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The changing face of Birmingham Railways

Heartland

Heartland

master brummie
There were several landmark changes in the Birmingham railway scene. These include
(1) The first railway companies lay tracks in Birmingham
(2) Railway mergers create the network of track that became the Great Western, London & North Western and Midland Railway
(3) Other independent railways are established, such as the Harborne Railway
(4) Joint railways are created such as the line between Halesowen and Longbridge (GWR/MR)
(5) The railway companies improve their system, widening and adding new track
(6) Railway Grouping, the LNWR and MR merge
(7) Railway Nationalisation, railway companies merge to form British Railways under the Railway Executive, whilst their associated canal boatage services cease in 1954, some road vehicles pass to the Road executive
(8) Transport is rationalised and routes and stations are closed. The London Midland Region takes over all Birmingham lines. The West Coast main line is electrified in stages eventually reaching Glasgow.
(9) Changes within the British Railways brings investment in some new services. The Cross City Line is created and a new station Birmingham International is opened. Transport is coordinated with Travelcards valid on bus and railway services.
(10) Further changes under the London Midland Region leads to the closure of the original Moor Street Station and new platforms on the line to a reconstructed Snow Hill.
(11) British Rail embarks on creating business sector units. Intercity, Network South East and Regional Railways. These changes coincide with the opening of new stations at Galton Bridge, The Hawthorns and the Jewellery Quarter and the building of a parkway station at Sandwell & Dudley. The West Midland Metro starts construction on the line between Wolverhampton and Snow Hill. Passenger services recommence on the line to Hednesford.
(12) The Railways are privatised with Railtrack taking over the signalling and track and franchise companies running the passenger trains. Freight becomes open access served by several companies. The principal freight operator in the West Midland is EWS. Freightliner retain their depot at Landor Street.
(13) Railtrack continues with local line improvements including the passenger line from Hednesford to Rugeley & Stafford and a Walsall- Wolverhampton direct service. Railtrack is taken over by the government as Network Rail, following serious safety issues. Network Rail becomes involved with station improvement and new stations.
(14) The original franchises formed out of Intercity are West Coast (Virgin) and Cross Country (Virgin). The former Regional Railways service are split between Central Trains, Chiltern, North West Trains and Silver Link.
(15) Franchises are changed and routes altered. A strong bus operator ownership of local services alter as foreign railway companies gain control of the passenger services. More new stations are proposed on the Kings Heath line and at Willenhall & Darlaston.
(16) High Speed 2 is authorised by parliament and work starts on clearing the site at Curzon Street and much of the intended route through Birmingham. The former Metropolitan Wagon Works are demolished.

During this long period the scene has seen change. In this view a diesel multiple unit is leaving Exchange Sidings for the Camp Hill line. The background can be seen the Signal Box.
580353.jpg
 
Heartland said:
There were several landmark changes in the Birmingham railway scene. These include
(1) The first railway companies lay tracks in Birmingham
(2) Railway mergers create the network of track that became the Great Western, London & North Western and Midland Railway
(3) Other independent railways are established, such as the Harborne Railway
(4) Joint railways are created such as the line between Halesowen and Longbridge (GWR/MR)
(5) The railway companies improve their system, widening and adding new track
(6) Railway Grouping, the LNWR and MR merge
(7) Railway Nationalisation, railway companies merge to form British Railways under the Railway Executive, whilst their associated canal boatage services cease in 1954, some road vehicles pass to the Road executive
(8) Transport is rationalised and routes and stations are closed. The London Midland Region takes over all Birmingham lines. The West Coast main line is electrified in stages eventually reaching Glasgow.
(9) Changes within the British Railways brings investment in some new services. The Cross City Line is created and a new station Birmingham International is opened. Transport is coordinated with Travelcards valid on bus and railway services.
(10) Further changes under the London Midland Region leads to the closure of the original Moor Street Station and new platforms on the line to a reconstructed Snow Hill.
(11) British Rail embarks on creating business sector units. Intercity, Network South East and Regional Railways. These changes coincide with the opening of new stations at Galton Bridge, The Hawthorns and the Jewellery Quarter and the building of a parkway station at Sandwell & Dudley. The West Midland Metro starts construction on the line between Wolverhampton and Snow Hill. Passenger services recommence on the line to Hednesford.
(12) The Railways are privatised with Railtrack taking over the signalling and track and franchise companies running the passenger trains. Freight becomes open access served by several companies. The principal freight operator in the West Midland is EWS. Freightliner retain their depot at Landor Street.
(13) Railtrack continues with local line improvements including the passenger line from Hednesford to Rugeley & Stafford and a Walsall- Wolverhampton direct service. Railtrack is taken over by the government as Network Rail, following serious safety issues. Network Rail becomes involved with station improvement and new stations.
(14) The original franchises formed out of Intercity are West Coast (Virgin) and Cross Country (Virgin). The former Regional Railways service are split between Central Trains, Chiltern, North West Trains and Silver Link.
(15) Franchises are changed and routes altered. A strong bus operator ownership of local services alter as foreign railway companies gain control of the passenger services. More new stations are proposed on the Kings Heath line and at Willenhall & Darlaston.
(16) High Speed 2 is authorised by parliament and work starts on clearing the site at Curzon Street and much of the intended route through Birmingham. The former Metropolitan Wagon Works are demolished.

During this long period the scene has seen change. In this view a diesel multiple unit is leaving Exchange Sidings for the Camp Hill line. The background can be seen the Signal Box.
View attachment 136905
Click to expand...
An excellent article. Thanks.
 
The railway geography has also changed with time. There was a road between Moor Street and the GWR main line that linked Moor Street with Park Street, called Shut Lane.

500788.jpg

This road was infilled when work began in making the new Moor Street station and the relaying of the Track by BR LM Region through Snow Hill tunnel to a reconstructed Birmingham Snow Hill.
163551.jpg
 
The warehouse adjacent to Shut Lane had been taken down by the time the photo was taken.#

Leading on with this thread, change also involves rolling stock. The modern railway has passenger rolling stock comprised as units. Yet even there those units can be replaced by more modern stock. With the electrification of the West Coast Main Line there were first generation electric units and electric locomotives that hauled the carriages. Such locomotives needed to be uncoupled at the destination by a person, known as a shunter, allowed to run around the train and then be re-coupled at the opposite end of the train. Such practices ceased with the introduction of the DVT at one end of the train and this practice can still be seen on Chiltern Trains.

In this 1980 view locomotive hauled trains were standard on services that operated along the Stour Valley Railway alongside the BCN.

140236.jpg
 
Heartland said:
With the electrification of the West Coast Main Line there were first generation electric units and electric locomotives that hauled the carriages. Such locomotives needed to be uncoupled at the destination by a person, known as a shunter, allowed to run around the train and then be re-coupled at the opposite end of the train.
Click to expand...
Locomotives running around trains certainly happened on branch lines but on main line services it would be more common for another locomotive to be brought up to the free end of the train and the first locomotive to follow the train out. Providing run-around facilities at terminal stations wastes platform space as the locomotive has to be stopped short of the platform end, uncoupled, then run forward to clear the points. There also has to be a spare track to allow the locomotive to pass its train. In the days of steam there was also the need to add coal and water and turn the engine so again a lot easier to 'release' the locomotive by bringing up a fresh engine and allowing the 'trapped' locomotive to withdraw to the motive power depot.
Go back in time long enough and main line stations were completely different, split in the middle and with coach turntables, something only possible when they had short wheelbases. Short bay platforms sometimes were provided to allow carriages to be put onto trucks.
It is quite fascinating the way things like railways evolve, using many methods familiar to the old (horse) carriage trades to modern steel construction, electric traction and IT systems yet often constrained by those early origins, (rights of way and loading gauge).
 
Not Birmingham but Liverpool Crown Street in 1831. Notice the low platforms and the way passengers are free to walk across the tracks, more like the yard of a coaching inn than a modern station. Just behind the passengers in the foreground are turntables for the coaches, something that continued to be used in goods stations for many decades, (most wagons still having short wheelbases). The departing coaches on the left aren't headed by a locomotive but will use gravity to run down through the tunnel to Edge Hill cutting. A cable, seen in the middle of the centre tracks, is used to haul up arriving trains.
It is easy to forget that railways were once 'new technology' and it wasn't at all clear how or if they would work at all.
Crown Street might have gone but Glasgow's Queen Street used cables to help haul trains out of the station in the early days but now operates an intensive service to Edinburgh with 25 kV ac powered multiple units operating over bi-directional signalled tracks. Like most inner city stations it is constrained within the limits of the original station, something that is most definitely a problem for Birmingham New Street!
crownst.jpg
 
Locomotives running around trains certainly happened on branch lines but on main line services it would be more common for another locomotive to be brought up to the free end of the train and the first locomotive to follow the train out. Providing run-around facilities at terminal stations wastes platform space as the locomotive has to be stopped short of the platform end, uncoupled, then run forward to clear the points.

Yes at terminal stations the locomotive was at the stop block until the carriages were moved, either by a new locomotive or or a carriage stock shunting locomotive. Birmingham New Street was open at both ends. Trains starting there were able to have their locomotives run round the stock. This applied to the trains to London Euston, that started at New Street and other services such as Liverpool Lime Street. The men employed as "shunters" there had the task of coupling and uncoupling the locomotive. When the carriage stock needed to be cleaned, or stabled, there were carriage sidings and sheds where the locomotive may move the stock. From 1967 the main carriage depot for New Street was at Duddeston. The train locomotive would often haul the stock there. The locomotive went off to be stabled. For diesel stock, Saltley MPD was the point for refuelling. Electric locomotives were often found in the sidings in front of the signal box. These sidings were taken up this year.
 
In a Birmingham connection I will mention that Moor Street had an unusual, but not unique, system of releasing locomotives from the trains. It was a traverser, which can be seen in the Warwickshire Railways web site.
1567948566889.png1567948626330.png

Moor Street Station: One of the Moor Street traverser tables undergoing a weight test in situ with two Great Western Railway 2-4-2T 36XX class locomotives

warwickshirerailways.com
Many small branch lines, before the advent of diesel multiple units, did have run around facilities. However those without - or for a matter of expediency - operated the autocar system. This was, for the non railway folk - a small locomotive that could also be controlled from the autocoach. Often it was one coach, two not uncommon. Plymouth ran a unusual system of four, i.e. two coaches either side of the locomotive.
 
One of the two traversing tables at Birmingham Moor Street was completed about 1910 according to the Great Western Magazine of that date. Photos show that that the concourse was not completed then and work was on going to build the goods depot that was opened in 1914. The concourse was finished later. These were times of King George V and not Edward VII as the station is sometimes dated to.

Moor Street was built over the goods depot, which delayed the installation of the second traverser. The concourse was over the Midland Railway Tunnel into New Street. The two electrically driven traversers were provided in place of the usual cross over road. These traversers, one on either side of the central platform. Each traverser had upon it three tracks at 11ft 2 1/2 in centres. This ensured a track being in place opposite the running rails and prevented a locomotive falling into the pit. 60 feet long by 32ft 10in wide, these traversers were capable with travelling with a load of 170 tons at 10ft per minute. Motive power, for each, was a three- phase motor of 18 hp. They were provided with 36 travelling wheels, 2ft in diameter. S.H Heywood & Co of Reddish, Manchester and the motors were supplied by the Lancashire Dynamo & Motor Co of London.

There was a provision for each traverser to slide under the platform on each side. The method of working was to slide the traverser under the platform so that the middle pair of rails came into contact with the train road. The locomotive goes onto the traverser, it is then uncoupled and the traverser is run out, so that the line upon which the engine is standing comes into position with the outgoing road. In this fashion it could run round the train or return to the depot.

MoorSt.jpg

With the introduction of diesel multiple units on this route, the use of the traverser would have been reduced.
 
My grandson on his way home from his first day at work saw this engine at Bromsgrove. Thursday (July 1st). A lot of interest from "train spotters". What is special to create such interest.
 

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D213

History of D213 / 40013 The locomotive was Built at English Electric Vulcan Foundry Works, Newton-Le-Willows, during the early part of 1959. She was released from Vulcan Works in early May of that...
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devonjim said:
My grandson on his way home from his first day at work saw this engine at Bromsgrove. Thursday (July 1st). A lot of interest from "train spotters". What is special to create such interest.
Click to expand...
Class 40 D213 Andania Light Engine
 
IMG_2654.jpeg

“Sutton Coldfield 1862, on the opening of the branch from Birmingham, which, according to the Birmingham Post, was responsible for turning the community 'from rural sleepiness to bustling activity. Tank no 334 at the head of a train of four-wheel coaches, with diminutive one at far end.”

The West Midlands by Christiansen. Rex Publication date 1973.
 
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