Herefordshire received permission to build its first passenger railway by Act of Parliament in 1846. The line was to be the Shrewsbury (in Shropshire) to Hereford line that would finally be completed in 1853. To celebrate the coming of the railways there was a day of high spirits and rejoicing. Banquets and balls of various standard were held across the city and over 60,000 people crowded into Hereford to join in the festivities and welcome this exciting new age of steam. When the first train arrived in Hereford on the 28th October 1853 the passengers disembarked at the site of the station for as yet there were no buildings save an unfinished engine house and a water house. (Cavalcade of a Century, 1832-1932, 100 years of the Hereford Times: Hereford Record Office - BH74)

At the height of her railway mania Herefordshire had 8 railway lines crisscrossing the countryside carrying people about their daily business within the county and 3 further lines with stations on hte edges of the county heading outwards.. People in small villages such as Pembridge and Steens Bridge could ride the train to Hereford for market and shopping. By 1862 tourist tickets were being advertised to the Lake District, Wales and the Isle of Man on the Kington to Leominster line. Herefordshire now had a communication network that could bring visitors into the city and take residents out, opening up the rest of the country and the sites and sounds it had to offer.

In 1855 a service was being advertised that took cattle from Hereford to market in London by trains leaving Hereford at 12.30pm, 4.30pm and 5.45pm direct to Paddington to arrive early the next morning (Hereford Record Office B43/23). The agricultural industry that Hereford was so famous for could now be exploited throughout the country.

By 1896 passengers on the railway could even take out travel insurance. In the South Wales Company's Timetable and ABC Railway Guide of 1896 there is a £100 life insurance coupon guaranteed by Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation Ltd. This guaranteed that £100 would be paid to the legal representative of any ordinary ticket bearing person killed in a train accident - providing the booklet with the coupon was on that person and signed by that person. (Hereford Record Office - F10/155)

By the 1930's there were 45 railway stations and halts across the county of Herefordshire linking north and south, east and west.

However, when Dr Beeching took over as Chairman of the British Transport Commission he decided to take a good hard look at which of the country's railways were the most viable and sadly for Herefordshire the railways were suffering from cheap competition from the buses and 6 of the 8 railway lines were closed in the 1960's, just over 100 years after they were first opened. Only two lines were left operational: The Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway and The Hereford, Ross & Gloucester Railway. Today these are still the only two lines that run through Barrs Court Station, the only train station in use in the city. The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway Company (SMR 9412)

The first railway line to be built in Herefordshire was the work of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway Company. In 1846 Parliament had sanctioned an Act allowing the new line to be built using the narrow gauge system. The line was to cover a distance of 50.5 miles.