Forgotten Railways of the Midlands

[Steve K]

... and on that note, I feel that if I don't post something relating to Hampton-in-Arden soon, I never will! After all, it's been 5 years since I took some photos and promised to share them here. Fortunately, I find that I still have all my old phone pictures on my PC, so here we go at last!

 

Hampton-in-Arden is a smallish village a few miles from the NEC in Birmingham/Solihull (delete as appropriate!). I decided to visit back in September 2011 because some of my old maps showed a station in a different location to the current one, and also a junction which is not there any more. The village is currently served by a pretty mundane modern station, carrying passengers to New Street, Coventry and places further afield. It looks like this:

 

 

 

So far, so mundane. However, looking at the station entrance from across the road, we see this:

 

 

If you look carefully, you can just about make out the road name on the wall on the right (sorry, this was taken in the days before phones all had 20MB cameras, so the detail might be lacking by modern standards!). Not sure? It actually says "OLD STATION ROAD". Of course, the question is: is this an old road leading to the station, or the road leading to the old station? There's only one way to find out! I travelled a few hundred yards down Old Station Road, and in the midst of some modern offices, this building stood out:

 

 

If the position on the old map wasn't enough of a clue, the style of the building shouts out "station". The former junction was just beyond this building, with tracks curving off to the right, through where the large red-brick building now stands, in the direction of the cream-coloured industrial building at far right of the above shot.

 

 

As far as I can tell, the old tracks, heading off northwards towards Coleshill, would have passed straight through this building.

 

Anyway, not content with one tiny station building, I decided to see how much of the track bed I could find...

[Steve K]

Right, to continue. This is all very strange for me, because I'm trying both to remember what I saw (and in what order) 5 years ago, and to write in roughly the same style as I have previously done on this thread. It's supposed to read like someone with great interest but very little knowledge in the subject. Actually, the second bit shouldn't be too hard.

 

If you look at a map, you will see that Old Station Road is essentially a very long cul-de-sac these days, but before the advent of the motorways, this wouldn't have been the case. Indeed, the far end of the Road from the village is still accessible, but only by foot. If you are on the roundabout above junction 6 of the M42 (A45), take a glance up and to your left just after passing the entrance to the National Motorcycle Museum, and before the turn for the M42 south. I'm terrible at embedding Google Maps screenshots, but it's visible there, trust me - a small path leading up to a fence amongst some trees is what marks the dead end of Old Station Road.

 

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, or rather, being irrelevant, as the next part of my exploring was only a few minutes' walk down Old Station Road from the buildings in the previous post, where the road itself does a bit of a zig-zag:

 

 

It's pretty certain that this is where a bridge carried the railway over the road, as the embankments are noticeable on both sides of the road. Looking due north from this position (ie pretty much straight over the new-ish green gates seen above), there is a large clear area, roughly concreted as if it were once the foundation for some large building or buildings. I have no idea whether this was the case, or whether it had anything to do with the railway (unlikely, I should imagine), but it provides a handy vantage point from which to take a picture looking south, back towards the station. This is the view from the far end of the waste ground:

 

 

 

In the distance, a telegraph post marks the rough position from which my previous picture was taken. More importantly, for the purposes of this thread at least, you can clearly see the tree-covered embankment which used to bear the railway which branched off the current line at Hampton.

 

My final picture for now (slightly blurry due to low light, but the best I managed in among the trees) shows the view along the top of the embankment, looking in an approximately southerly direction.

 

 

Although I have not visited this site for 5 years, I am sure that any other visitors will find things much the same, and fairly easy to explore. Definitely worth a visit for the Midlands-lost-rail "completists"!

 

That's all for now, as it's a lovely day outside, but on my next visit to this thread, I'll tell of what I found when I looked for the next accesible section of the trackbed to the north of this part, where the line crosses the A45 at a place marked on the map as Middle Bickenhill. No hidden treasure or anything like that, but I did find something utterly bizarre!

[bike2steam]

 As far as I can tell, the old tracks, heading off northwards towards Coleshill, would have passed straight through this building.

In the days before the London extension was built from Bedford, Midland Railway passengers from Sheffield, and places north of, had the choice of two routes to London, 1) Derby, Coleshill, Hampton-In-Arden with running powers over the LNWR to Euston, or 2) , Leicester, Bedford, Hitchin, and running powers over the GNR to Kings X. In those days the main-line from Coleshill went south to Hampton, the branch went off to Birmingham.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

As mentioned above by Paul, Hampton-in-Arden has indeed a long and interesting railway history.

 

More recently, in the mid 1960s, it was rebuilt (in connection with the WCML electrification) with platforms long enough to accommodate full-length expresses. Some expresses called here (especially morning up trains and evening down ones) as the station was used by many on the SE side of B'ham wishing to travel to London.

 

When B'ham International opened in the mid-1970s, Hampton-in-Arden lost this role.

[D854_Tiger]

In the days before the London extension was built from Bedford, Midland Railway passengers from Sheffield, and places north of, had the choice of two routes to London, 1) Derby, Coleshill, Hampton-In-Arden with running powers over the LNWR to Euston, or 2) , Leicester, Bedford, Hitchin, and running powers over the GNR to Kings X. In those days the main-line from Coleshill went south to Hampton, the branch went off to Birmingham.

 

Here's a wonderful account of the opening of the railway.

 

http://www.agecarey.com/Railway/birmingham_and_derby_junction_ra.asp

[D854_Tiger]

As mentioned above by Paul, Hampton-in-Arden has indeed a long and interesting railway history.

 

More recently, in the mid 1960s, it was rebuilt (in connection with the WCML electrification) with platforms long enough to accommodate full-length expresses. Some expresses called here (especially morning up trains and evening down ones) as the station was used by many on the SE side of B'ham wishing to travel to London.

 

When B'ham International opened in the mid-1970s, Hampton-in-Arden lost this role.

 

 

After the Paddington - Birmingham service became semi-fast (2.5 hour journey) and I seem to remember reduced to only a two hour frequency, in 1967, intermediate stations like Solihull lost out pretty badly that's why Hampton in Arden became a stop on the new electric service, though as you say peak only.

 

After International opened, some services still called at Hampton in Arden as, by then, business was quite healthy, it was only when the Euston service went to half hourly that Hampton in Arden stops bit the bullet.

 

Nowadays, two London Midland trains an hour call there through to Euston, in around two hours, which isn't bad really, if you live local, and, of course, Solihull is back on the main line once again.

['CHARD]

I just wanted to post this historic (in Transition Diesels sense at least) shot of Lichfield City:

 

http://www.rail-online.co.uk/p1065213468/h7bcb654#h7bcb654

[Steve K]

As I still haven't properly gathered my thoughts (well, memories and photos, to be precise) to continue on from my ramblings concerning a visit to Hampton-In-Arden 6 years ago (maybe next week...!), here are a couple of photos of something in Birmingham that, if not forgotten, exactly, is probably overlooked by most visitors to the area. Apparently, it is the oldest surviving example of monumental railway architecture anywhere in the world:

 

 

This is, of course, the frontage of the former Curzon Street station, which has stood as you see it now, without any rail lines attached, throughout my lifetime. There is talk of it being brought back into use as a station building as and when HS2 ever arrives in Birmingham, but until then, it stands as an impressive reminder of times long gone.

 

Wikipedia, not always everyone's favourite website, gives a useful potted history:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Street_railway_station

[John_Miles]

Hampton to Whitacre junction was the first main line to be downgraded to single track. IIRC this was in the 1840s!!

 

Excellent thread. I have just discovered it. I particularly liked the bits about Granville Street and the Birmingham West Suburban. Until around a year ago there was a remnant of the original line in Selly Oak where the line crosses the Bristol Road. Just to the south of the existing railway there were a few arches of a single track brick viaduct, which when I lived in the are (1970s) was used by a garage. The whole area has recently been cleared for a new Sainsburys. Also if you look carefully at Lifford you can see where the original lined followed the canal.

['CHARD]

Apologies for non-Facebookers, but this view of Brownhills, which I have never seen before, has to be worth sharing, even if just for help in getting my bearings*.  But after all, it is a fantastically atmospheric image.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1848922358458640&set=gm.1881082345441169&type=3&theater

 

 

* I've got my bearings, this is looking south-west towards Walsall from the High Street bridge.

[Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge]

Some of these disused pieces of track and buildings would probably make an amazing preserved line

[Steve K]

Apologies for non-Facebookers, but this view of Brownhills, which I have never seen before, has to be worth sharing...

 

Apology accepted - I'm sure it's a fascinating view!

['CHARD]

Apology accepted - I'm sure it's a fascinating view!

[Steve K]

Excellent stuff! So, this was taken from just about where the giant miner is now, and the main shops of Brownhills are off to the left? And I'm guessing, therefore, that the bridge we can see no longer exists, but would have carried a road onto scrubland, from Pelsall Road (on right of this photo) pretty much opposite Wallace Road. If that's all correct - and do tell me if we're not in agreement here! - then there would have been another bridge* just out of sight, carrying the Midland Railway over the LNWR.

 

 

*Possibly, just possibly, the shadow under the bridge above could be the southern abutment of the MR bridge?

[bike2steam]

Apologies for non-Facebookers, but this view of Brownhills, which I have never seen before, has to be worth sharing, even if just for help in getting my bearings*.  But after all, it is a fantastically atmospheric image.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1848922358458640&set=gm.1881082345441169&type=3&theater

 

 

* I've got my bearings, this is looking south-west towards Walsall from the High Street bridge.

Page 27 of Bradford Bartons 'London Midland Steam In The Midlands'. Although my computer says your link no longer works. The loco is 45626.

[big jim]

Thought I’d give this thread a bit of a bump, visited Dudley zoo on Sunday for the first time in 10 or so years, they have put a new car park in which you access from a road that runs along what looks like the old freightliner terminal

 

There has been a massive clearing of vegitation around the cutting too, I seem to remember reading this is where they want to build the ‘centre for excellence’ for tramways or something

 

[melmerby]

That's about the location of a propsed MM tram stop

 

This is the Google Earth view taken a couple of years back:

 

https://goo.gl/maps/WCJnVEjgGwn

 

The bridge is where the tram line from Wednesbury will arrive on it's way to Dudley town centre and the clearance work is part of that.

AFAIK the whole route has been cleared for survey purposes.

The proposed stop here is to be called "Castle Hill"

After running through the streets of Dudley the tram will regain the route of the line to Stourbridge on it's way to Merry Hill and Brierley Hill.

 

http://www.metroalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/WBHleafletmap.jpg

 

Keith

[TransportSteve2011]

Thought I’d give this thread a bit of a bump, visited Dudley zoo on Sunday for the first time in 10 or so years, they have put a new car park in which you access from a road that runs along what looks like the old freightliner terminal

 

 

 

 Yes, the FLT was across the road, I remember they had a fire on the terminal back in 1983-ish, someone decided to burn some old car tyres and the thick, black, acrid smoke drifted across to the Zoo, and all the animal exhibits went crazy, and they had to evacuate the customers until the fire brigade had arrived and put the fire out, which took a few hours, the terminal staff never lived it down......

 

Cheerz.  Steve.