TheSignalEngineer

Not quite complete retro but hard to believe it was taken 42 years ago. The quailty is not good as it is scanned from a small print of a 110 negative from a pocket camera I used to carry around with me at the time. They were adequate for postcard prints but nothing bigger, and being printed on textured paper doesn't help the scan quality. Prototype unit 210 001 approaching Birningham New Street from Proof House on a test run from Lichfield City. The actual location is passing signal NS154 at Park Street. If I remember correctly I was on the cutting wall at the entrance to the South Tunnelapproximately where the Up through platform at Moor Street now stands. Shortly after we managed to get a ride to Lichfield and back on it.

My Grandad was an assistant lineman at New Street at the time. On 27th October he was on standby for the expected raid. Most of the staff took shelter in the tunnels when the bombs started falling. He was standing in the mouth of Suffolk Street tunnel when No.5 Signal Box took a direct hit.

I don't know any exact dates. Unfortunately will never know as she would be 126 now.

My great aunt worked in there from 1940 to 1952. I also had my medical there before I started on BR. The room where they did hearing tests was on the right of the picture, ground floor. Outside was the hill up Suffolk Street which was still cobbled in those days and a continuous stream of buses and lorries. God knows how anyone passed!

Why buy another different type of unit? Nowadays TOCs don't seem to learn from previous mistakes. TPE have just demonstarted the pitfalls of both buying from CAF and having multiple types of train intermixed as in their NOVA services. (Spanish 'NOVA' = Engish 'Not Going', that's why Vauxhall renamed their small car 'Corsa' 😉)

You may also need a weighbridge and office at the yard gate. Image from https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwra3654.htm Warwickshire Railways website is a fantastic resource for old buildings at yards, sheds and stations on LMS and GWR lines in steam days.

Not so, it was very cosy when my Grandad was the occupant. Coal stove, gas ring and gas light. The picture was after the old districts had been reorganised with the MAS schemes and shortly before it was demolished having been disused for seversl months. If I remember the extreme right building was the C&W oil store at one time. Behind where I was standing was the blacksmith's forge, another essential building where a yard had been built pre-WW1.

Another idea for the engine shed. You could replace it or modify it as a canal transhipment warehouse. There's still one standing at the original terminus of the Cromford and High Peak at Whaley Bridge. The Peak Forest canal terminated there and much of the originally proposed route for it to continue south was taken by the CH&PR instead. There is another transhipment shed still standing at the Cromford end of the CH&PR.

You could do with a couple of cabins like these at Curzon Street. The left one was the Signal Lineman for the Proof House district and is based on the LNWR Webb Hut, often used for ground frames and locomens tea cabins. My model of it was used as the shunters cabin on the Black Country Blues layout. The right one was the Carriage and Wagon Examiner.

Returning to the topic, I would agree that the signal box looks out of place in a location like this. Signalling would be minimal if at all and it would be all mechanical. You could get away with back to back notice boards at the tunnel/bridge and if you want a signal, one there for each direction would be sufficient. In my own area Monument Lane had two signals in the yard. Aston Goods had about four, Soho Pool didn't have any. Curzon Street had a handful within the yard but that was big with 25 sidings. Lawley Street had a few signals around the reception area but that was even bigger than Curzon Street. I think Camp Hill had one signal coming in on the main line and one signal for departures. On the WR, Hockly was the biggest depot, it's hard to find any picturs of signals inside the yard but I know there was one reading out.

Warning, I'm in serious thread drift mode The Cemetery Ground Frame was alongside an old Jewish burial ground. I don't know of a Cemetery Road there but the original access would have been from an old alleyway running from Islington Row opposite Five Ways station to Bath Row known as Betholom Row which is said to be a corruption of the Hebrew "Bet Olam" which means City of the Dead. The site has been walled up for many years and is now a mini forest at the back of Broderick House student flats but I can remember when you could still see the gravestones from the top of a No.8 bus going down towards Lee Bank. The Central Goods branch split either side of the cemetery. The Corporation Siding was actually the original West Suburban line alongside the canal to Granville Street terminus which is where the Corporation Depot was situated. More about Central Goods here, including some pictures at the Five Ways end. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/centralgoods.htm

A village we lived in some years ago had an electoral roll of about 1000 for Parish Council elections. At the time it had three pubs and two WMCs. Two of the pubs have now gone.

The view from the allotment. 11:33 Manchester Piccadilly to Hadfield crossing Dinting Viaduct on 13th October 2022.

This is a footbridge across the line near Bickenhill. Never been a four-track railway at this point.

At the moment there are about 15 train clips on my YouTube channel. The number will expand soon as I have managed to extract 9 hours of material from my old Video8 tapes and a processing the results. It looks as if there is about two hours of railway content to edit, mostly taken in 1991 -1993. This is one sample

Just playing in the background as I type. Agree with you. Sounds a bit like Moody Blues after 12 pints of Brew XI.

For most of Coventry to Birmingham the railway still owned enough land to to four-track when I was based on that area. Even in the 1970s we looked at the possibility of having a reversible 3rd line between Stechford and Berkswell. At that time new road bridges were built to four-track clearances in the area.

The lights look dire. If they are fixed I'm out! Pre-order won't be taken up. Anyway, you couldn't see a light in an oil lamp in daylight and barely in the dark unless almost straight on.

Whilst sitting around on Grandad duties I thought I would put up a real retro from 1964.

Over the years I have taken many hundreds of pictures during my travels and a few hours of cine and video as well. I thought I would post a selection on here, not in any order and not at a fixed inteval. First up this is a recent one taken a couple of weeks ago. I've been experimenting with frame clips from videos recently. This is a retro version of 45596 working The Mancunian railtour on 21st October 2023. I had intended to go to Levenshulme but due to train cancellations decided to do some filming at Oxford Road, which was fortunate as this train was diverted via the Styal line and missed my intended vantage point. 45596 had worked down from Euston and gone from Piccadilly to Castleton to turn. It returned from Victoria working the train as far as Rugby. Some photos may be linked from Flickr and I will also add an occasional video link.

A few interestring machines parked up outside the cafe at Rivington today as I cycled through the car park. First I came to was a1963 Velocette Vouge. Heavy, underpowered fibreglass version of the Noddy Bike which never lived up to its name. 0-60 if you were lucky and had a long enough downhill run. Ignoring the Norton Dominator as it was not in a position to photograph, just around the corner was this Francis Barnett And immediately past that a Dot which I believe is a Mancunian,

Built alongside the GWR line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton LL.👍

As long as the weather was warm. They had a switch in the cab for the ETH. One driver told me if you want engine power keep it off until the guard complains. We occasionally got one from OOC subbing for a 1000 on the Birmingham run. One winter trip from New Street to Banbury the only section we kept time was from Solihull to Leamington which is almost all downhill including Hatton Bank. We lost about five minutes to Banbury despite having greens the way. My main experiences with Hymeks were on trips from Birmingham to the West Country. One would take over from a Black 5 at Bristol. We would get off at Exeter, usually after a good run with 10 coaches loaded to the ceiling with holidaymakers and luggage.

Another vote for no pre-fitted lamps. I've been wanting a Caprotti for years but as normal moves on my layout are 10:1 in favour of freight it's most likely to appear on one of those. If on passenger it would probably be on an excursion, returning tender first either ECS or light engine shortly after. Later it would come back tender first then go home as express passenger.

Enough meanderings, back to the original question. We had a Railway and Canal club at school. One Sunday per month we took advantage of the excursion fares available from Birmingham to visit other parts, travelling between shed by bus. By the age of 13 I had done trips to Manchester, (Trafford Park, Patricroft, Newton Heath, Gorton shed, Reddish, Longsight, Stockport Edgeley}, Liverpool (Bank Hall, Walton-on-the-Hill, Edge Hill, Speke, Allerton DED, even managed Brunswick) and London (Bricklayers Arms, Stewarts Lane, Hither Green, Nine Elms, Old Oak, Willesden). One of our members lived next door to a man who owned two Bedford coaches so as numbers grew we spread our wings with road trips to South Wales, Thames Valley, East Midlands and Lancashire. In the space of three years we covered about 75 sheds. My Mother was a bit apprehensive but we survived without incident. I worked in quite a few rough locations where the antics of the ladies of pleasure provided entertainment during the night shift. There were also many places where nowadays you would take your life into your hands to visit. Besides the incidents I mentioned earlier one I particularly remember was Bestwood Park signal box on the Robin Hood Line. We had continual problems with thefts of materials and equipment on that job but the high point was one Sunday night when I was testing the frame after some layout alterations on a relaying job. A policeman came up the box steps and told us to get down as there was an armed siege in progress in the houses opposite and we may have to evacuate. He looked out of the window and said the gunman can't see the box from the house he's in so carry on working but be ready to move fast if there were gunshots.