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Pines Express 1950's

Before Saltley received Jubilees and Scots they normally provided one of their best black 5's for the Pines Express in both directions between Birmingham and Bath. On summer saturdays it by-passed New Street and changed engines I believe at Walsall.
 
Before Saltley received Jubilees and Scots they normally provided one of their best black 5's for the Pines Express in both directions between Birmingham and Bath. On summer saturdays it by-passed New Street and changed engines I believe at Walsall.

Steam enthusiast with a user name same as a Jubilee Engine 45733?
 
Unlikely I would have thought as it was a Longsight turn north of Birmingham usually with Jubilee, unrebuilt Patriot ot Caprotti Black 5. In the 50's the only B1's which were normally New Street were on the Cleethorpes train such as 61204 0r 61374 of Immingham shed.
 
Interesting! How did the summer Saturday working get to Walsall via the Camp Hill avoiding line? If it was via Sutton Park line the loco at Walsall would be pointing to-wards New St therefore it must have reversed? Yes I also remember the 11oc B1 'Mayflower' was a regular performer. There was another regular Summer Sunday working that left New St at tea time, this B1 was always a 'namer' sheded in the North East.
 
I would guess via Proof House Junction, Witton & Perry Barr and presumably the loco from Manchester went onto shed to turn or used a triangle somewhere.
 
Hi, thanks to Mike re the Meccano mag article on the Pines Express - very interesting however I think the routes in and out of New Street in the 50's were slightly different. In the mid 50's the route from the north was always via Aston and Proof House Junction into New Street, I spent many days at both locations watching the pines arrive around lunch time. On a Summer Saturday the main portion (the Pines) arrived at New St. The relief's to the Pines did go via Camp Hill to avoid New St although I never witnessed these.

I notice the route map in the article does not show the Soho Junction west chord - which would have been used as one of the alternate routes into New St from Wolverhampton.


Pistonvalve.
 
I travelled on the Pines Express between Manchester and Bath or Bournemouth several times in the 1950/60s. There is also a book "Portrait of the Pines Express" by Stephen Austin published by Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 2624 6.
This book and my memories confirm the validity of the previous posts, however sorry but I am extremely sceptical about it ever being hauled by a B1. Longsight provide the motive power between Manchester London Road and New Street/ Walsall and I am never aware of a B1 appearing at Longsight never mind it being rostered on the Pines. If one ever did it must have come from Saltley for the Birmingham/Saltley to Bath leg but then that appears extremely unlikely.
Hope this helps.
Stan Price
 
Anyone curious about the railways southern section from Bath to Bournemouth (and other areas nearby) might find this web site of interest. The line was jointly owned by the Midland (subsequently LMS) and L&SWR (subsequently Southern Railway) until nationalization in 1948. Lots of info there so I don not need to elaborate here.

https://sdjr.net/
 
I travelled on the Pines Express between Manchester and Bath or Bournemouth several times in the 1950/60s. There is also a book "Portrait of the Pines Express" by Stephen Austin published by Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 2624 6.
This book and my memories confirm the validity of the previous posts, however sorry but I am extremely sceptical about it ever being hauled by a B1. Longsight provide the motive power between Manchester London Road and New Street/ Walsall and I am never aware of a B1 appearing at Longsight never mind it being rostered on the Pines. If one ever did it must have come from Saltley for the Birmingham/Saltley to Bath leg but then that appears extremely unlikely.
Hope this helps.
Stan Price
stan, i used to run from birchfield rd. school with my friends at dinner time to catch the pine,s roaring thru the bridge on welhead lane, on it,s way towards witton. usually it was pulled by what we called a "blackie" but sometimes a "blackie namer" (these were quite rare being so few of this class named. however occasionally it was pulled by a "jubilee" and i can recall rare occasions by a "royal scot".
 
We always used to sit on top of the wall waiting for the Pines express, it was about 1.30 pm, this was in what is now known as Melvina road, please correct me if I am wrong.
 
This thread has brought back many childhood memories.In the late 50's early 60's any number up to 2 dozen kids would meet in Perry Hall park and alternate from playing soccer to our daily dose of train spotting.We always new the time to break off the soccer and head for the rail line to see what was pulling what!Being midway between Great Barr and Perry Barr we got to see many of the expresses heading to or from New Street.
 
This recent addition to the thread caused me to think of this song.

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/samcooke/farawayplaces.html

I can well imagine some of the youngsters wondering what it was like where the train went to.

I chose the lyrics principally because there were too many choices of well known singers of yesteryear, both male and female: I leave anyone to 'search' for their choice if they want to hear the song again.
 
We always used to sit on top of the wall waiting for the Pines express, it was about 1.30 pm, this was in what is now known as Melvina road, please correct me if I am wrong.
john, i,m not sure where melvina rd is but the bridge we used is in wellhead lane. the rail ran behind tufnel,s factory andthe other side between george elliot,s and kynochs amunition works. we could only see by jumping the bridge side and clinging on with our heads above the parapet.as the pines approached from prry barr it passed our school, birchfield boy,s. unfortunately we couldn,t view it from the school as that location was the junior school blocks and were out of bounds to us. it wasn,t worth 6 of the best from gabby whittaker just for the convenience.i got caught in aston, vauxhall,tysely and rugby sheds,usually by the shed master but once by rail police at vauxhall.my dad wasn,t impressed by the 7/6d fine.still, it was all worth it, aston often had pacifics (morning star,north star, sir william stanier). i once got a county at tysely.
 
This recent addition to the thread caused me to think of thi
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/samcooke/farawayplaces.html

I can well imagine some of the youngsters wondering what it was like where the train went to.

I chose the lyrics principally because there were too many choices of well known singers of yesteryear, both male and female: I leave anyone to 'search' for their choice if they want to hear the song again.
radiorails, i,m sorry i,m not adept at computing yet, i guess there is a way of hearing your song but didn,t laurel and hardy do it?
 
At least, Paul, you can still make the journey, but - in my view of course - the beautiful scenery of Dorset is foregone the way the route is today.

Now to PerryBarr Pest: Well, you would be a real expert if you could hear any music: I only posted the lyrics as there was such a choice of singers. But, in keeping with the nostalgia always seen here, I give you Vera Lynn. There are other singers but I thought she would be most appropriate to this Forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RhWVlXF0Q
 
I remember travelling from B'ham to Bournemouth (don't know if it went to Poole then) at Christmas 1960 with my 18 month old daughter - she got filthy - it was for Christmas with my parents but we never went back to Brum to live.
 
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