Manchester & Birmingham Railway

[ellbrown]

A replica plaque of the Manchester & Birmingham Railway has been found. The original from 1839 is at the National Railway Museum in York. This one was at Manchester Piccadilly from the 1960s until the 1998 redevelopment and never returned in 2002 once complete. Someone saw a listing on eBay.

Return of the plaque - lost railway artefact found for sale on eBay

A missing piece of railway history is being returned to its rightful place - thanks to cunning detective work by a retired train driver and his transport police pal.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

A missing piece of railway history is being returned to its rightful place - thanks to cunning detective work by a retired train driver and his transport police pal.


The Manchester & Birmingham Railway plaque - a high-quality replica of the 1839 original - was erected at the new Manchester Piccadilly station in the mid-1960s.


The plaque was removed in 1998 when an upgrade began on the station. But it never reappeared when the work ended in 2002.


Eagle-eyed railway enthusiast Mel Thorley, 72, then a train driver, immediately noticed the sign was missing.


Mel, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, never gave up hope and in August 2019, 17 years after his pursuit began, he spotted a curious eBay listing.


The missing plaque was up for sale for £3,700. The sales blurb recommended a forklift to load it on to a truck on collection from a location in Nottinghamshire.

 

[nickcc101]

Would be interesting to know how it came to be on eBay and what happens to the person or persons who handled it in the first place.

 

[Heartland]

Yes,

I believe I saw it in the Times.

There are various observations to be made here. The first being that the station in Manchester was called London Road, and with electrification of the line to Crewe, became renamed Piccadilly. Such work coincided with the station reconstruction and the replica plaque being installed.

The second point is that the Manchester and Birmingham Railway became part of the London & North Western Railway, although London Road was later used by other railway companies. The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire being the most important other user there. The Manchester & Birmingham Railway was one of a group proposed lines in the 1830's to link Manchester with Birmingham using a junction with the Grand Junction Railway near Stafford in each case. The Manchester & Birmingham Railway was planned to join the GJR at Chebsey Such a route would have served Stoke on Trent and Stone. That route was later amended to join the GJR at Crewe. Construction from Manchester to Stockport (Heaton Norris) was done in 1840; Stockport (1841), the rest was completed in 1842.

The third point being, whilst an amalgamation with the London & Birmingham was achieved in 1845, the route mileage of the M & B never reached Birmingham.

An image of the recovered plaque show the date 1839, the company coat of arms and the engineer G W Buck.



The plaque also bears the name Bramah Fox who supplied structural ironwork. London Road Station (Store Street) was not open at the time of 1839. The plaque would seen to commemorate the first part of the work in Manchester.

 

[Edifi]

I have a medal about 2 1/2 ins big comemorating the 150 yearsof the London to Bham railway