Birmingham's railways - some personal thoughts

[TheSignalEngineer]

20 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

Before the Cross City electrification, the Tyseley DMUs were famously on their last legs and increasingly mixed and matched rather than uniform sets. There were definitely ex Cardiff cars with Valley Lines maps inside and Red Dragon branding outside.

Towards the end of first gen DMUs at Tyseley there were sets with maps of virtually the whole of BR. Getting a set with three different classes on three different liveries was not uncommon in the 1980s.

20 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

On the way to work in the morning, for one winter timetable the Shrewsbury to Wolves stopper was actually one of the InterCity mk2E/F  sets with class 47 haulage, obviously filling in for DMU shortage

 There were a few services in the West Midlands which ran as stoppers and then continued on to other places but not always advertised as through trains.  Some substitution of loco hauled sets did also occur,  I have a picture of a 47 arriving at Moor Street with a local from Dorridge.

['CHARD]

Having resided in the West Midlands, on and off, throughout my life, the above observations and reminiscences are very powerful triggers indeed. 

 

My parents moved for dad's job, from Wavertree in Liverpool, to Erdington, in 1957 just as the line from New Street to Sutton was receiving early diesel railcars.  An early memory is watching their replacements, the 3-car Class 101s (as I would later know them), close to the footbridge at Chester Road station, in corporate blue with two-character headcodes, in the days when the service was very sparse compared to the timetable that launched with the Cross City line a decade later.  A special treat was a Saturday train ride to go shopping in Birmingham, like others on here have said, the variety and quantity of services at New Street was little short of bewildering. 

 

As my awareness and interest grew, I would recognise the carriage sheds at Vauxhall & Duddeston, the huge parcels depot by Proof House, and lesser relics including the redundant and derelict post office sidings just south of Erdington station.  On one occasion at least, I watched spellbound by the loading of the Stirling-bound Motorail in the facilities provided at Sutton Coldfield.  A keen junior cyclist, every available evening was spent biking to vantage points in Sutton Park, in anticipation of watching the traditional wagonload freights that plied their obscure trade to and from unknowable origins and destinations. 

 

Then I got my hands on an old copy of the Birmingham A-Z. Water Orton sidings had vanished when I ventured across there.  But Bescot was still doing brisk business, and I was on a childhood mission to trace the obscure lines and locations that were in the A-Z but no longer functioning railways on the ground.  To this end I at least got to see and explore Aldridge - Brownhills before it was ploughed and excavated into history, Ryecroft Junction with its manifold attractions, and disused but extant stations in non-rail use including Streetly and Sutton Park. 

 

I recall Snow Hill in all its gaunt decay, and explored it during the car park years.  Later, around 1991 I guess, I walked from the station throat, by the Taylor & Challen building that features in so many old photographs taken from the platform ends looking towards Hockley, through the tunnels to the site of Hockley station, exiting via the graveyard there.  Around the same time, one Sunday, a friend and I found the gate to the tunnel at Suffolk Street Goods invitingly open, so we explored that long-forgotten freight artery to its junction with the Cross-City at Five Ways.  Somewhere, I have photos taken on those two urban explorations.  

Edited May 26, 2022 by 'CHARD

[DY444]

As a child I remember the trudge from Snow Hill to the building site which was New St when changing trains.  It always seemed to be raining too.  Snow Hill seemed such a wonderful station to the young me with its tunnel, modern signals, Pullmans and grand expresses.  I can still remember standing on those wide paved platforms as though it was yesterday rather than the best part of 60 years ago. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by DY444

[Compound2632]

19 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Towards the end of first gen DMUs at Tyseley there were sets with maps of virtually the whole of BR. Getting a set with three different classes on three different liveries was not uncommon in the 1980s.

 

In contrast, my recollection is of the Cross-City DMUs, once they had been given the full blue/grey treatment, seeming quite smart and generally uniform. Perhaps the ex-GWR North Warwickshire services out of Moor Street got the dross?

[TheSignalEngineer]

6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In contrast, my recollection is of the Cross-City DMUs, once they had been given the full blue/grey treatment, seeming quite smart and generally uniform. Perhaps the ex-GWR North Warwickshire services out of Moor Street got the dross?

The Cross City service when it was first introduced did get the better sets. Tyseley fitted gangways to the 116 motor coaches and the trailers were replaced mainly by Lav trailers from BedPan and Merseyside, although a few got other types.

[MidlandRed]

As a born and bred Brummie and having lived there until the early 80s, my own personal expedition into railway enthusiasm (and buses) started when I was about 5 - there were several strands to the railway enthusiasm:-

 

1) My Dad was a very enthusiastic amateur footballer and cricketer - the home ground was in the triangle of railway tracks at Perry Barr junctions so many Saturdays and Sundays involved spending the day there, and seeing the various trains on the three arms of the triangle - we’re talking early 60s so the trains were a mixture:-

a) Met Cam 2 car DMUs in multiples of up to 8 cars working BNS to Rugeley TV (curtailed to Walsall owing to Beeching around 1965) - the Met Cams disappeared, to be replaced by the local Ryecroft Park Royal and GRCW twin sets - cascaded as a result of passenger route closures such as that over the South Staffs, Burton/Brownhills to Dudley/Wolverhampton.

b) Freight - mostly hauled by Black 5 or 8F but with the occasional standard class 4 or 5, or one of the local ex LNW G2, or LMS/MR 4Fs. Pick up goods with Ivatt 2MT. 
c) Empty stock (including Eastern Region trains and Southern stock in green) running to/from local carriage depots - locos included Brit class - always a matter of some excitement! 
d) Sunday diversions from the WCML - mainly class 40 hauled but interspersed with occasional Brit and Stanier Pacifics.

At the south western corner of the triangle was a water softening plant, which along with nearly sidings at an SPD depot, contained wagons which never seemed to be moved - until I discovered an 8F shunting the water softener sidings one day (I took a very poor photo of it on my instamatic camera)! The other two corners were also fenced off and contained signal boxes. 
 

Things got quite interesting on Sundays in 1965/66 when various electrification trains, usually hauled by 8Fs were present - the first of which was the foundation and concreting train - which had what seemed like a huge auger which would be used to excavate the foundations for the masts - the final train was the wiring train with workers on the flat rooves. Overbridge reconstruction work also happened at adjoining locations in this period - whilst dieselisation at Bescot happened in 1965-6 - using class 40s and 24 largely from the southern end of the WCML (eg Willesden) and a group of class 20s from the same origin and ten brand new class 20s (D8134-43)

 

2) We lived in Streetly and my other place of railway exposure up to the age of about 9 (extraordinary that such young kids were allowed in those days to wander unaccompanied) was the still open Streetly station and adjoining Sutton Park. The main train of interest to my friends and I was a northbound freight hauled invariably by a Brit pacific which appeared about 1645 - excellent timing for a walk down from school and then time to walk home for a decent time - if we got there early enough we would see a light 4F travelling towards Sutton Park station (by 1963/4 this would become a Derby class 2 - maybe one of the first of the brand new face lifted one, D5233 on - Saltley was partially dieselised in that era). A (very) long walk to Sutton Park station would sometimes reveal an Ivatt 4MT, shunting the sorting office sidings - from Streetly it (and it’s steam plume) was just about visible along the very long long straight through the park - resulting in a lot of excitement that a train was coming - but didn’t (as it disappeared into the sidings again). In the winter, the process was to rush down the wooden access stairs at Streetly and turn on the nearest gas lamp just in time to see the cab side number! And turn it back off and disappear before the station mistress noticed!! This was all fine including the other antics got up to until one sunny afternoon a D9 passed over the railway bridge and I looked up and saw one of the primary school teachers on the top deck clearly looking horrified and making a mental note of the youngsters present……… there followed a day or so later summoning with parents to see the headmaster….. 
 

Today’s stream of freight was unheard of on the Sutton Park line then (both Bescot and Washwood Heath yards were very busy - and outlets like the South Staffs would take traffic now running this way) - only the occasional freight would come through (though often hauled by ‘interesting’ locos like Brits) and by the early 60s, a BNS to Walsall DMU service was very sparse. Occasionally, diversions would bring large quantities of trains. 
 

For me, the meagre train pickings were supplemented by Walsall Corporation buses (including the first of their new short Fleetlines), and Midland Red buses - new D9s and the prototype 36 ft S16 (this is dated to summer 1962 when it spent a few weeks at Sutton on a tour around the system). 
 

3) Birmingham Snow Hill and the ex WR - early trips with my father to Snow Hill were at the changeover from Kings to Westerns on the increased Paddington expresses (whilst New St was rebuilt) and no soon as they’d arrived, they were gone, replaced by brand new Brush Type 4s (D1682-D1761 batch). We moved house to Handsworth Wood and trips to Snow Hill were easily possible by bus - me and my mates would congregate at the Wolverhampton end so we could get all the through traffic and essentially, the WR (Tyseley) DMUs which terminated in the northern bay platforms (there weren’t any southern ones - that was Moor St station!!!). The sought after single car units (and parcels cars) often stopped there. NB the ex WR DMUs did not spread to the ex LM lines until the later 60s - it was still very much ex LNW, ex GW and ex MR in terms of stock and there was not much in the way of spread - except through Snow Hill where more Black 5s and 8F joined the ex GW and WR standard stock. There was plenty of steam on freight and even some local passenger services. This was a very very busy station - however one group of station signs which always amused me, and I didn’t really understand - ‘wash and brush up’!! It was only when I travelled on a preserved train many years later with my head out of the window and a light coloured jacket on that I understood the point (steam was pretty filthy in quantity at these stations)!!
 

My local spotting ground was the Grand Junction through what is now Hamstead - although much of the local freight was dieselised by the mid 60s, a daily visit by a Birkenhead 9F on Gulf tanks travelling north (empty) from Albion was a highlight. A daily Hymek and influx of NBL Warships after 1967 were spectacular highlights! 
 

I also recall being taken to Sutton Coldfield station in the evening peak one day in the early 60s - all of the trains were operated by Monument Lane allocated 3 car Met Camm units (the whole class M50303-20/50321-50338/59114-31 was used on BNS to Sutton/Four Oaks/Lichfield City and separately BNS to Barnt Green/Redditch). 
 

BNS became a hugely interesting place after reconstruction - to a youngster symbolising the modern and new in Birmingham - which was exciting to go with the music and other social elements at the time - Peak class (often in early rail blue on one side of the station) and classes AL1-6 on expresses on the other (these all had blue and grey stock, everything except the restaurant cars and BGs being brand new). And new AM10 units in pairs on the Euston semi fasts (which stopped at a large number of stations - good for train spotters as they had a lower top speed and if you kneeled on the front seats you could look out of the front of the train)! But as others have mentioned, we received the pretty dreadful AM4s for some local services - our relatively comfortable Park Royal twin sets on the Walsall service (I never did get why the relatively well off from Hagley, Solihull, Knowle and Dorridge were provided by the WR with non toilet fitted suburban units compared with the ‘cross country’ equivalent spec of the Met Camms, Park Royals etc on the ex LNW - the ex MR got the similar BRCW and absolute bone shaker Cravens (keep out of the motor car at all costs!!!). The AM4s were really dusty internally - once bounced off the seats travelling on one the cloud of dust on a sunny day had to be seen to be believed - they were also pretty noisy - generally feeling worn out - but 4 cars instead of two!! I recall the first services were run by lined green, syp 022. 
 

Other local locations frequented in teenage years were Bromford Bridge (closed but still extant and accessible station on the BNS to Derby and Leicester line just the Derby side of Washwood Heath sidings) - streams of heavy Midland Division freights (class 44; 27 (in pairs); 47; 45; 25; 20 (in pairs); NE/SW expresses (45; 46; 47); Norwich trains (class 31 - usually one of the updated 1600 hp); DMUs to Leicester and Derby (BRCW 3 car; Cravens 3 car). The 11 Outer Circle bus stopped right next to the old station so easily accessible and a nice ride to/from home on a Birmingham CT Guy, Daimler, Crossley or one of the new Fleetlines. 
 

And Bescot - my first visits there were in the steam/diesel changeover days - I vividly remember 8Fs dragging heavy freights north towards Walsall then turning very sharp left up a stiff incline to cross over the Wolverhampton line towards Dudley and Stourbridge - often with much pyrotechnics from the slipping. There were also several jackshaft drive diesel shunters in the yard in those days (12004-12033) - I recall 12013 was a regular - and who could forget the handful of antique looking (as a child I always thought they looked menacing with the lack of front number plate and method of keeping the smoke box door shut) ex LNW 0-8-0s!! I really liked the replacement class 40s, 47s and the 24/25/20s. I was particularly taken with the early blue locos (D7661-77 and the bizarre fashion repaints, D5021 and 5028). 
 

I’ll stop wittering for a bit haha!! We were spoilt for choice to be honest - another was a trip over to the Trent Valley to see the ‘eleckies’ travelling at 100 mph on expresses was also a highlight (with parents and younger brother by car to a convenient level crossing - say Coton north of Tamworth). 

Edited May 26, 2022 by MidlandRed

[Michael Hodgson]

I lived in various parts of Brum for a few years in the early/mid 70s.  It was good to see the photos of Snow Hill as the ghost of a station I remember.  I should have some similar views on 35mm slides somewhere.  It was an eerie place, hardly any service, but I did manage a couple of the very last trips to Wolverhampton LL.  Quite a few of the signal boxes on that route were unable to clear their signals because S&T maintenance had already been withdrawn, so it was a matter of flags displayed from the balcony.  However the general impression from the train was that the boxes themselves were still being looked after by the signalmen as bet they could despite knowing that they all would be losing their jobs within days.  I suspect they were hoping the line would get a last minute reprieve although the writing had very clearly been on the wall for many years.  I seem to recall that the site remained a derelict blot on the city's landscape for many years before they eventually got round to pulling down the bits that were still there.

 

One died-in-the-wool LMS man with a strong Black Country accent said that although he was an LMS man, he always preferred the GWR line to Wolverhampton.  When asked why his reply was "It's in a cutting so you don't see the scenery".

 

I wandered onto the site one day after the station closed completely, and found the boarding up of the tunnel from Moor Street had been vandalised.  So I found I could walk right through the tunnel emerging at the Moorgate end before returning the same way.  I also remember the booking office ticket windows being about all that was left in the derelict main building.

 

The Museum of Science & Induatry was indeed excellent and is a great loss.  I had forgotten about City of Birmingham being propelled back and to hydraulically.  It was quite a palaver getting the loco into the building (and presumably also back out again) requiring road closures in the city of the motor car.  That mechanism reminds of  an advertising hoarding I remember once at the end of the elevated section of the M4 in London (reputedly the most valuable location for an advertising hoarding in London) - two small cars, one of them inclined at an angle similarly moving back and to behind the other, and thus appearing to be having its wicked way with it!

 

23 hours ago, melmerby said:

One of the items I used to like to see in the old science museum was the "Orchestrion" a huge self playing musical instrument combo.

It used punched paper cards to play and I always listened to it when was operating.

 

Yes, I remember that - not least because I was still using punched cards and paper tape in my day job at the time!

Not the only place to hear organ music - when I was working in our Colmore Row or New Street offices, sometimes I was able to go to the Town Hall during my lunch hour whilst the talented City Organist, George Thalben-Ball was practicing, as you got free musical entertainment whilst eating your sandwiches.

[DY444]

My first extensive exposure to the finished, rebuilt New St wasn't until the summer of 1973 when I ventured out on my first Midland Railtourer.  The station was still clean then and very busy by contemporary provincial station standards but nothing like it became.  In those days P12 was hardly used at all and P1 only a handful of times each day, mainly for the Paddington trains.  On that first day alone I saw examples of several AC electric classes, an ER 31, a Western, a 50, and the usual variety of peaks and 47s from a mix of ER, LMR and WR depots. 

 

Then there were the summer Saturday mornings.  The platform ends packed solid with enthusiasts (the Derby end of P8/9 and P10/11 in particular); numerous SO holiday trains to the coast; an endless succession of light engines to/from Saltley; all the centre sidings, box engine sidings and east dock hosting relief engines; shunters with their big gloves rushing from platform to platform; constant train announcements from the distinctive lady station announcer urging you to "join the train please"; crowds of families with excited children; little groups of footplate crew in their light cotton jackets chatting and joking animatedly; the hissing and thumping of the point machines; the expectation when a yellow front was spied stopped at the signal outside the tunnel; whistles blowing everywhere; station staff impatiently pressing the TRTS plungers numerous times; and the haze of diesel fumes caught on shafts of sunlight rising up in front of the Rotunda. 

 

Difficult to believe when you go there now.

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by DY444

[RJS1977]

11 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I lived in various parts of Brum for a few years in the early/mid 70s.  It was good to see the photos of Snow Hill as the ghost of a station I remember.  I should have some similar views on 35mm slides somewhere.  It was an eerie place, hardly any service, but I did manage a couple of the very last trips to Wolverhampton LL.  Quite a few of the signal boxes on that route were unable to clear their signals because S&T maintenance had already been withdrawn, so it was a matter of flags displayed from the balcony.  However the general impression from the train was that the boxes themselves were still being looked after by the signalmen as bet they could despite knowing that they all would be losing their jobs within days.  I suspect they were hoping the line would get a last minute reprieve although the writing had very clearly been on the wall for many years.  I seem to recall that the site remained a derelict blot on the city's landscape for many years before they eventually got round to pulling down the bits that were still there.

 

At least some of the Wolverhampton LL buildings are still in existence: 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5872816,-2.1171916,3a,75y,325.08h,85.27t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1si7RCxVxPl_X19kpjnvSsVA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Di7RCxVxPl_X19kpjnvSsVA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D19.85521%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[SZ]

6 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

At least some of the Wolverhampton LL buildings are still in existence: 

 

The remains of the WR Birmingham to Wolverhampton line were always intriguing. By the early 80s Snow Hill was flattened but some signs remained. There was the rubbish-strewn line heading north from Smethwick West, the other end crossed over if you ever found yourself on services diverted over the Perry Barr triangle, and behind a factory at  Monmore Green some low-sided bogie wagons rotting on the line as it approached Wolverhampton Low Level.

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by SZ

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, SZ said:

 

The remains of the WR Birmingham to Wolverhampton line were always intriguing. By the early 80s Snow Hill was flattened but some signs remained. There was the rubbish-strewn line heading north from Smethwick West, the other end crossed over if you ever found yourself on services diverted over the Perry Barr triangle, and behind a factory at  Monmore Green some low-sided bogie wagons rotting on the line as it approached Wolverhampton Low Level.

 

The air of decay extended to lines in use as well. The electrified Stour Valley - BNS to Wolverhampton, along which the expresses ran, was lined with cutting sides through Wilson Green which were notable for being strewn with large quantities of household rubbish apparently thrown over the garden fences, in the early 70s. Modern day travellers are greeted with graffiti covered boundary fences/walls instead of the piles of rubbish 🤨

 

In fact many photos of stations in the 70s and even City Centres are notable for the quantities of rubbish on the ground - I recall it being a big reported local issue in Birmingham - I guess one of the side effects of removing or taking out of use all litter bins (including on public transport) to avoid providing places for the terrorists of the times to leave explosive devices. 

Edited May 27, 2022 by MidlandRed

[Pacific231G]

On 26/05/2022 at 00:17, melmerby said:

One of the items I used to like to see in the old science museum was the "Orchestrion" a huge self playing musical instrument combo.

It used punched paper cards to play and I always listened to it when was operating.

When the "Think Tank" opened I looked for it and found it wasn't there so I contacted Birmingham City Council to find out why not.

Apparently it wasn't considered to be suitable for the new place so they gave it away!

 

Haven't been to the Think Tank since.

That's a great shame, one can only hope it went to to a good home. There is a good collection of mechancal orchestras etc. at Tinker's Park in Sussex though I think these tend to be fairground rather than orchestral. They've had them in action on Great Bush Railway operating days.

I'd always assumed that these things were purely pre-programmed but apparently some automatic pianos were also recording devices. You got some famous pianist to play a work on it and it recorded not only the timing and duration of key preses but also the pressure and pedal movements, thus enabling the performanc eto be reproduced (at least to some degree) 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Pacific231G

[KingEdwardII]

I was at University in Birmingham from 1979 to 1982. We used the cross city line a lot, both for getting into central Brum, but also out to places like Kings Norton and Longbridge. All DMUs and not the most interesting stuff - others have already commented on the motley collection of stock at that time.

 

My main railway memories are the Birmingham - Norwich trains since my girlfriend lived out on the fens east of Peterborough. Typically 5 carriages pulled by a class 31, which used to wander across central England via Nuneaton, Leicester, Oakham, taking a couple of hours or so to Peterborough.

 

The most "exciting" journey happened in the winter of 1981, when I travelled in the middle of a snowstorm. We left New Street with snow basically covering the railtops - gangs of P/W men were out trying to keep the points working. Things were on the slow side, to say the least. We got to Leicester and were then told that due to the conditions in Brum, they had not been able to refuel the engine - so they would have to do it in Leicester. We watched them detach the engine and looked anxiously as it made its way across the tracks off to the refuelling point through the gathering dusk. With our carriages getting colder by the minute, we were then told the loco was stuck due to frozen points. We started wondering what the local hotel options might be. After well over an hour, we got the happy news that they managed to gets the points free and our loco returned and eventually got us on our way.

 

We got to Peterborough 5 hours after leaving Birmingham - but at least we got there. Fortunately my girlfriend had got a message about the delay, so was there to pick me up from the station. There had been much less snow in Peterborough, so we were able to get to her place without too much trouble.

 

The modern equivalent services now run Birmingham - Cambridge (or Stansted) and you have to change to get to Norwich either at Peterborough or Ely.

 

Meanwhile, Birmingham University station has gone up in the world and is no longer a mere suburban halt. A variety of long distance trains now stop there in addition to the cross city services - direct services to Cardiff, Nottingham, Worcester. And, of course, the cross city services are now whizzy electrics, not smoky old DMUs. The combination of a much enlarged University with the now very large Queen Elizabeth hospital also means that it is a very busy station indeed and there are a series of major upgrade works taking place to deal with passenger numbers.

 

Yours,  Mike.

[Rugd1022]

1 hour ago, MidlandRed said:

The air of decay extended to lines in use as well. The electrified Stour Valley - BNS to Wolverhampton, along which the expresses ran, was lined with cutting sides through Wilson Green which were notable for being strewn with large quantities of household rubbish apparently thrown over the garden fences, in the early 70s. Modern day travellers are greeted with graffiti covered boundary fences/walls instead of the piles of rubbish 🤨

 

In fact many photos of stations in the 70s and even City Centres are notable for the quantities of rubbish on the ground - I recall it being a big reported local issue in Birmingham - I guess one of the side effects of removing or taking out of use all litter bins (including on public transport) to avoid providing places for the terrorises of the times to leave explosive devices. 

 

You might be surprised just how much rubbish is still chucked over the fence in the Birmingham area, the Aston - Stetchford line is particularly bad near the overbridges along the route, as are parts of the Sutton Park line. There's also a lot of it about along the Stour line to Wolverhampton. I'm glad I sign the routes though, as they've so much history behind them but the detritus deposited here and there is a little depressing. That said, there's nothing like an early Winter's morning run up the long straight from Sutton to Streetley with the low sun glinting through those tall, almost prehistoric trees. Some of the line's former stations (or the sites of) are easy to spot but Chard's mention of the branch from Aldridge to Brownhills completely stumped me - you'd never know it was there now. I really need to find some decent books on the West Mids area's history, I know there is a very good three part series with excellent b&w photographic coverage which was published a few years ago but for the life of me I can't remember the author's name. Someone here might know...!

 

Mention of Ryecroft junction hit a nerve too - the sheer amount of trackage in that location was amazing not so long ago, it's been reduced drastically of course but it's easy to see where all the lines went off as you climb the bank out of Walsall. Ryecroft shed is rarely mentioned in books and I've only ever seen two colour photos of it in the early diesel days.

 

Washwood Heath (aka 'Washwood Death'!) is all but disappearing now that HS2 is beginning to take shape but working in and out of Tyseley is still a joy with its mix of colour lights and upper / lower quadrant semaphores. It still saddens me that the old Met-Cam works at Washwood is now just a memory.

 

Great thread this, proper job!

[SZ]

3 hours ago, SZ said:

and behind a factory at  Monmore Green some low-sided bogie wagons rotting on the line as it approached Wolverhampton Low Level.

 

I notice that section seems to have a path constructed along it now. All the old factories are gone too. Maybe I should go for a walk, or just remember it as it was.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cross+St,+Wolverhampton/@52.5817403,-2.1079053,499m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48709be92d895d3d:0x56d047bb19b23882!8m2!3d52.5822116!4d-2.1072683

 

I remember the line extending southeast to terminate behind some chain link fencing on the north side of the A41 Bilston Road in the early 80s

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by SZ

[rogerzilla]

For a few months I had to travel to Plymouth on a Monday and come back to Birmingham on a Friday.  I lived in Stirchley but had to go into New Street to catch the direct train.

 

One glorious Friday there was a signal check at Bournville station.  The guard went nuts as I made a very sharp exit from the train.  No central locking in those days!

 

I have a Centro-era running-in board for Selly Oak on my garden fence.  I must have passed it hundreds of times while I lived up there.

[SZ]

2 hours ago, rogerzilla said:

One glorious Friday there was a signal check at Bournville station.  The guard went nuts as I made a very sharp exit from the train.  No central locking in those days!

 

 I often got on an intercity held at Five Ways for New Street.

[RJS1977]

21 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

That's a great shame, one can only hope it went to to a good home. There is a good collection of mechancal orchestras etc. at Tinker's Park in Sussex though I think these tend to be fairground rather than orchestral. They've had them in action on Great Bush Railway operating days.

I'd always assumed that these things were purely pre-programmed but apparently some automatic pianos were also recording devices. You got some famous pianist to play a work on it and it recorded not only the timing and duration of key preses but also the pressure and pedal movements, thus enabling the performanc eto be reproduced (at least to some degree) 

 

 

There's also a museum of mechanical music at Kew Bridge, a few doors down from the Museum of Water and Steam.

[Pacific231G]

23 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

There's also a museum of mechanical music at Kew Bridge, a few doors down from the Museum of Water and Steam.

There is indeed and, though it's only a few miles from here,  for some bizarre reason I've never actually been there so don't know what they have.

[Rugd1022]

Some more Birmingham area stuff, starting with Saltley driver 'Stacker' Steadman's finest hour at Washwwod Heath in 1969...

 

 

 

 

Many an hour was spent hanging around Saltley, all gone now...

 

 

D118 at Ryecroft....

 

 

D211 on Ryecroft shed....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Rugd1022

[Johnson044]

Thanks for all the wonderfully varied but always positive responses. What a broad church this is! 

 

A few further memories that might spark some more interest:

 

Just little fragments really. Silly witterings. 

 

I went back in 1977 or 1978 on a cycling holiday and visited some old haunts, one of which was Bromsgrove, where I’d spent many happy hours on the platform watching trains assaulting the Lickey Bank. This time I got inside the former Midland Railway workshops, which were entirely derelict but largely intact, and I spent about an hour wandering about freely. What struck me was that the floor seemed to be made up entirely of old carriage and wagon underframe timbers – mainly headstocks. I do wonder what they might have all come from.

 

I also re-visited the Halesowen Railway but even then I think, it was being obliterated by the expansion of Frankley. By the looks of things the line seems to be completely wiped from the face of the earth now from Halesowen Junction as far as the M5.

 

Another memory that I have - another really pleasant one - is of the little model shop in Barnt Green - it was shared with a knitting wool shop and at the back was a room full of mainly Airfix kits, some of which, even at the time, were pretty elderly. Sitting on one of the "witch's hat" iron roundabouts that safety concerns have now eradicated in the park opposite and opening the newly bought box and looking through all of the parts of - say - a Fokker Friendship or similar - and I'm sure I was delving into a bag of Cadbury's Stroodles at the same time- or maybe they came along later? Anyone else remember Stroodles?

 

In the early '70's, about 1973, the village of Barnt Green would club together and organize an annual mystery trip- usually to Matlock or, on one occasion to Barry - where most of the village went to the beach except for the one or two that had several hours amongst the rusting Bulleids.
 

[Flittersnoop]

I was at Birmingham University from 1982 to 1985. In the first year the line from Selly Oak into New Street was visible from the corridor in my hall of residence. The Class 50s made such a noise on the climb from BNS that I had time to dash out of my room and see the train, and thanks to the large logo livery the numbers were legible and by the end of my degree I had seen all fifty of them.

 

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Johnson044 said:

I went back in 1977 or 1978 on a cycling holiday and visited some old haunts, one of which was Bromsgrove, where I’d spent many happy hours on the platform watching trains assaulting the Lickey Bank. This time I got inside the former Midland Railway workshops, which were entirely derelict but largely intact, and I spent about an hour wandering about freely. What struck me was that the floor seemed to be made up entirely of old carriage and wagon underframe timbers – mainly headstocks. I do wonder what they might have all come from.

 

I've been working my way through the minutes of the MR Carriage & Wagon Committee from the 1870s through to the 1890s. A standing item is an annual return of wagon repairs including number of headstocks replaced - running into the tens of thousands per year (on a wagon fleet of upwards of 100 thousand). So no shortage of old headstocks for hardwood flooring! 

[Johnson044]

I'd love to have a kitchen floor made from hardwood wagon timbers! Don't really want to cut 6" off the bottoms of the doors though...

[MidlandRed]

I also recall the old closed MR wagon works to the north-east corner of the old Bromsgrove station - I always wondered whether the location was pure co-incidence or whether it was anticipated a lot of locally generated work might be had (incline working etc).

 

Does anyone recall the stabling of locos bound for scrapping in the old loco sidings in Bescot yard (adjacent to the down through line, near the control tower)? I recall Clayton D8572 being parked there for some weeks (ended up at Cashmores, Great Bridge) and D5908 also for a while. I’ve also seen recent photos of D8570 there (blue livery). 
 

On 29/05/2022 at 16:41, Rugd1022 said:

Some more Birmingham area stuff, starting with Saltley driver 'Stacker' Steadman's finest hour at Washwwod Heath in 1969...

 

 

 

 

Many an hour was spent hanging around Saltley, all gone now...

 

 

D118 at Ryecroft....

 

 

D211 on Ryecroft shed....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The barrier vans appear to have performed their desired function here!! 
 

The picture of D211 at Ryecroft reminds me how common a sight class 40s were in the Bescot/Walsall/Wolverhampton areas in the mid 60s. My only recollection of seeing Ryecroft in use was in the very early 60s, from the adjoining road and being full of DMUs - the only number I recall was the Cravens parcels unit, M55998. I recall Bescot’s diesel shunter’s were serviced and fuelled there until Bescot’s own diesel facilities were introduced around 1965/6 - must have been quite an interesting journey in an 08/11 or jackshaft drive ex LMS shunter from/to Bescot! 

Edited June 1, 2022 by MidlandRed