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Tamworth field trainspotting

D

daverock

master brummie
Hi
Is there anyone out there who spent there Saturdays in the field at Tamworth, I would love to find out more details of the daily logs if anyone still has their old notebooks.
Any pictures as well & also memories of the cafe, the staff attitude towards us & any other info.
My mates & me used to go under the bridge by the river & tramp across the fields going over an old disused bridge to get to the footbridge further down the track.
The cries of 'Clanger', 'Baby Clanger' & Main used to ring out over the field but I can't remember what the other track signal was called, I seem to think it might have been 'Local' but I am sure someone will know.
Happy days for us trainspotters.
Cheers
Dave Rock
 
Hello Dave,
Yes i did the Tamworth Field back in the mid 50's and i only remember cries of "Semi on the Main" which was either a Royal Scot, Princess, or Coronation class.Why the cry of "semi " I've never quite understood !
I remember "DELTIC" on the main coming through at speed and I threw my ice cream at it !!.....Didn't like diesels.
Sorry i have no photos or note book of those days,but still have my Ian Allen combined volume of BR locos from 1959 and cost 10'6.
Cheers, Paul Spedding.
 
Hi all you anoraks.

Yes I remember many a happy day at Tamworth High and Low level Clangers and babby clangers.

I used to go every Saturday on bike to Lichifield Trent Valley a bit further up the line, I've been there all day from 0900 to 17.30 and had 1 cop.

I've got a few pictures of Tamworth during the transional stage from steam to the other yak.

I'll sort them out and post them, one is at Lichfield L/L Sir Robert Turnbull 45540 ? , before the H/L station caught fire.

I remember seeing semi either Hamilton or Montrose come really rattling through pulling the Royal Scot at Lichfield T/V and when I got home it was on the news it had jumped the tracks at I think it was Appleby in Scotland.

Very happy days when we had to use our legs to get anywhere, speak again.

Ray
 
To my recall....anything spotted in the distance with 'blinkers' on it there would be a cry by the ''''experts'''' ?? as Semi....it got everyone's attention I guess that's why !!! 'main to local' was another cry...I do recall 'copping' Silver Jubillee' on that once....my eyes like chapel hatpegs at the chromed numbers and nameplate...what day!!! shortly after that was followed by a scottish Duchess 'cop' and City of Birmingham......I must try to sort out some photos....I do still have a couple of black & whites and some in the 1970's before the by pass was put in.....the old LMS warehouses I know I have a shot of.... All the Best.....Mike
 
As I remember it, the 'semi streaks' were simply the Princess Royal class streamlined engines 6200-6201 and 6203 - 6212 built in 1934, with the streamlining removed. The top of the smokebox was tapered. The next batch of express engines, Coronation Class 6220 - 6255 were almost identical but not streamlined and had massive smoke deflectors or blinkers, and a double chimney. They had a normal smokebox of course.
I certainly served my time on the field in the later 1940's and still have my ref book, specially printed by the LMS as a public relations gesture before they were nationalised in January 1948.
The first picture shows the front cover complete with smudges of school ink, and my later library index number. The second shows the inside front cover with my 'ownership' details.
Ah - those days!
Peter
 
I used to train spot at Tamworth but would rather cycle to Trent Valley Lichfield you had high and low level there. Dek
 
I think you need to go back somewhat.......the Princess Royal class...were NEVER streamlined and we just knew them as 'Royals'....46202 was the Turbomotive....remember seeing that in the Harrow/Wealdstone accident with Jubillee 'Windward Islands'

And the first lot of Coronation Class were streamlined...including City of Birmingham 46235 which I recall was Crimson streamlining on that one.....but later removed and smoke deflectors added..known as blinkers to us spotters...

I recall seeing one streamlined Coronation in Black which was a left over from the war time livery and the last one to lose it's streamlined casing....the streamlined Coronations had the sloping smokeboxes which allowed for the streamlined casing to taper down.....when shopped out in later years they changed them to the normal smokeboxes.
Mike
 
Can anyone confirm the location of these photos, is it Tamworth taken from the school field, or another location.
Sorry about the quality, but you should have seen them before Photoshop.

Colin
 
Hi Colin,
Have no idea of the location but I think the photos are the wrong way around. The trains ran on the "Left" as per the traffic in the UK but both are running on the opposite track! Unless of course these 2 trains were involved in a couple of train crashes moments after you took the photos!!! Check it out!
 
I think the photos were taken in the Hince region, you can just make out the ITV aerial in the background of photo 2 i don't think the trains running' wrong line' are on the WCML. Could be the Tamworth high level route possibly on a Sunday where the normal 'up line' is being relaid - this would account for single line working in both directions. If this is the case it would be quite rare to see a Scot or rebuilt Pate (photo 2) on the Tamworth high level route.
 
Dave, they were scanned from negatives and although I got most of them the right way round seems these two slipped through.
so turn them round.

Colin
 
Have got, somewhere, a sequence of 9.5mm cine film taken by my brother showing the Coronation Scot going through (I think) Trent Valley in 1938 or 1939. Will get it onto dvd one of these days.

Like Mike, I also remember seeing a black postwar "streak" at the same place, the first and last I ever saw.

Chris
 
Old aerial photo of Tamworth station. I presume the field you all stood in was on the right hand edge of the photo?

Bob
 
That's a few years old !!!!! you can even see the triangle track that was hidden from us 'Field Users' of the time, what happy memories!!!
 
Ray I'm not sure. I downloaded it some while ago and did a resize for posting. I assumed it was from a book I've got showing railways from the air but I've just looked through it and it isn't! Looking at the lack of cars I'd guess 1940s perhaps.
Bob
 
My cousin in the UK recently sent an article from the Steam World magazine October 2009 edition, entitled "My Tamworth Field Years" (Part Two) by Terry Webb, which included the following pictures. Acknowledgements to Terry Webb and to the people he acknowledged in his article.
My most vivid memory of Tamworth Field Trainspotting was actually on the Birmingham bound High Level platform when I tried to open the door of a slowing train to get a "good spotting place" and I slipped and somehow fell between the platform and the train wheels. I was very lucky, no injuries! I never told my parents though!
As the article is "Part Two", I would imagine some of you "steam buffs" will have the edition of the magazine that includes "Part One". If anyone wants to see the article I can post it, if I am allowed to do so (copyright)?
View attachment 47142View attachment 47145View attachment 47144View attachment 47143
 
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Having a mooch through my photos, I found a couple where a pal and I went back in June 1981 to Tamworth station and field.....the warehouse photos were taken on the advice of the then Station Master...who pointed out they were due to be demolished to make way for the by pass......manyView attachment 48007 months later the water tower had been demolished..the pile of bricks still there and the warehouses had gone, somewhere I have photView attachment 48006os of that time too...when I can find them, and I'm still looking for some shots I had in the 1950's of photos bought from the cafe.View attachment 48005
 
A gang of us 11/12 year olds use to go every week from King's Norton Station to Tamworth or Rugby. Reading all the replies has brought back vivid images but I have lost all my records. I certainly remember our excitement seeing a Princess or Coronation Class - thanks for jogging my memory
 
My late brother Harvey Barr spent a lot of his teen train spotting years at Tamworth l remember him cycling to Tamworth weekly sometimes dailey in the late 40's.....l wonder if any of you silver surfers remember him????....Harvey passed away in 2006 but was a trainspotter to the end,l know he kept all his ref books etc, Harvey passed his passion on to his son Russell who is just as keen as hid dad was.....Brenda
 
If I remember correctly it was 1/10d return from New Street to Tamworth. One of the cries I recall was "Double on the Clanger!" I watched the Royal Train double-headed screaming through. Pulled by Duchess of Sutheralnd and Duchess of Hamilton.
 
One shilling and fourpence ha'penny return when I used to go....I recall there was uproar brcause it had risen from One Shilling and Three pence....what a rip off we thought....but it was super fun and I'm so pleased I was able to be involved....my mom would go mad when I returned...rather mucky after a day there.... 8.45 am train out to catch the 9'o clock stopper....and back at 6.30pm often pulled back by a 'Jube' ...Galatea pulled us back once.... Happy Days
 
Hi Mike.

Wasn't Galatea written off in crashat Sutton Coldfield or was it at Kingsbury i feel sure it was in a crash.

Ex trainspotter
 
Not in 1954 when we were behind it......I think in the past few recent years parts were robbed off it for another restored loco
 
It's remains har at Carnforth awaiting restoration, parts was take to refrbish Leander, the boiler was a Tysley 2000 before being shipped north.

Ray
 
hi

Still at after 50 odd years. Within the David Hey archives some super Pictures of
Tamworth. Do you remember that goat.
I can still see a huge column of brand new 92000 class around 17 all going
on the Hi Level from Derby Works to Saltley.

Happy Days, Still go to the Cafe on the Low Level

Mike Jenks

Ive re attached my file on trainspotting
 
Mike, is it a while since you have been then, unless the new build has opened , the cafe has been closed for the last 6 months. There is a new one opening, that will front onto platform one and from what info we can gather will be a newsagent too. Lets hope they have their eye to business though, as the last one didn't open until after 8!
There are still lots of trainspotters at Tamworth though, especially on the occasions there is a steam train going over the 19 Arches on the high level line.
Sue
 
Browsing through "Trains", I came across this thread, which brought back many happy memories. During the 1940'sI would often bike to Tamworth, spending many happy hours in "the field". Complete with sandwiches and "pop", watching the West Coast main line expresses. Now in my 80's, I was fortunate enough to see a fully streamlined Coronation class engine pulling an express train. It was dirty and un kept, but a wonderful sight. I seem to recall that we called them "semi's" due to the fact that their streamlining had been removed, revealing a slanted fire box front. I believe that all of these "semis" were later converted to a full frontal boiler. As a "Brummy" we had the wonderful privilege, before 1948 nationalisation, of having both LMS & GWR lines through our city. I often also engine spotted on the old New Station & Snow Hill station (a one penny platform ticket usually did the trick), or at Small Heath station railway bridge. Coronations; Jubilees; Scots; Kings; Castles; Saints; and other classes of locomotives. I loved them all. On a couple of occasions, again in the 1940's, I was lucky enough to have a tour around Tyseley Loco Shed. This was in the days when the "on shed" locos would be driven almost up to the fencing that separated the shed from the Warwick Road. 21st century railways are much cleaner, faster, but somehow, not so exciting to an old man. Sorry - gone off thread a little. Tamworth was great fun.
 
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