Walsall Area: Photos and Videos

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

87028 "Lord President" at Bescot on 12/02/79 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

Class 304 EMU number 036 leaves Bescot for Birmingham on 12/02/79 (my photo)

Don't be misled by that destination blind!

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

Pleck Junction, Walsall, looking south-west from Wednesbury Road bridge 31/03/83.

 

Walsall power box is visible (centre) and the lines to the right head off through Pleck to Wolverhampton via the Grand Junction route (my photo)

 

(After an epic struggle my auto-correct no longer replaces Pleck) 🙄

[big jim]

Totally changed view now, you can make out the floodlights for the football stadium which is where Morrisons now stands, I didn’t know the footy ground was there but at least now I know why the shop has football murals around its entrance

 

 The right foreground is now a hospice of some sort 

[franciswilliamwebb]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

Totally changed view now, you can make out the floodlights for the football stadium which is where Morrisons now stands, I didn’t know the footy ground was there but at least now I know why the shop has football murals around its entrance

 

Yes it's Fellows Park, the ground Walsall had before the move to Bescot Stadium.

Trivia: I watched my first football match at Fellows Park, a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth I think.  It was the start of my fascination with watching paint dry 🙄

[lmsforever]

That is fantastic the snow adds a special feel to a good photo of the freight.

[SZ]

3 hours ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

Yes it's Fellows Park, the ground Walsall had before the move to Bescot Stadium.

Trivia: I watched my first football match at Fellows Park, a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth I think.  It was the start of my fascination with watching paint dry 🙄

 

That's odd. Wikipedia tells me Bescot Stadium was built in 1990 but I'm sure I remember a stadium of some sort there in 1981/82 when I paid a visit.

[Rugd1022]

20 hours ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

Pleck Junction, Walsall, looking south-west from Wednesbury Road bridge 31/03/83.

 

Walsall power box is visible (centre) and the lines to the right head off through Pleck to Wolverhampton via the Grand Junction route (my photo)

 

(After an epic struggle my auto-correct no longer replaces Pleck) 🙄

 

Cracking view of Pleck there! The area once occupied by the PSB is fenced off now and within it lurks the six wheeled Range Rover Fire Tender which used to live in the old goods yard down at Aynho station for several years.

 

Coming out of Bescot with a freight it's a lottery as to whether you'll be routed fast or slow line to Walsall, but if it's the former you can just about get enough speed up to do a running brake test before the 20mph permanent slack through the station.

 

Did you ever manage to take anything of the remains of Ryecroft shed...? Very few photos of it seem to exist at all.

 

 

[big jim]

2 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Cracking view of Pleck there! The area once occupied by the PSB is fenced off now and within it lurks the six wheeled Range Rover Fire Tender which used to live in the old goods yard down at Aynho station for several years.

 

 

I remember seeing one of those fire tenders in a ladybird book as a kid and was fascinated by it, couldn’t believe it when I first saw the one at pleck, I’ll be honest though I’m surprised it’s not had it’s windows smashed sat where it is 

[franciswilliamwebb]

2 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Did you ever manage to take anything of the remains of Ryecroft shed...? Very few photos of it seem to exist at all.

 

Way before my time, alas.  I've seen pics in books of the ground prepared for the new multiple unit depot, but that too was before my time. I've only ever known Ryecroft as wasteland 😭

[franciswilliamwebb]

Essential reading for the area:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rails-Around-Walsall-John-Boynton/dp/0952224836/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BTT9JHM6VSIK&keywords=rails+around+walsall&qid=1687167835&sprefix=rails+around+walsall%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walsalls-Engine-Shed-Railwaymens-1877-1968/dp/0752440349/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?crid=1BTT9JHM6VSIK&keywords=rails+around+walsall&qid=1687167835&sprefix=rails+around+walsall%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1-fkmr0

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/South-Staffordshire-Railway-Dudley-Walsall-Lichfield-Burton-2010-07-22/dp/B01LP6V9QG/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2BLWMM745UICE&keywords=south+staffordshire+railway&qid=1687167947&sprefix=south+staffordshire+railway%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-4

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/South-Staffordshire-Railway-including-Colliery/dp/0853617171/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BLWMM745UICE&keywords=south+staffordshire+railway&qid=1687167947&sprefix=south+staffordshire+railway%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-1

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

Pleck Junction, Walsall, looking north-east from Wednesbury Road bridge 31/03/83. Walsall station is somewhere in distance (my photo)

[wombatofludham]

3 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Cracking view of Pleck there! The area once occupied by the PSB is fenced off now and within it lurks the six wheeled Range Rover Fire Tender which used to live in the old goods yard down at Aynho station for several years.

 

I know who owns the Pleck fire appliance and it was the old Goodyear Tyre Factory internal fire engine, built to a similar design to many MoD appliances, so it probably has never been to Aynho having come into my friend's possession direct from Goodyear.  However, as I say, it is almost identical to a number of Range Rover based machines used by the MoD which might explain the Aynho resident with all the military bases round there.

All the talk of Pleck is bringing back many memories as my grandparents lived in Hough Road in Pleck, and Grandad would take me and my brother on Sunday morning walks towards Bescot, or alongside the heavily polluted River Tame towards where Darlaston station is being rebuilt on the site of the old "Railway Tavern".  In the 1970s this used to have a family beer garden so would be somewhere we'd go on a summer evening and whilst me and my brother necked Vimto and salt and vinegar crisps, dad and grandad would quaff Highgate mild (I think it was a Highate pub, but it might have been M&B...)

Prior to the building of Bescot Stadium the land opposite was a mix of derelict sewage farm, and some playing fields.  Fellows Park was still hosting football well into the 1980s as I always remember what a pain it was with fans parking along Slater's Lane, although the number of light controlled junctions now in the area with Morrison's and the retail park provides traffic chaos of a different sort.

[SZ]

On 19/06/2023 at 12:35, wombatofludham said:

Prior to the building of Bescot Stadium the land opposite was a mix of derelict sewage farm, and some playing fields.

 

Thanks, that must have been what I saw back then. I probably arrived seasick on a 304.