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aston sheds

gingerjon

gingerjon

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
can any one throw any light on Aston Sheds I think it as some connection with railways
 
cheers Alf just found out Aston sheds was on the site of Flights coaches Longacre before that it was a Ford main dealer red marks the sheds
need more info please
 
I think I have a picture of Aston Sheds. If I can find it I will send it with the ones I promissed Rod. I used to ride my bike down Aston Church road, up and down Holborn Hill and the yards were just on my left as I started down the hill on my way to work. I seem to recall there were back to back houses there. Probably all gone now. I hve not looked at this stuff in 40 years but I will see if I can dig it out.
Gosh I just googled it. Most of it has gone. That place used to be full of Duck Sixe's and Tank Enjines. In fact I would have a hard time finding my way to work. If it was still there.
 
When we first moved to the NEW OSCOTT area in 1962. I was often woken each morning (if the wind was from the south) by the sound of goods wagons being shunted at the Aston Sheds close to the Ten Arches on Holborn Hill.
 
Alf its Just of Lichfield RD by Aston station turn right after going under the bridge (if going in the erdington direction) up Holborn Hill Longacre.
 
Hi John I coundn't place the Sheds till Aston mentioned Holborn Hill and then it clicked, there use to be a Door in the wall on the right which we would look through to get the train numbers. O0
 
A story about the sheds John. Brian says that as a boy he used to train spot there, and it was the most difficult of all the  railway sheds to get into, because when you got to the bottom of the very steep steps you had to pass the foremans office which was on the left. After a quick look to see if he was in his office you made a dash.............
 
On one occasion about 1970 one of the P.Cs. on our shift ( nights ) missed a point with the Sergeant. He did not come in at the end of the shift. It was custom in those days that no one left the station until the last officer had booked in.
Eventually both the night and on comming shift were sent onto the streets to search for him.
about 45 mins into the search a telephone call was received from a police station somewhere up North ( I forget where ) to tell us that an officer from Aston had gone into the station saying he had mistakenly got onto a train in the yards to investigate something, the train had left with him on and this was the first stop. ( He had gone into the yard to get is head down, gone fast asleep and woken up after five stops. ) the boss was not impressed. :police: :tickedoff: :tickedoff:
 
John, Just read this thread, my dad lived in Long Acre opposite Aston Sheds in the 1920's I lived just down the road and they were my playground always fetching tea for the railway men, went through the little wooden door in the street and down the steps
 
I am in touch with Paul who is writng the history of the Aston sheds he worked there I have a meet with him the near future I look forward to hearing more about the Aston sheds
 
I was gonna put this on the Blitz thread but decided to put it here
Cutting from the Evening Despatch 1940
Aston Oiling Sheds during the war years when all the rooftops were painted black (the ones that had glass roofs or skylights etc.) Sunshine is streaming through the ventilation shafts. The chap on the far left is climbing aboard a train into his cab
Another Cutting from the same paper same article
 
I got caught by the shed foreman trying to bunk Aston Sheds. When he asked me what I was doing I said, " our headmaster said we can come down here".
Well, it was all I could think of at the time!
 
I used to visit aston sheds lots of times
at the top of holburn hill on the right was a wooden fence which was quiet tall, anyway with a little effort i would climb this fence and go inside the sheds,never got caught many times as i used to hide inside the locomotives, on many occasions there were lots of brits there, the most popular was 70046 ANZAC, RISING STAR, SHOOTING STAR, VULCAN, HEREWARD THE WAKE, I recall visiting the sheds and it was very deep with snow so i climbed the fence and there to my amazement were three rare brits, alfred the great, britannia and lord hurcombe using the turntabe, i was so cold i climbed inside britannia and shovelled lots of coal into the fire and i was really blazing untill it blew the safety valse, i thought it was going to explode and done a runner, it was a brilliant shed and always went there and each time i got over the fence the locomotive normally there was 70046 ANZAC. i had a picture i took with a very tiny camera but omeone at the school pinched it, the school was the abbey in erdington, most times i would go to saltley as well walking from aston sheds to the saltley shed, as kids you could do this without any problems, not now though
when i got a job at the albany hotel in brum i used to catch the train at erdington and each time would open the window as i passed aston sheds and it was always full, lots of 9fs, black 5s, but the rarest of all was the visit i made when seeing britannia and alfred the great, i was so excited i ran all the way home to short heath road to tell my brothers about these brits,we all went back to see this amzaing sight, it was a great palce to be, so as time went by i used to play the wag and spend all day at bromford bridge station and that too was the best place to be, i recall seeing a special called the cadbury special and lots of the new peaks, D1 SCAFFEL PIKE AND SNOWDON, The best of the days have long gone and wished i could of afforded to buy a cine camera as i would of filmed it all,
when i worked at the hotel the steam trains got less each time i went to new st to go back to erdington until they had gone, i never done anymore until about 1976 when i used to film the diesels at saltley and that went of from 1976 to 1987 and gathered hours of video of saltley, sadley too thats gone,i went there last year and filmed it and its all gone.
i was going to make a dvd of these events but i dont think anyone would be interested so much nowl
happy days long gone and i enjoyed it while it lasted
 
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