Walk along the River Rea Nature Trail / Cycle + Footpath

A walk along the River Rea Nature Trail / Cycle path / Footpath, from Rubery Lane to Longbridge, where it meets up with Austin Park.
The asphalt section (including what's now a stub adjacent to the entrance gate) was previously the rear access to Longbridge West Works following the decommissioning of the Halesowen Joint Railway, which branched off the main line South of the current Longbridge station (although the junction has long since been lifted, the alignment is still visible from the footbridge, which itself carried Longbridge Lane before the adjacent bridge was built with the redevelopment of the factory).
The original Longbridge Station was on the West side of the Bristol Road bridge, with the station building being mainly at street level, supported on steelwork. The line had a level crossing on Rubery Lane before continuing along what's now a cycle/footpath through Balaam's Wood, then continuing straight on when the path turns, through what's now the Balaam's Wood nature reserve to Rubery Station (the platform edges of which have recently been excavated), through what's now the shops car park, along what's now Princess Diana Way, under where the M5 now is (the cutting having been filled in during the motorway's construction) and Newtown Lane (the bridge has been infilled but the parapets remain). Shortly after, the alignment can be picked out as it headed to Dowery Dell Viaduct (trestle design), and onto Hunnington (where the station building survives as a private residence) then Halesowen (where the alignment and station have both been lost to subsequent redevelopment).