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Private Railways In Birmingham

H

Hobbler

proper brummie kid
Before the railways were nationalised many businesses had their own fleets of railway wagons which they either purchased or leased from the Wagon Builders.

The majority served as an advert for the firm as well as a transport method for bringing in raw materials and despatching finished product so were often painted in a bright and smart livery giving the name of the firm , address , telephone number, company logo and quite often a description of their business.

Typical firms to have their own wagons in the Midlands were Chance and Hunt of Oldbury or Cadburys of Bourneville and Utility Companys such as West Midlands Electricty Board also had their own wagons . It wasnt necessary to have rail connected premises as many coal merchants had their own wagons which were sent to the collieries for loading and then sent to a public goods yard near the customers premises for delivery of the coal to be completed.

For other areas of the country a number of books have been published giving details of the firms and their wagons for example PRIVATE OWNER WAGONS of BRISTOL AND DISTRICT by Ian Pope and I was wondering if there are any similar books for the Birmingham , Black Country or Midlands areas that anyone has come across ?
 
I've seen chapters on this subject in books about Metro-Cammell and BRCW (Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co Ltd). Wagon builders would have "hire fleets" which could be painted in user's livery if required.
 
According to Wikipedia Metro-Cammell was for a time in the 1920s Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company Ltd. I am aware that several wagon builders had Finance in their name signifying that they were in the business of hiring out wagons as well as making and repairing them.
 
Whilst the public railways are often talked about, those serving industry are often ignored. Birmingham had a number of private sidings where industrial locomotives were employed.

Examples include

(A) Standard Gauge
(1) The Car Works- at (a) Longbridge- Austin, & b (Ward End)- Woseley/Morris
(2) The Wagon Works- Metropolitan Cammel (Saltley & Washwood Heath) & Birmingham Railway & Carriage (Handsworth)
(3) Tube Works - Bromford- Stewarts & Lloyds
(4) Rubber Factory- Dunlops
(5) Gas Works- Saltley, Nechells and Adderley Park
(6) Coal Mines - Sandwell Park and Hamstead
(7) Munitions Factories- Kynochs at Witton
(8) Chocolate Factory- Cadbury at Bournville

(B) Narrow Gauge
(1) Sewage Works at Nechells, Minworth and Coleshill
(2) Brickworks Railways (a) Hay Mills & (b) Bromford
 
The locomotives at Minworth were 2ft gauge built at Bedford by Motor Rail, Simplex works, they were all 40 HP. Looks like they were at Lagoon Works. These internal combustion engines at Minworth were no doubt photographed towards the end of their time there. It was once an extensive narrow gauge system that initially employed steam engines and some early battery locomotives.
 
Extensive yes, from the Minworth end of Castle Vale, Sludge Treatment Works over to Minworth Works via crossing Water Orton Lane, down to Curdworth area, and onto Coleshill Works
 
There was even once a link to Guanogen, which treated sludge to make manure in some of the old aircraft hangars
 
Does anybody remember the steam locomotives at Nechells Power Station. They worked from the exchange sidings at Bromford Bridge. Here were also a group of sidings once connected with the Gas Board wagon repair shops. Many old wooden bodied wagons were to be found there in the 1960's.

The steam locomotives that worked to the power station were the six coupled side tanks by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn. There was also a Peckett saddle tank locomotive.
 
This is one of Kynoch's loco s. It was loaned (1914) to Kynoch's but they eventually bought it (1919). As it's numbered 4, I presume there were at least 3 others. But was Kynoch's a private railway ? I read somewhere that there was an extensive internal railway at Kynoch's but can't find anything out about it except that they loaned, then bought this loco. Viv.

image.jpeg

Information from the National Railway Museum, York
 
The Kynoch private railway connected with the LNWR/LMS/BR at Witton. 12 steam locomotives and 2 diesels handled the internal traffic there. The first locomotives (3) were supplied by Aveling & Porter.
 
Gas Works railways were once a common site throughout the country wherever coal was carbonised in retorts. The Birmingham Gasworks were originally horizontal retorts, but Saltley later had inclined retorts and then as the business was modernised the vertical retort became common. The locomotives were used for internal transport within the gasworks. Not all coals were suitable for carbonisation, although any coal could be used to heat the retorts. Gas coals arrived in railway wagons and where taken to the retort house by the private locomotives. Whilst much is known about these industrial locomotives, less is known about the system employed in the modern vertical retorts where the coke was taken away- there being some evidence to suggest light railways might have been used.
 
Leonard in the late Science Museum, a great museum, Newhall St, was on the footplate of Leonard Sat 1st April 2017Leonard Birmingham Science Museum Newhall St .jpg
 
I have seen Birmingham Chamber of Commerce listed as a railway operator. Obviously not at their offices near Five Ways or their previous offices in New Street so I assume that this would have been on the British Industries Fair site at Castle Bromwich, now part of the Castle Vale Housing Estate.

Albright & Wilson at Langley had their own steam engines and I know that one of them went to the Chasewater Light Railway.
 
Yes the Albright & Wilson Peckett was kept in a shed there. They had diesels later until the rail traffic ceased. That traffic was along the Oldbury Railway from Langley Green.

The reference to the Chamber of Commerce, is one that perhaps needs further investigation. The British Industries Fair had a siding at Castle Bromwich. This siding provided a standard gauge link to the LMSR/BR for Guanogen and for the BIF. During the war the Air Ministry had their own loco (a Ruston diesel) for their traffic associated with the aerodrome and the nearby aircraft factory.
 
I know this technically doesn't count as Birmingham, but Mitchells and Butlers at Cape Hill had their own locomotives and sidings, which were connected to the national network at Rotton Park Road on the Harborne branch.
 
Harbornite76 said:
I know this technically doesn't count as Birmingham, but Mitchells and Butlers at Cape Hill had their own locomotives and sidings, which were connected to the national network at Rotton Park Road on the Harborne branch.
Click to expand...

I have referred on another thread to a walk I led for the Black Country Society along the Harborne railway line. I have walked this route several times and it is not easy to find the point at which the line to M&B left the branch line. I knew roughly where it was in relation the the point at which it crossed City Road. However studying the old maps you can just about see traces of it if walking the Rotten Park Road area. The reason it has almost disappeared is that the cuttings have been filled in. The line to M&B made a triangular junction with the Harborne Line. It was M&B's change to road haulage for its fuel and materials in and and its product out that finally closed the Harborne Line in the early 1960s
 
DavidGrain said:
I have referred on another thread to a walk I led for the Black Country Society along the Harborne railway line. I have walked this route several times and it is not easy to find the point at which the line to M&B left the branch line. I knew roughly where it was in relation the the point at which it crossed City Road. However studying the old maps you can just about see traces of it if walking the Rotten Park Road area. The reason it has almost disappeared is that the cuttings have been filled in. The line to M&B made a triangular junction with the Harborne Line. It was M&B's change to road haulage for its fuel and materials in and and its product out that finally closed the Harborne Line in the early 1960s
Click to expand...

We discussed it a while back on the dedicated Harborne railway thread. It's quite easy to locate the triangle junction for the branch, basically it's where the trackbed widens just before Rotton Park road bridge although as you say, there's not much evidence for the line existing due to the filling-in of cuttings. It's fortunate that most of the cuttings on the Harborne branch were not filled-in.

On another note, I dont think' its a coincidence that roads were named "barleycorn" and Boniface on the estate built on the brewery site; These were two of the locomotives used by M&B.
 
The M & B Brewery at Cape Hill was the only one of the Birmingham Breweries to have a rail link. All others relied on road transport. Butler's Springfield Brewery at Wolverhampton (later M & B) had a siding that linked with the GWR north of Low Level Station. The Lichfield Brewery Co had a siding that was near City Station, whilst Evans and Co had rail served Maltings near Trent Valley Station
 
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