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It's Tyseley. The main line to Warwick, Banbury & Paddington veers off to the left behind the signal box, while the North Warwickshire line to Stratford & Cheltenham goes off to the right. The train is non-corridor stock, meaning it's probably a suburban working, maybe arriving from Lapworth...

How useful that line would be now? Small fast units in & out of New Street and with modern signalling methods the old hold-ups which bedevilled that line decades ago would be no problem.

I certainly recall doing some train-spotting trips from New Street to Tamworth and back and finding that when you banged the carriage seats, clouds of dust rose from them. However nothing can diminish the joy of seeing the hordes of locomotives in Saltley depot. As we passed by quite slowly, we...

It was just such a brief period in which the joys of post-war steam traction could be enjoyed. I was so glad to be old (proper baby boomer born 1946) enough to be able to start enjoying this short spell. The joys of trainspotting were so fleeting. We thought they would last forever, but...

Judging by the buses in early WMPTE livery especially the MCW Metrobus, it is late 1970s/early 1980s.

Lloyd makes an interesting point, but I can't help thinking that the two areas merge into each other. Many a transport heritage vehicle/loco has had substantial parts replaced during "restoration" meaning in some cases there is very little of the original left. Conversely, many of the...

Yes you are quite right. If I recall correctly the earliest ones were the 6-car Midland Pullman trains running between St Pancras and Manchester Central. The Birmingham Pullman sets used the same powercars but there were two extra coaches in the consist, making it an 8-car set. I understand they...

I certainly remember the News Theatre in Station Street. I used to pester my dad to go and watch the daytime cartoons while mum was off shopping. Well, I was only 7!

Thanks for the extra photos. It looks as if D1000 was on display. I guess the Blue Pullman was the forerunner of the HST, having a power car each end, but I have heard it was a bit noisy and rough riding. Can anyone comment? It was certainly on the scrap lines outside Swindon by 1973, so I...

Great photo, and it begs the question, was it a special event? The immaculate (brand new?) Western class diesel hydraulic loco on the right is parked up against the buffers of the bay platform. Is it on show?

As an occasional spotter at Snow Hill, I got fed up with seeing Little Linford Hall everytime I went there. Same with 2-6-2 tank 4111 (IIRC) also a Tyseley loco. If only one could see them there now!

This was an occasion which was documented in the Railway Magazine in (IIRC) 1955. An LMS 2-6-6-2 Garratt was at the head of the heavy freight train and the LNER 2-8-8-2 Garratt was being trialled as a banker on Lickey. Unfortunately the U1 ran into trouble and Big Bertha was summoned to assist...

Good to see pictures of the "Lickey bankers" as this was always an interesting operation to watch. My father (who grew up in Northfield) told me about the "Decapod" which was used for banking Lickey. Also known as Big Bertha or Big Emma. At the time it was the only 10-coupled loco in service...

There were many interesting dealerships in Birmingham. My own first car, a blue Morris Mini, came from Colmore Depot when new. reg. no. 147 BOA and I acquired it in 1965 when i lived in Kidderminster. As a Brummie born & bred, I was very happy when I started working in Birmingham the following...

Yes, Vivienne, he looks like a slightly unsavoury amalgam of W C Fields and Oliver Hardy. Quoting WC Fields, "I love children, but I couldn't eat a whole one!" Nuff sed!

I notice that the earlier photo showed that the Taylor & Challen name was lower down while the Derwent Foundry name was up top. In the 1961 photo these names appear to have been switched round, with a freshly painted Taylor & Challen up top. As far as your query about trains going to Blackpool...

The van is actually a Ford Thames ET7, going through the memorable site of the Minories, but I surely do remember seeing smaller local delivery vans (where I lived in Yardley Wood) and I'm prettyy sure they were small Commer vans. Happy days!

A classical example of a Staffordshire knot, no doubt from a time when Darlaston was in Staffordshire!

Great to see this thread on Cadburys. My grandfather Percy Davis had a job as an electrician in the factory, and was also a trade union official (ETU). After he was widowed in 1935, he became engaged to a colleague Rosa Davies, but he himself died in 1939 before they could marry. His daughters...