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Tamworth field trainspotting

The cafe was on the west side of the forecourt to low level station........I went back with a pal in 1981 and as you might guess the scene was changing, the cafe had gone and chatting to the station master he told us it had blown down, we said we were just recollecting our 1950's memories......and he said...I see you have a camera....take a photo of those LMS warehouses as they're going soon for the new road to come through...he was saying how good the kids were in those days unlike what he had to put up with in 1981.....so it was quite complimentary in a way....so why did they ban us from going on it...lol......... can you imagine though all those kids on a platform...lol..... we went into the field to find static holiday caravans then....and the tiny tunnel to get to the field.....I think that's a little larger now and as there are Park Homes on there ....it's residential I take it........ Oh those happy days...... when the one time we found the farmer had put a bulldog in there........I'm so appreciative of being able to have such a good time there........somewhere I still have some photo postcards the cafe used to sell...with the name of John M Burrows of Two Gates on the back........some people will never know just what MAGIC they missed !!!!!
Thanks for your memories, Mikeflan. However, I am now confused again (doesn't take much!). I must say I was surprised to find that the West Coast Main Line (that I fully expected to be aligned more or less North-South), actually heads almost exactly East-West at this point. Edifi says that having descended from the high level, presumably having got off the train from Birmingham, you had to pass under the bridge (no doubt the one carrying the Birmingham-Derby Line) and past the cafe to get to the field. This accords with my recollection too, and I'm pretty sure it's correct because that is where the caravan park is now. On this basis, the cafe would have been at the eastern end of the platform, not the west. Approaching the main station building from the road at the front, having gone through to the platform, you would have had to turn right. Do you agree? Sorry to be a pedantic old s*d. It comes with the territory at our age!
 
Stubby.when we got of the train. We came down the stairs out onto the road turned Left went passed the Cafe and under the Bridge and into the field.The railway line over the Bridge was the Bham to Derby and Sheffield .
 
Thanks for your memories, Mikeflan. However, I am now confused again (doesn't take much!). I must say I was surprised to find that the West Coast Main Line (that I fully expected to be aligned more or less North-South), actually heads almost exactly East-West at this point. Edifi says that having descended from the high level, presumably having got off the train from Birmingham, you had to pass under the bridge (no doubt the one carrying the Birmingham-Derby Line) and past the cafe to get to the field. This accords with my recollection too, and I'm pretty sure it's correct because that is where the caravan park is now. On this basis, the cafe would have been at the eastern end of the platform, not the west. Approaching the main station building from the road at the front, having gone through to the platform, you would have had to turn right. Do you agree? Sorry to be a pedantic old s*d. It comes with the territory at our age!
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If you looked at the low level station from the road...Birmingham at the back of you....the cafe was on your left......tunnel to field on your right... high level also on your right running from Birmingham to Derby !!! By the way...DON'T call them caravans...you'll get 'lynched' by those now PARK HOME residents.....you wished to be pedantic so you MUST address these new type homes correctly...I sited many of these so I know how the residents feel at them being called Caravans ha ha...
Where the cafe WAS....is a new car park......do you also remember the goods yard at the back of the cafe...?? on the Lichfield side !!! there were also LMS warehouses there too...which I may put photos of of when I was there in 1981...

Just to add another question.....I wonder how many of you knew there was a 'Link Line' from the low level line (Lichfield side) to the High level line ???????
 
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Stubby.when we got of the train. We came down the stairs out onto the road turned Left went passed the Cafe and under the Bridge and into the field.The railway line over the Bridge was the Bham to Derby and Sheffield .
Hit the nail on the head mate !!!!!!
 
Now....here is the shot I took on advice of the Station Master 15th June 1981....with the warehouses towards the shunting/goods yard at the rear of the cafe side ...that's the Lichfield side if anyone is confused.....
 

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Mikeflan,We bought our first house in Lichfield in 1966 and lived there till 73, we lived just off Burton Old Rd which had level crossing gates.This was the goods line that ran from Walsall to Burton & Derby..It ran at the bottom of my garden.Were those goods trains slow.Never used to spot then.
 
Thank you both for your patience, and the pics, mikeflan. I think it's all clear now. The cafe wasn't where I thought it was at all! Funny how the mind plays tricks.
 
PS - sorry for calling them caravans. That's what they were when my mum and dad had one at Skegness in the 70s! But I'm sure that one was less sophisticated than they are nowadays!
By the way, my other major brush with Brummies was in 1959 when a school pal and I did a four-day (I think) tour of Scottish lowland sheds organised by a railway society based in Birmingham. After the tour finished, my mate and I set off on our own for a week using Freedom of Scotland rail tickets that cost us £6 apiece (juvenile price). A mistake I made was to book accommodation in Aberdeen for the Saturday night and in Inverness for the Sunday, not realising that at that time there were no trains in Scotland on Sundays. We ended up thumbing a lift!
 
OH Stubby you are bringing back so many memories.In 56 myself and 2 mates caught the overnight train to Glasgow and then spent 2 weeks cycling to most of the sheds while Youth Hosteling.There was no Hostel in Aberdeen ,but by a stroke of luck a lady who worked with my mother had a sister who lived there and said she could put us up for the night.Wbhen we got there it was pouring with rain ( what a dreary place that granite was ) .Her 3 children worked down the fish dock.They bought home loads of Cod and we had it for tea.It was enormous the fish.After we did the shed next day we headed over the top towards Inverness.What a great 2 weeks.
 
Yes, for those few brief hours we became teenagers again. I must say that until Mike sent that map, I was really struggling to reconcile what you'd both said, as well as to my own memories. Of course it was me that was wrong. I usually am - at least according to my wife! Incidentally, I then had another look at that aerial photo. Assuming the cafe was there when it was taken, I think it must have been obscured by that large tree.
Anyway, back to the 21st century!
Thanks again.
 
I have no recollection of the cafe at all...didn't have money to spend, just a sandwich. I also recall meeting many of the same kids there, but again, I have no recollection of who they were, they may have been some of you lot!
Dave A
 
I have no recollection of the cafe at all...didn't have money to spend, just a sandwich. I also recall meeting many of the same kids there, but again, I have no recollection of who they were, they may have been some of you lot!
Dave A
And......One of those kids could have been..............Les Ross....... but then he'd be using his real name.... but often you'd never know names just like you say............we'd have to club together to buy a bottle of lemonade from the cafe !!! so each had a swig !!!!! couldn't do that today in the present scheme of things could we ha ha
 
Chatting to an old friend Barrie Geens of Kings Heath Book fame.... and who has been a friend for ages going back to a time we both have to whisper dates ...ha ha..... both working at the same company and also cycling ventures...it came to light he'd cycled to Tamworth in very early days from his Kings Heath home, whilst I used the train..the easy way !! from out of his photo archive came two photos........one of train spotters in the field and one of the ex turbomotive 46202 Princess Anne later to end it's life in the Harrow Wealdstone crash...... Barrie kindly gave me permission to allow others to see his old Kodak Brownie photos that appeared also in Steam World many years back.... Barrie still involved still in his Steam interest is still putting his time when possible on the Severn Valley, and also appearing in an old film as a policeman in the Robert Powell film of 'The 39 Steps' shot on SVR quite a few years back !!! But thanks to Barrie Geens....here as follows are photos he took in the very early 1950's at Tamworth.
 

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