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Castle bromwich railway station

shady

shady

master brummie
Castle Bromwich Railway Station.

Has anyone got any photographs I can just about remember that there was a Station there when I was a child it was then a bit derelict and I cannot remember when it disappeared.
 
If you do a close up in Google Earth you can actually see the outline of one of the platforms, on the Water Orton line I think. It's about 125 yards long.
I can just about remember going on the station when I was young, but I never actually caught a train from there.

Terry
 
When I was 17 I "went out" for a short time with a beautiful Irish girl who lived in one of the cottages down by the railway. I remember the loo at the end of the garden, but not as much as her!:)
 
Another great BEECHING idea, lets close the station next to one of the new largest housing estates in Birmingham.

OH DR BEECHING!
 
My first job was at New Street Station in early 1957. Our office overlooked Platform One and there was always something going on with famous actors and actresses coming and going to do shows in Brum. The Queen's Hotel was still standing and many of them stayed there as it was right next door. I had a chance to see so many wonderful locomotives in all their finery, Duchesses, Castles, etc. It took a whole team of locomotive workers to prepare these trains for their journey's and they would be attended to as they waited to start their trips. You don't forget those scenes.

I would spend time in front of the Waiting Room fires during the winter at Lunch times on several platforms. I had a free pass for the local system as well. Gravely Hill Station was my starting point. The diesels were coming in
and were on the Lichfield to Brum run.

The work was very interesting as we dealt with internal station reports Excursions, General Goods and Parcels (police reports every day practically listing stuff that had been stolen from the Goods trains) and many other situations.
 
Dave M,

Thanks for the photographs , they are much more like I remember the place although it was in a bad state . Must of been around the time it closed down that I remember .
 
I often wondered why they closed some of our railways, but the reason for this was that the car was taking over and the railways losing money. Now if you catch a train, and i do often,( if you don't go first class,) which i do, at times there is no seat for you. naughty naughty. another system that needs looking into. There is also first class and first class Virgin IS first class, the first class rail down south is very poor. Maybe you know this, if not,... if there is no seat you can upgrade your ticket to first class for very little money, i have not tried this yet, But, anything is worth trying once... Cat
Jennyann just read your 22:11 what an interesting job you had.
 
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I had a chance to see so many wonderful locomotives in all their finery, Duchesses, Castles,
Click to expand...

Are you sure Jennyann?

The Duchesses (Coronation Class) were built for the West Coat Line and were a very rare sight indeed at New Street, in fact I always understand that they would not fit into a platform road at New Street due to the platform curvature although I seem to remember seeing a picture of one in the station in the 60s before withdrawal.

Seeing a Castle class at New Street would be a very rare occurance indeed as they were Western Region locomotives and a common sight at Snow Hill..

As a train spotter in that period the locomotives that you would see at Birmingham New Street were Black 5s, Patriots, Jubilees, and Royal Scots.

In fact we used to make Saturday pilgrimages to Tamworth or Rugeley just to see Duchesses and Princesses!
 
My Aunty Greta was the last Staion Master at Castle Bromwich. I caught the last train to Sutton Park from there, but before then as Child fares were so cheap I used to travel that line quite often, Visiting Bromford, Saltley, Coleshill and Water Orton and Kingsbury. Castle Bromwich Station wasnt closed because of Beeching as it wasnt mentioned in the report, but Beeching did advocate that all rail links to Walsall be shut down, hence the closeing of the Sutton line to passengers. There is an ongoing campaign to reopen the line, but it has come to nought as yet and the platforms were removed when they widened the Chester road bridge and because or so they said, of the faster trains Virgin were going to run and that the main line wouldnt allow more trains on it, even though they ripped up one set of lines that would of allowed more trains to be run, it went from 4 to 3 and they refused Jaguar to run a siding into the factory, all this when the City Council were proposing to enlarge the tram system, so everything fell by the wayside.
 
Castle Bromwich was an important station on the network as it served the Castle Bromwich aerodrome and the BIF (British Industries Fair). It was for this reason that one of the first diesel services, using the new Derby Lightweights, was started from New Street to CB on the 29th April 1955 (The Bham- Lichfield service started in March 1956).

The first DMU services in the UK started in June 1954 between Leeds and Bradford also using Derby Lightweights and it was this commencement of the DMU services that was possibly the only good thing to come out of the long overdue BR Modernisation Plan. (It should be noted that most DMU sets built under this plan were bulit by Metro Cammel, just down the road from CB!)

CB station closed in 1968, not as a direct result of Beeching, as already stated, but as a continuation of the transport act he was responsible for implementing in 1963.

The Sutton Park line (Penns, Sutton, Streetley and Aldridge, all closed 1965) fell foul of Beeching because of parallel running, which Beeching saw no point in. Its funny today how many commentators fail to remember parallel running which featured heavily in his pruning. That’s why Snow Hill closed, the Old Great Central line and the Mid Wales line.

Beechings plan was deeply flawed because it failed to predict future transport needs accurately and his report manipulated figures to give an expected outcome and I am very surprised that the true extent of this ‘con trick’ has never been properly exposed. However in his defence his mandate was to reduce the deficit, not improve the service, so the real culprits were Ernest Marples and Harold Macmillan.

One of the legacies of this pantomime period we are left with in Birmingham is New Street station, which was a bottleneck in the 50s and needed to have an expanded site then, now it is a complete nightmare and the latest plan is to have a two tier station!

You will find some information on the Penns Station (Walmley) and its last Station Master, Les Hollins (who I arranged to appear on Midlands Today two weeks ago) at

https://madeinbirmingham.org/walmley.htm
 
Ernest Marples and half the Cabinate at the time were Directors of Companies involved in building the New Motorways at the time, this wasnt even commented on at the time as conflicts of interest were not declarable at that time, it would be a different story now and also when Harold Wilson came into power he did nothing and allowed the cuts to continue, Tony Benn was the only minister to object, considering that the then Cabinate had four ministers connected to the Railways at the time and only modified the plan to save their bits.
 
Yes and the best part of the Marples fiasco is that he trransferred his shares in the road construction company, Marples Ridgeway into his wife's name when he became transport minister!!!!!!!!!
 
I remember Ernest Marples as the Post Master General and the Premium Bonds draw set up ERNIE... late l950's.
 
I like this epitaph:

In early 1975, Marples suddenly fled to Monaco to escape allegations of tax fraud and law-suits from former employees and tenants of his slum properties. He died there in 1978, aged 70.
 
Hello, I'm sorry, but I've not long joined the Forum, hence the belated post !. Anyway, in the early 70's I left the farm that I'd been working on and started working for British Rail, B'ham D.C.E. Dept at Castle Bromwich (old) Station. This had been closed for about 12 to 18 months when I started there. You could still walk about the building, but vandals & thieves from the nearby Estates had done their worst by then. There was a concrete hut there which was the base for Mobile Gang No M.43. (The old 'Length' Gangs having been converted into Mobile units who covered greater lengths of Track, travelling around in Bedford Lorries with Cooking/Workshop facilities on board). Our Overall area was run from Water Orton, the old Signal Box being now the Permanent Way Office. As I've said, the Station building was still there, although very run down. I parked my Norton in what was the old Goods store. The building stood for many years until the 1980's when it was demolished in order to widen the Chester Road at this point. The whole area was being upgraded. The old Wimpey's building, Fort Dunlop, all were being converted into Restaurants, Shops and Hotels. The 'Spitfire' Island was the real reason for the widening.
I have many happy memories of my time on the P.Way, and still see a lot of my old (now!) friends from my Teenage years. Our stretch was from Bromford Bridge through to Hams Hall (B'ham - Derby Line), and to Water Orton (White City) on the Norwich Line. M.46 at Tamworth covered up to Syerscote, M.45 at Whitacre Stn, covered up to Arley, and M.44 at Nuneaton Abbey St, did the rest up to the Electrified junctions. Often, Engineering works had 'Extra Gangs', (Non Territorial) bought in.

I did 5 years on this job, took many courses and made good friends, I then left to go into the Motorcycle Trade.After that, went via Warwickshire Police and West Midlands Ambulance, until today. My grounding in 'People Skills' and dealing with deaths (one unders), injury and emergency call outs, gained on the Railways, stood me in good stead for my later jobs.

We kept the Track in good order & tidy, it saddens me to see the state that it is in now. If anyone doubts the insanity of the BR sell off, (Yes I know it was inefficient & costly), just look at Duddeston Station ! It is sad that now, with the housing density changing, and transport systems being upgraded, that the Beeching cuts are seen as one of the great 'Own Goals' of the 20th Century. Most of the small Stations around my home area are being re-opened and are in heavy use. But with Gov't corruption as rife then as now, the normal people of B'ham lost so much in architectural and social heritage it was criminal.
 
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Hi Peter R. I was on the P/way at Castle Bromwich in the mid 70,s, I was living in Tamworth at the time. We were in the "mobile gang". I remember the old signal box at Water Orton and the nearby hut where we would spend our time if the inspector was,nt about, can,t remember his name now.
 
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