide a closer station. Even then the railway line was some miles from the town and it was said that transport from Dursley to the railway would cost as much as the onward transport by rail. In 1852 a meeting was held at Dursley at which there was considerable support for a branch line railway, but this took some time to arrange. In May 1855 definite proposals were formulated and John Thornhill Harrison was engaged to make a survey for a line. By this time the Bristol and Gloucester Railway had been converted from broad gauge to narrow (standard) gauge, and the Dursley line was therefore to be standard gauge also. The proposals went to the 1855 session of Parliament, and without much opposition received the Royal Assent on 25 May 1855: the Dursley and Midland Junction Railway was incorporated to build a line 2 miles 47 chains long from Dursley to a junction with the Midland Railway, successor to the Bristol and Gloucester Railway; the estimated cost of building the line was £12,000. The Midland Railway was supportive, as the line would be a feeder to it, and subscribed £4,000. A contract was soon let to Thomas