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Bordesley Station
- Thread starter postie
- Start date
Radiorails
master brummie
Lovely picture. Notice the absence of litter, white edging to the platform and yellow line, little luggage or parcels, no staff or passengers. In fact one might be forgiven in believing the station was closed.
According to National Rail at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/BBS.aspx Bordesley station is still in use. There's one weekly train on Saturday afternoons at half past one and they put on extras when Blues are playing at home to serve the football crowd.
Warm you have beaten me to it and yes its the cattle train for away teams to come and play the blue noses ,
You she the army walking down the road escorted to the ground I always used to avoid that area , co,s I am a villain Aston villa
Supporter through and through best wishes astonian,,,,,,Alan,,,,,
You she the army walking down the road escorted to the ground I always used to avoid that area , co,s I am a villain Aston villa
Supporter through and through best wishes astonian,,,,,,Alan,,,,,
The Bordesley incline was on the Midland region & Bordesley station was a Western region so it was mainly Midland freight on the line which went past KEGS Camp hill school, I was in the first intake of Waverley GS when they took over after the opening on KEGS new school at Kings Heath. We used to trainspot from our classrooms when possible I think it was mainly Chemistry & Woodwork classes.
Radiorails
master brummie
Lots of pics and some maps here. In fact all you need to know about Bordesley (ex GWR) station.
https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/bordesley.htm
Of course there are lots of other Warwickshire stations listed as well.
https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/bordesley.htm
Of course there are lots of other Warwickshire stations listed as well.
There was a triangle which meant that MIdland freights could access the Western & a lot of the freights were hauled by LMS Stanier 2-8-0 locos. As far as I know western locos never made the trip on to LMS metals, I can remember seeing one of the Standard 2-10-0s on a freight crossing over the Western on the girder bridge & it was one with a self coaling mechanism, it was 92065 I think, now the real spotters can correct me or agree! The freights passing Blues ground were reputed to cover the Railway end in smoke to help Blues defence!!!
Hi, Well I'm no trains buff but I think that a group of us from The St. Agatha's Youth Club had a day out in approx. 1955 and boarded a train at Bordesley Station and went somewhere, we left the train and stated walking cross country aided by an OS map ,heading to Stratford.
I have no idea where we went but one of the girls stepped in a cowpat and was not too happy.
Our trusty leader then had us all walking along a disused rail line where we found an old cart thingy that you pumped the levers up and down and we played at giving rides up and down a length of the track while we ate our sandwiches for lunch
The plan was then to leave the track, cut over a few more fields and head into Stratford.
These plans were foiled by a very irate farmer who pointed out to us "Townies" that there was a Foot and Mouth outbreak and that all the styles and gates were showing posters to tell us not to enter any farms etc.
We therefore had to stay on the rail track that brought us into the Freight Yards at Stratford where we were able to catch a train back to Brum.
I was lucky when we were fooling around and my hand was in the door that was slammed closed. Fortunately my parents had bought me a signature ring on my 13th birthday and this saved my fingers. The ring was all but flattened and we had to put my ring finger back in the door to open it enough to get it off. It was reshaped and though I don't wear it I still have it in a box with other family heirlooms.
I have no idea where we went but one of the girls stepped in a cowpat and was not too happy.
Our trusty leader then had us all walking along a disused rail line where we found an old cart thingy that you pumped the levers up and down and we played at giving rides up and down a length of the track while we ate our sandwiches for lunch
The plan was then to leave the track, cut over a few more fields and head into Stratford.
These plans were foiled by a very irate farmer who pointed out to us "Townies" that there was a Foot and Mouth outbreak and that all the styles and gates were showing posters to tell us not to enter any farms etc.
We therefore had to stay on the rail track that brought us into the Freight Yards at Stratford where we were able to catch a train back to Brum.
I was lucky when we were fooling around and my hand was in the door that was slammed closed. Fortunately my parents had bought me a signature ring on my 13th birthday and this saved my fingers. The ring was all but flattened and we had to put my ring finger back in the door to open it enough to get it off. It was reshaped and though I don't wear it I still have it in a box with other family heirlooms.
Radiorails
master brummie
The major steam depot was at Tyseley. Bordesley did, however, have a very large freight depot. It was a souther city counterpart to the northern Hockley one. Both were GWR (BR(W)). I guess housing or tin shed style developments have taken the place of the tracks.
Do click on the link I previously posted, it shows much of Birmingham/Bordesley in the steam railway age.
Harbornite76
master brummie
Sadly, in the 1960's all the GWR buildings were swept away and one of the island platforms was shut, leaving a station that was a shadow of its former self. if you stand on the platform, you can see the Midland railway's Camp Hill line, which crosses the GWR Birmingham Snow Hill- London Paddington main line at a right angle.
This picture shows the Camp Hill line rising up from Lawden Street bridge toward the old Camp Hill station to the right past the self storage site visible from the Middle Ringway.
The photo was taken recently from the southern end of Bordesley station with a telephoto lens so there is quite a bit of compression but the line coming towards us is the old GWR main line from Warwick to Snow Hill just before it crosses over the viaduct at Camp Hill locks.
My reason for interest in this, or slightly to the left of frame, is this was the site of a station which existed for just one day on the 14th October 1852.
This line, the one passing through Bordesley station, was Brunel's Broad Gauge Birmingham and Oxford Junction opened only a few weeks earlier into the then "Birmingham Station" at Monmouth Street (later Colmore Row).
Queen Victoria and Albert had travelled by train southwards from Balmoral the day before stopping at Bangor en route to see Stevenson's new tubular bridge over the Menai Straits before continuing to Shrewsbury for lunch.
After their journey continued toward Birmingham which in her own words she described..."Shortly after 3 we stopped at Wolverhampton where we entered the "Iron District", one of the most dreadful parts of the country one can imagine, which I had seen many years ago, but which was quite new to Albert" It was in Wolverhampton that the LNWR took over.
The LNWR train passed through New Street and left the Town passing Curzon Street station before joining the Midland line down past the Blue's ground to climb the Bordesley incline toward Camp Hill.
At the point where the Midland line passed over the cast iron bridge above the Oxford line the Royal train halted. She described this in her journal: "At Camp Hill, near Birmingham, we joined the G[SUP]t[/SUP] Western line, quite a new branch, & changing carriages.."
In fact Brunel and his trusty engineers Robert Pearson Brereton and Henry Wakefield had constructed a temporary structure consisting of platforms on both lines with steps down to the waiting GWR train below which, unusually, was standing on the Down line nearby where points were installed* to allow the Royal train to cross to the Up line for the journey southwards...."We passed by Warwick, getting a glimpse of the Castle, Banbury, where we again stopped, Didcot, & Reading, reaching Windsor, in perfect safety a little before 7"
* John Pigott-Smith's 1852 survey shows this feature, the station would have been constructed in the apex of the bottom triangle
However this wasn't the first time this part of Brum received Royal comment as three years earlier the Royal Train passed this way en route for Cheltenham though before work on this section of the Oxford and Birmingham railway had been started.
This again from her journal for Saturday 29th September 1849 for a similar journey from Balmoral though via Newcastle with an overnight stop at Derby:
"A very wet morning. — Slept well & got up early, starting at 8. L[SUP]d[/SUP] Cathcart (commanding in this district) & his son, M[SUP]r[/SUP] Strutt (the High Sheriff) & M[SUP]r[/SUP] Cavendish, paid their respects before we left. The 1[SUP]rst[/SUP] place we stopped at was Birmingham, where I had not been for 19 years & were no sovereign had been since Charles II[SUP]nd[/SUP].
The station is not in the town, & we stopped on a bridge above the streets."
This my bones tell me is the long since closed Camp Hill station (https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/camphill.htm) which used to be the terminus of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and where her onward journey to Cheltenham would begin.
Her arrival at Cheltenham From the Illustrated London News 6th October 1849
It is interesting to note that a group of terraced houses facing the GWR line nearby the site on Lawden Street was called Victoria Place until their demolition.
The photo was taken recently from the southern end of Bordesley station with a telephoto lens so there is quite a bit of compression but the line coming towards us is the old GWR main line from Warwick to Snow Hill just before it crosses over the viaduct at Camp Hill locks.
My reason for interest in this, or slightly to the left of frame, is this was the site of a station which existed for just one day on the 14th October 1852.
This line, the one passing through Bordesley station, was Brunel's Broad Gauge Birmingham and Oxford Junction opened only a few weeks earlier into the then "Birmingham Station" at Monmouth Street (later Colmore Row).
Queen Victoria and Albert had travelled by train southwards from Balmoral the day before stopping at Bangor en route to see Stevenson's new tubular bridge over the Menai Straits before continuing to Shrewsbury for lunch.
After their journey continued toward Birmingham which in her own words she described..."Shortly after 3 we stopped at Wolverhampton where we entered the "Iron District", one of the most dreadful parts of the country one can imagine, which I had seen many years ago, but which was quite new to Albert" It was in Wolverhampton that the LNWR took over.
The LNWR train passed through New Street and left the Town passing Curzon Street station before joining the Midland line down past the Blue's ground to climb the Bordesley incline toward Camp Hill.
At the point where the Midland line passed over the cast iron bridge above the Oxford line the Royal train halted. She described this in her journal: "At Camp Hill, near Birmingham, we joined the G[SUP]t[/SUP] Western line, quite a new branch, & changing carriages.."
In fact Brunel and his trusty engineers Robert Pearson Brereton and Henry Wakefield had constructed a temporary structure consisting of platforms on both lines with steps down to the waiting GWR train below which, unusually, was standing on the Down line nearby where points were installed* to allow the Royal train to cross to the Up line for the journey southwards...."We passed by Warwick, getting a glimpse of the Castle, Banbury, where we again stopped, Didcot, & Reading, reaching Windsor, in perfect safety a little before 7"
* John Pigott-Smith's 1852 survey shows this feature, the station would have been constructed in the apex of the bottom triangle
However this wasn't the first time this part of Brum received Royal comment as three years earlier the Royal Train passed this way en route for Cheltenham though before work on this section of the Oxford and Birmingham railway had been started.
This again from her journal for Saturday 29th September 1849 for a similar journey from Balmoral though via Newcastle with an overnight stop at Derby:
"A very wet morning. — Slept well & got up early, starting at 8. L[SUP]d[/SUP] Cathcart (commanding in this district) & his son, M[SUP]r[/SUP] Strutt (the High Sheriff) & M[SUP]r[/SUP] Cavendish, paid their respects before we left. The 1[SUP]rst[/SUP] place we stopped at was Birmingham, where I had not been for 19 years & were no sovereign had been since Charles II[SUP]nd[/SUP].
The station is not in the town, & we stopped on a bridge above the streets."
This my bones tell me is the long since closed Camp Hill station (https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/camphill.htm) which used to be the terminus of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and where her onward journey to Cheltenham would begin.
Her arrival at Cheltenham From the Illustrated London News 6th October 1849It is interesting to note that a group of terraced houses facing the GWR line nearby the site on Lawden Street was called Victoria Place until their demolition.
Actually Mike, it was your response sometime back to a query in the Railway Terrace, Bordesley thread (August 8th 2011 Post number 9) that first put me onto this.
Victoria Place (not Terrace, my error) was constructed well after the event with the first occupiers appearing in records from 1878 onward though its positioning being pretty well opposite the site of the Regal interchange may have had a bearing.
Today the location is nigh impossible to access though I did recently persuade Network Rail to let me travel in one of their vans along the trackbed toward Small Heath to the point closest to the Lawden Road overbridge (near Citroen dealers) and where the Midland line passes over the vehicular track which was prior to 1907 the original alignment of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction railway.
Obviously 162 years later there isn't a single clue remaining but the two trackbeds are at their closest in height terms, roughly twelve feet making the location enticingly convincing.
My rather bored "elf'n safety minder however was rather less impressed.
Victoria Place (not Terrace, my error) was constructed well after the event with the first occupiers appearing in records from 1878 onward though its positioning being pretty well opposite the site of the Regal interchange may have had a bearing.
Today the location is nigh impossible to access though I did recently persuade Network Rail to let me travel in one of their vans along the trackbed toward Small Heath to the point closest to the Lawden Road overbridge (near Citroen dealers) and where the Midland line passes over the vehicular track which was prior to 1907 the original alignment of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction railway.
Obviously 162 years later there isn't a single clue remaining but the two trackbeds are at their closest in height terms, roughly twelve feet making the location enticingly convincing.
My rather bored "elf'n safety minder however was rather less impressed.
devonjim
master brummie
Like you I went to Camp Hill. (1951-58). Whereas I knew that the line at the rear of the fives courts didn't lead to Bordesley Station, as it swings north to the rear of the Blues ground,(remember the smoke swirling across the goal mouth), when the school moved to Kings Heath we had the same line skirting the rugby pitches. I never even knew there was a Camp Hill station until there were attempts to re open the line to passenger traffic back in 2010. Bordesley station has memories for me as I had to stand under the bridge outside for what seemed like hours waiting for a 15B bus to take me home to Garrett's Green. On another occasion travelling by express train into Snow Hill, it was held up by signals in Bordesley Station, so I made a sharp exit, ticket collector seemed surprised to see me appear, and insisted I couldn't have got off the train as it didn't stop. By the way when the city got rid of the trams in 1950's it was because they were less flexible than buses in what way have trams now become flexible?
Going through my late Uncles photographs I came across some relating to his time on the Railways. These are 3 that clearly show some of those who I assume he worked with during the early 50s, the date on one of them being November 1951.
Unfortunately I have no idea who the people are but perhaps there is someone out there who can put names to faces.
Unfortunately I have no idea who the people are but perhaps there is someone out there who can put names to faces.
