Buildings for Barmouth

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Just catching up with this - I also lived not far from Bentley Heath Signal Box when growing up and would sometimes go and stand on the footbridge with a friend in the hope of a Merry-go-round train passing underneath us (they were loud, dirty and smelly when they did of course!).  Even into the early 1980s there was quite a bit of goods traffic moving around Dorridge Station (Tyseley shunter 08 647 was usually on duty, if I remember correctly).  The sidings shown as Up passenger sidings served the Land Rover loading yard where vehicles built in Solihull would arrive for loading onto MAT Trans Auto wagons, which would be shunted to the Down Sidings between DMU movements.  As the Birmingham Moor Street Services either terminated at Dorridge or continued on to Leamington Spa there was quite a bit of movement for an outer suburban Station, even if there wasn’t as much variety in Loco types / DMU classes or liveries.

I hadn’t remembered Bentley Heath Signal Box being as big as that, but still very sad to see the demolition photos.

Getting back on topic, I’ve built more signal boxes than any other type of kit, but none anywhere as good as the one this thread is about: very impressive.  
Keith