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Hockley GWR Station

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A single car DMU passes through Hockley station on the 2:55pm Snow Hill station to Dudley service on 4th October 1959. Known to many observers of a certain age might recall that these units quickly earned the soubriquet name 'bubble car' because of their large, all-round windows.
 
mw0njm. said:
View attachment 175390
A single car DMU passes through Hockley station on the 2:55pm Snow Hill station to Dudley service on 4th October 1959. Known to many observers of a certain age might recall that these units quickly earned the soubriquet name 'bubble car' because of their large, all-round windows.
Click to expand...
Was there an early design and in GWR livery before this later version?
 
mw0njm. said:
View attachment 175390
A single car DMU passes through Hockley station on the 2:55pm Snow Hill station to Dudley service on 4th October 1959. Known to many observers of a certain age might recall that these units quickly earned the soubriquet name 'bubble car' because of their large, all-round windows.
Click to expand...
I am not sure this this DMU - possibly a Class 108 - is going anywhere. It is usually a two car unit, one appears to be missing and I can't see evidence of the driver or passengers. It is stationed on a non-platform road and I assume ii is therefore out of service.
 
Radiorails said:
I am not sure this this DMU - possibly a Class 108 - is going anywhere. It is usually a two car unit, one appears to be missing and I can't see evidence of the driver or passengers. It is stationed on a non-platform road and I assume ii is therefore out of service.
Click to expand...
its a 122 dmu i thought bubble cars were a class 121 dmu. i have one in my collection like the pic below
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Similarly at platform level the demolition of the buildings and canopy left a rather desolate and uninviting environment for the would-be traveller. Seen here in October 1971 with a single car DMU heading towards Birmingham on the up passenger relief line, the up and down main passenger lines, to the right of the unit, had been out of use for some time at this point1669333174523.png
 
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Well, look at the front of your first photo: there exhaust pipes in evidence and has a large destination box. The second photo, like the Hockley one, has been modified since its initial BR introduction, no butterfly wings and no reporting number box. It carries a Midland region number whereas the Hockley one, most likely, would have been allocated to the Western region.
 
Class 121s have the big 'reporting numbers' box on the roofline, whilst 122s have a small destination box. In both cases the exhaust pipes are at the guards / parcels end. The white roof is only over the driving cabs, so the one at Hockley is a class 122 as there is evidence of white roof at the far end.
 
Had a look at Hockley Station on Thursday - it looks like the electrical goods scrapyard that used to occupy the site has now gone - this is a panorama that I took by holding the camera "over the wall" - as you can see a lot of the old GWR station entrance yard still survives with loads of glazed bricks - the entrance to the platforms is (sorry, was......) the passage in the centre:-
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From a slightly different angle:-
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On the wall outside the gates, the remnants of an old iron bracket:-
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The goods yard retaining wall in All Saints Rd is still impressive:-
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This is what it looked like "back in the day":-
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And this is what it looked like in the early 1970,s after the station buildings had been demolished:-
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