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Midland railway Co

H

Helen G

Almost a Brummie
On the 1921 Census Ernest Crow, of Crooks Lane Studley, gave his occupation as platelayer. His place of occupation is given as Permanent Way Construction Depot of Midland Railway Co.

A "permanent way construction depot" is a facility where railway tracks (also known as "permanent way") are constructed, maintained, and repaired, typically containing storage areas for rails, sleepers, ballast, and other track components, along with machinery and equipment necessary for track work, like cranes, tampers, and welding machines; essentially a dedicated location for all aspects of railway track maintenance and construction. (good old Google)

Can anyone suggest where the nearest permanent way construction depot to Studley would be? At that time Studley still had a railway station, I remember it as a small child in the 1960's. Would it have been there or maybe Alcester of Redditch?

thanks for pondering this with me.
 
There's a passing mention of a Permanent Wat Dept of the Midland Railway at King's Heath in the Bham Daily Gazette 1916. No address appears to be mentioned.
 
I cannot find any reference in directories, an early largeb scale maps of kings heath do not appear to be available. The earliest I can find is an alan godfrey map 1937, which doe not name any permanent way depot in the area. It could , of course be at Kings Heath station, but I very much doubt that. However in the 1937 map, and in later 1950 and 1960 maps available , to the north of kings ?Heath station there is an unnamed bunch of lines running off the main track , with access seemingly only available via the main track or a footpath. Personally I would have recalled it Moseley rather than Kings Heath, but think this is likely to be the place of the depot. It now is a largely waste area of trees.

map 1950s showing possible site of permanent way depot.jpg
 
The area on the west side between Kings Heath station and Moseley Tunnel was known as the Ballsst Sidings when I started on BR. It was an area used for new track materials waiting to be used and old track, ballast and spoil waiting to be taken away for disposal. Last used in the 1960s.
 
I've looked at the original sheet in the 1921 Census. In my own researches of it I have found a lot of errors in the transcription of the enumerator's handwriting. I suspect it should be Department rather than Depot. There was likely to have been a Permanent Way maintenance gang based at Studley, possibly working out of a cabin in the goods yard. It would consist of a Ganger, Sub-ganger and a group of platelayers and labourers. They would be responsible for track inspection and day to day maintenance of track, fences, vegetation control etc.
 
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