Birmingham New Street: Photos and Videos

[rodent279]

 

Iconic New St feature, Dec 1985. And the Rotunda (see what I did there?😀).

 

 

And here it is in all it's brutalist glory,  on a chilly February afternoon in 1986. I believe it is flats now.

Edited April 26, 2023 by rodent279

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

31258 at Birmingham New Street on 28/10/78 (my photo)

[F-UnitMad]

On 25/04/2023 at 07:22, franciswilliamwebb said:

Note the British Rail Utility Trolley being used by a couple of spotters. 

Always did that at New Street, they were a handy 'base' for your bag & coat. In fact on summer Saturdays you had to be early to get one at all..!!! The trick was getting one with all 4 wheels in contact with the ground - a bent one that rocked on 3 wheels any time you moved could get irritating. 🙄🤣

 

Which was people's favourite 'end' at New Street - a or b? I used to prefer the a end, you could see stuff coming up the tunnels from Proof House Jnc.

[AY Mod]

20 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Which was people's favourite 'end' at New Street - a or b?

 

'b' was normally my lucky end for getting a cab ride home to Wolves or Stafford but up to 1976 'a' would favoured for chances to watch a Western depart.

[Clearwater]

24 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Always did that at New Street, they were a handy 'base' for your bag & coat. In fact on summer Saturdays you had to be early to get one at all..!!! The trick was getting one with all 4 wheels in contact with the ground - a bent one that rocked on 3 wheels any time you moved could get irritating. 🙄🤣

 

Which was people's favourite 'end' at New Street - a or b? I used to prefer the a end, you could see stuff coming up the tunnels from Proof House Jnc.

 

Agreed re a.  End of 6/7.  Took my sons there a couple of Saturdays ago.  All seemed so empty.  No locos stabled anywhere....

 

[kevinlms]

8 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Always did that at New Street, they were a handy 'base' for your bag & coat. In fact on summer Saturdays you had to be early to get one at all..!!! The trick was getting one with all 4 wheels in contact with the ground - a bent one that rocked on 3 wheels any time you moved could get irritating. 🙄🤣

 

So the supermarket trolley has a prototype!

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

85018 at Birmingham New Street on 22/02/86 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

87020 "North Briton" at Birmingham New Street on 04/06/84 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

47418 & 50031 "Hood" at Birmingham New Street on 21/02/86 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

53093 at Birmingham New Street on 07/06/84 (my photo)

[kevinlms]

On 30/04/2023 at 17:16, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

47418 & 50031 "Hood" at Birmingham New Street on 21/02/86 (my photo)

Typical condition for a Class 47 in blue, giving a reason for the complaints that plain blue diesels are 'dirty and boring'. The Class 50 is a bit cleaner, but the large logo/number livery is a vast improvement.

[F-UnitMad]

On 30/04/2023 at 08:16, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

47418 & 50031 "Hood" at Birmingham New Street on 21/02/86 (my photo)

That photo reminds me of once when I was at New St and a Duff & Hoover were together similar to that, but at the 'a' end.

I remarked to another 'spotter close by that I regretted not having a camera.

"Why?" he asked, surprised and/or bored. "it's only a 47 & a 50!!"

 

He clearly wasn't thinking several decades ahead for nostalgia!!!

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

85034 at Birmingham New Street on 19/09/80 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

The first three minutes of this one include evocative footage of New Street before it's sixties carbuncling 😎

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

Complete with broken windscreen, 53839 arrives at Birmingham New Street on 25/04/87 with the 12.34 cross-city service to Blake Street (my photo)

[F-UnitMad]

On 09/05/2023 at 10:16, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

Complete with broken windscreen, 53839 arrives at Birmingham New Street on 25/04/87 with the 12.34 cross-city service to Blake Street (my photo)

Anyone else called them "Bugs"? Presumably because they swarmed like flies & were a bit of a pest? I never looked twice at DMUs back in the day (clearly not thinking of the nostalgia aspect decades later myself!! 🙄😉🤣 ) except that the 'Tyseley Scratch Sets' were interesting at times, when one car was in a different livery to the others!! 😁

I swear I saw a set where all 3 cars were different - one all blue, one blue/grey, and one in WMPTE white/blue stripe!! No photo of course, so I probably imagined it. 🤔

[MidlandRed]

4 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Anyone else called them "Bugs"? Presumably because they swarmed like flies & were a bit of a pest? 
 

 

The first time I heard them called Bug Units amongst other things was in the very early sixties. I was told (by older boys who were allowed to go to places like Tyseley or Saltley sheds and were real steam buffs) it was because of their rather odd green colour resembling bugs (particularly the Tyseley ones, which were originally in a light green colour without lining - I think it’s referred to as ‘almost malachite’ in the class 116 history thread in Prototype questions) - the ones used from New Street were a much more stately looking dark green with lining (and particularly the Met Camm ones with a set of lining mid window height which curved up from below windscreen level at the front and with snazzy looking aluminium window pans) as would befit residents of the Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield, through which they travelled. The poor (but equally wealthy) residents of Solihull, Knowle and Dorridge had to put up with the WR spec almost malachite, suburban, gangway-less and toilet-less one day to be class 116, bug units.

 

Needless to say these older boys always recommended against paying any attention to such mundane and hated things - however I found them very interesting and particularly the single car units - I found an old combined volume recently and as well as admitting to actually collecting the numbers I appear to have cabbed several single cars and parcels units, such was their reverence in my eyes. 
 

I suspect the disdain shown by some in terms of names for them (bug unit morphed into bog cart - although the WR sets (other than Cross Country) were bereft of them) lay in their replacing a lot of steam locos used on local services and lots of reasonably ancient coaching stock - and anything that did that was anathema to many. I must admit I loved the then new stuff as well as steam!!! And despite Tyseley having a massive allocation of diesel units, it was still possible in 1965/6 to see large Prarie tanks hauling occasional (probably peak period) local trains on the lines from Snow Hill - the WR was quite an esoteric region really, and in sharp contrast in Birmingham to the adjacent LM lines - blimey even their Brush Type 4s had funny lamp brackets 😀🤔

Edited May 11, 2023 by MidlandRed

[F-UnitMad]

Found another photo I took at New Street, probably late '80s, early '90s? 

 

86 426 in 'retro' electric blue livery. 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by F-UnitMad

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

50013 "Agincourt" at Birmingham New Street on 28/10/78 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

86250 at Birmingham New Street on 28/10/78 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

50013 at Birmingham New Street on 28/10/78 (my photo)

 

As part of a facelift for the station in the 21st century, that pigeon was given a shampoo and set 😉

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

[melmerby]

Here's a picture from an unusual angle (posted elsewhere)

Class 8X just about to vanish in the tunnel:

Good shot of the old LNWR "Lamp room" on Platform 1.

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

Class 304 008 leaves Birmingham New Street on 28/10/78, taken from Park Street (my photo)

[SouthernBlue80s]

 

Mid 80s New Street.