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Curzon Street Railway Station

  • Thread starter Thread starter speaky
  • Start date Start date
The Turnpike trusts were abolished in 1888 so the reference to toll gates would imply before this date but locals might have continued to refer to the location of toll gates after this date
 
Covroad said:
A print of Curzon Street , Titled ‘The First Railway Passenger Station in Birmingham (1838) source Historicengland.org.uk
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The track far right is triple gauge, were they 4'8½" (British standard), 5'3" (Irish standard) and 7'¼" (Great Western broad) gauges?
 
That is the only conclusion that I could come to, but cannot find any evidence that the GWR, ever ran Broad gauage into Curzon St. There were parliamentary bills to this effect, and the Duddeston viaduct was built with this in mind, but never completed. I wonder if this was artist's licence
 
mikejee said:
That is the only conclusion that I could come to, but cannot find any evidence that the GWR, ever ran Broad gauage into Curzon St. There were parliamentary bills to this effect, and the Duddeston viaduct was built with this in mind, but never completed. I wonder if this was artist's licence
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Forget it ! I was looking at an enlarged version which hid the fact of two tracks crossing in the foreground! All are normal 4'8½" gauge tracks.
 
A copy of a surveyors drawing for the front elevation , I suspect a pre construction drawing for client review and comments
Source historicengland.org.uk
 

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The turntables inside the goods shed at Curzon Street both pictures show the good carriage,loading areas, etc
Source historicenglad.org.uk
 

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I spent hours in there in the 1950's, dad used to deliver BR parcels in Rubery & Barnt Green area and in the school holidays I often used to go with him. While he sorted out the order of the parcels at Curzon St I used to wander around, I remember gigantic curtains that could be used to block out the weather on the huge doorways, some let the daylight through and others were solid tarpaulins
I remember one foggy winter morning I wandered further than usual and vividly remember looking through a gap and seeing a whole row of ghostly looking disused steam engines with cow scoops on the front, like the wild west engines, maybe used for clearing heavy snow off the tracks?
 
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In the Science Museum of images of Curzon Street there is one captioned Curzon Street Viaduct. Not all the plans there were carried forward and this one seems not to have happened and the London & Birmingham Railway build a level crossing instead to reach their goods yard
 
Heartland said:
In the Science Museum of images of Curzon Street there is one captioned Curzon Street Viaduct. Not all the plans there were carried forward and this one seems not to have happened and the London & Birmingham Railway build a level crossing instead to reach their goods yard
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Can you give us more details please as this sounds as if it might be the viaduct from Bordesley which was never completed.
 
No that viaduct was built for the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway, this one carried Curzon Street over the railway tracks and was called Curzon Street Bridge on the plan. The arrangement as built differed from this plan.


422421.jpg
 
in 1841 the Grand Junction Station buildings faced Curzon Street whilst the London & Birmingham building had its entrance from New Canal Street. Camp Hill Station, Birmingham & Gloucester Railway was also in existence by then. The railway from Camp Hill to Join up with the London & Birmingham Railway was opened August 17th, 1841 when Camp Hill became a goods station.
 
As work proceeds HS 2 there is still the lack of recognition in these modern times that there were two stations at Curzon Street; the London & Birmingham Station and the Grand Junction Station. Whilst traffic was exchanged at Curzon Street between the two railway companies they had their own agendas. As new schemes came into existence some would favour the Grand Junction and others the London & Birmingham if they intended to join with their separate routes. One such scheme led to the building of the Bordesley Viaduct as part of the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway. That scheme joined with the Grand Junction Railway at Curzon Street. When the Grand Junction and London & Birmingham railway merged into the London & North Western Railway priorities changed and although built the Bordesley Viaduct never saw a train from the Curzon Street end and simply had tracks associated with the goods station which was Great Western Railway
 
Heartland said:
As work proceeds HS 2 there is still the lack of recognition in these modern times that there were two stations at Curzon Street; the London & Birmingham Station and the Grand Junction Station. Whilst traffic was exchanged at Curzon Street between the two railway companies they had their own agendas. As new schemes came into existence some would favour the Grand Junction and others the London & Birmingham if they intended to join with their separate routes. One such scheme led to the building of the Bordesley Viaduct as part of the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway. That scheme joined with the Grand Junction Railway at Curzon Street. When the Grand Junction and London & Birmingham railway merged into the London & North Western Railway priorities changed and although built the Bordesley Viaduct never saw a train from the Curzon Street end and simply had tracks associated with the goods station which was Great Western Railway
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The original entrance to the London and Birmingham Curzon Street station was to the left of the still standing building which was a hotel in the early days. The entrance to the Grand Junction station was along Curzon Street.
As Heartland says above it is not generally realised that there were two separate stations in the same way that few people today realise that New Street was two separate stations prior to 1923 with the London and North Western station on one side of Queens Drive and the Midland station on the other side.
 
I have stated on this thread before, that as a lad , I worked for a couple of weeks, at the Curzon Street goods yard. Back then it had not changed from the early Victorian times,except for the 3 wheel lorry's and cars, all the buildings were magnificent structures, and many, many, horses. Sad they demolished all of them, acres of cobbled streets and yards, I can see them now nearing 80!!
 
Snow Hill was initially the junction between the Birmingham Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway and the Birmingham & Oxfords Junction Railway although both became part of the GWR mixed gauge route as construction proceeded to make the first Snow Hill station

The original LNWR station at New Street also served other railways
In these early times several stations in the West Midlands had more than one operator working through it
Wolverhampton had two joint stations
Queen Street or High Level had the Shrewsbury & Birmingham and the Stour Valley Railway LNWR
The Low Level (Mixed Gauge) Station had the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley (GWR) and the Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway and later with the making of the GWR Wolverhampton Junction Railway, the Shrewsbury & Birmingham
 
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