TheSignalEngineer

Is the old Cadbury skew bridge over the railway and canal between Selly Oak and Bournville a rivetted one? Don't think it's a plate deck though, I seem to remember brick arches between the girders underneath the deck.

The door was to the left hand end. The right hand end had windows but the back was all planked.

From the amount of tea I drank in there during the building of Curzon St Box I could probably give a reasonable outline of the internals as well. The cupboard on the outside end was where we kept oil and grease. The inside had a square coal stove with oven above the firebox and a gas ring on top. It was gas lit also.

Yes, and if you weathered some like that you would probably be told it was OTT. Pity I didn't take it from the signalbox to get a bit of elevation, because looking at the foreground there's a mechanically worked bullhead double slip with facing point locks, Westinghouse H-series detector boxes and also (just left of this crop) Permali laminated wood insulated block joints. How things have changed since 1966.

Not quite Black Country, but there were also a lot of cabins around the area like these at Curzon Street. The one to the left was my Grandfather's cabin when he was the Signal Linesman at Proof House from 1947 to 1966. The next one was either the Numbertaker or C&W. The hut partly visible to the right was used by the C&W. Curzon St Cabins September 1966. Photograph copyright C E Steele

Continuing on the Saloon tour, I've tried to recover something from the remaining negatives. All photos Copyright C E Steele Dudley and Eagle Crossing Signal Boxes. Not much of interest here, both LMR Standard design from 1970-72 period, although Eagle crossing seems to have acquired a name board from the old box. A nice brick cabin at Eagle Crossing, plus LMS style ground disc with BR standard yellow arm. The cabin was typical of the area, so would be an ideal feature. A view of the crossing at Eagle Lane showing typical industrial scene of 30 years ago. Taken from the signalbox. Potters Lane crossing at Wednesbury. By this time it was almost dark as shown by the flare of the street light. A nice 'Woody' passing Wednesbury Signal Box. The bank in the background was the GWR line. Apologies for the quality, it was dark and cold all day.

Just tried a mega-resolution scan - the saloon and Rat was about 25mb. These are the clips of the numbers, TDM45026 and 25051 by the look of it. Nice dent on the corner of the Rat

Thanks for picking me up on that, memories from 30 years ago are sometimes not quite accurate. When I put on the original post I couldn't find the index sheet, but have now got it. It shows December 1982, and later shots I know were taken on 11th and 16th. Judging by our normal schedule for inspection tours I would say they were taken on either 1st or 8th December. There are some more shots on the film of Dudley, Eagle Crossing and Wednesbury, but by the end the street lamps were on so I don't know if I can make anything of them. Regarding the signal name, I think it would possibly have been Starter in GW parlance, with the one on the station being Advance Starter. It was controlled by lever 3 before the layout alterations in the 1970s, but I don't remember what it became after that.

From the photos it looks as if the platforms on those signals wouldn't even qualify as 'working at height'

In my job in the early 1980s I got to ride on the Saloon when the boss went out and about. We had a real Black Country Blue trip late in 1982, joining at Langley Green, running out to Hartlebury then back to Walsall via Dudley. Photography was difficult as it didn't really get light all day, but I have just retrieved some thin old negatives that were passed over at the time from the archive. They were taken as the gloom gathered at Round Oak South, so apologies for the quality but some of the content may be of interest, especially as it was just a few weeks before the works closed. All photographs copyright C E Steele Our transport for the day - Blue Rat and Walsall Saloon Kingswinford Junction South Box Signal No3 Up line by site of old station The works with a YE shunter The flat crossing Looking towards Pensnett Captions updated 30/7/2012

A far cry from those old LNW and Midland wooden 60 footers, some without even a hoop on the ladder, from my early days on the railway. Most of the GW ones were not so high but still hair raising like the one bolted to the side of Oxley Viaduct, though that did have a ladder cage.

I intend to make mine 61249 as I saw it New St c1963/4. Then it had wide spaced door straps but Robert Carroll's flickr stream has a picture of it on Lickey with narrow straps and number high up.

Pity it doesn't show about 50 yards further to the left where the flat crossing was.

Mine came Saturday, looks the dogs whatsits, a really useful engine that got around a lot. Now for ID change to one that I photographed at New St nearly 50 years ago.

Getting down the list then - this was Priority 4 in a document I had around 1970, after KX - Edinburgh, Paddington - Bristol / Cardiff and Swansea - York. The big mistake on this line in the past was doing BedPan. Had they started from Leeds no politician would be able to stop it before it got to London? Would WCML have got past Northampton or perhaps Birmingham in the 1960s if they hadn't started from Liverpool and Manchester?

I hate mobiles, and only carry one when I need to. It's PAYG and an old Nokia splashproof handset that my son had no further use for several years ago. OK for calls and texts if not much else and it bounces when you drop it on a flagstone, unlike a well-known machine with a glass front.

New St showing a sense of humour, or is it optimism, in 1986. Just look at the connecting stations off the 1610 to Norwich.