line station. Use of the loop for trains terminating at Dudley Port started on 14 October 1853, but it was not until a connection was provided at the west end of the Stour Valley station, enabling the use of the BW&SVR platforms by through trains, that through running was permitted. This started on 2 January 1854, with a through passenger service between Dudley and Birmingham. In 1852 construction of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway reached Dudley, and was continued to Tipton in 1853. The OW&WR was merged with other railways to form the West Midland Railway (WMR) in 1860 and in turn the WMR was absorbed into the Great Western Railway by Act of 1 August 1863. The opening of these portions of the OW&WR enabled through working by SSR trains from Kidderminster to Birmingham via the Sedgeley loop, but this service was operationally difficult and it was discontinued south of Dudley in 1867, with only two through New Street to Dudley services each way on weekdays. The connecting service for the short run from Dudley to Dudley Port prospered; it and the Walsall trains together were nicknamed "The Dudley Dasher". The Sedgeley loop service was eventually discontinued on 15 June 1964. Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway In 1846 another line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton had been authorised, on the same day as the original South Staffordshire Junction Railway: it was the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway. It was nominally independent but very obviously aligned towards the Great Western Railway, which was to build towards Birmingham through the medium of another nominally independent company, the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway. The "Dudley" part of the BW&DR name represented a branch line that very closely duplicated most of the SSJR route. Although this had been authorised, the BW&DR agreed to leave the SSR (as it soon became) to build it, with running powers for BW&DR trains. There was a safeguard for the BW&DR if the SSR failed to build the line promptly. The BW&DR obtained an authorising Act in 1847 to sell its line to the Great Western Railway, and remarkably the Act authorised installation of mixed gauge (standard and broad gauge) track on the BW&DR. When the line opened in 1854 local passenger trains operated on the broad gauge. The SSR intersected and was crossed by the BW&DR at Wednesbury and a north-east to north-west connection was installed on