• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Moor Street Station

  • Thread starter Thread starter Langstraat
  • Start date Start date
Thanks Phil and Mike, I was referring to the terminus platforms. Some ten years ago I read a statement that Railtrack would complete this work by the end of the decade!! I live far away, and cannot check for myself.
 
Good thread pistonvalve and your uffer 1 about the Stechford branch.
I can talk bout railways around Birmingham 1950s/60s/70s
all day long ........ ragga :)
 
Going back in recent history, the tracks through the tunnel to Snow Hill were closed, and trains formerly running through the tunnel were diverted to terminate at Moor Street in about 1970, and Snow Hill was closed completely by 1974. For 15 years the tunnel was derelict, until a plan to restore the old Western cross-city railway route for local trains was adopted in 1985.
The tracks were renewed, and new platforms were built next to Moor Street station, which was abandoned when the new cross-city service recommenced in about 1987. It stood for ten years as a derelict shell until the Bull Ring rerdevelopment scheme was mooted in the late 1990s.
I believe most of the money for the restoration of Moor Street Station came from the redevelopers of the Bull Ring site who were encouraged to make their contribution on the grounds it would add to the appeal of the site.
Most of the original concourse was brought back into use, to provide access to the new platforms which have been considerably improved. But track connections to the old platforms have still not been carried out.
From the time the restoration was complete the property has been owned by Network Rail, and the station run by Chiltern Railways. It is regularly served by local services now run by London Midland (formerly Central Trains), which is subsidised by Centro, the West Midlands public transport authority. Chiltern Railways run a half-hourly service, usually from Snow Hill through to London Marylebone over the former Great Western route through Leamington, Banbury and High Wycombe.
There is an excellent web site on West Midland railway history.
Peter
 
I thought there was a plan to run the Vintage Trains Sunday Shakespeare
workings from the re-vamped Moor Street terminus.

Unfortunately, as said earlier, the platforms have never been re-connected to the network.

The Shakespeare would be more appropriate working from Moor Street
but of course there would no doubt be operational problems.
 
Thanks Ragga, Peter and Neville, That confirms my thoughts that the connections have yet to be made. At one time there was an independant single track that ran from Moor St to Tyseley in parallel with the other running lines for ECS purposes. It would be nice if any Railtrack person out there would confirm.

In the late 80's just before Snowv Hill reopened I walked through the tunnel with others. The old spur to the Bank of England inside the tunnel was still there but not connected.
 
hi all
worked at moore st goods in 62 for six weeks as a van boy would load up and then go out delivering on one of those three wheel things the blood and custard coloured ones very interesting job but only paid 18/- a week. went in the army after.
regards
paul
 
Hello there, the last time I used Moor Street was to get a train to Stratford on Avon, I went from Burton on Trent to pick up a TV dectector
van from the old Flowers brewery which had been taken over the MT part
of Royal Mail. I remember the train going thru all the old places , like
Yardley Wood where I was bought up. Mind, that was a few years ago
cheers Bernard
 
Hi all,
The delays seem to have been related to a resignalling scheme and then funding issues. Given the increasing pressures on public transport and environmental issues it surely makes sense to get the terminus platforms connected and in use sooner rather than later.

While establishing a hobby to take up some of my time due to a somewhat enforced retirement I did a little research on Moor Street Station and came across a couple of what seem to me to be well detailed articles on it.
The most complete I've found is 'Railway Archive No.1' covering the period 1894 - 1916 in 24 pages of text and photo's. There's a follow-up 2-pager in No.3 which consists of 6 captioned photo's. The website https://www.lightmoor.co.uk/railway_archive_1.htm shows issue No.1 to be 'limited stock' now.
The other publication is a long out of print book 'An Historical Survey of Selected Great Western Stations - Vol.4' by C. R. Potts which gives a very good history up until 1984 in a couple of pages. This one I've borrowed now and then through the Central Library.

Regards, Gerry.
 
Last edited:
The Building of Moor Street Station

I have just added two pages of contemporary articles from the Great Western Railway's Magazine published in 1916 and 1917 plus photos to my website on Warwickshire's Railways. They describe the building of the station's goods yards.

https://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/moorstreet.htm

I hope you find them both interesting and informative.

Regards

Mike
 
:)Hi everyone, just seen on Midlands Today, 1.30pm, a piece on Chiltern Railways filmed at Moor St station (terminus platforms.) The track-work has been lifted from the platforms. Hope this is a good omen - new track-work to be laid ready for connection to the network.
 
hi

Yes this thread will have to be re-written. With Lord adonis pumping in a £250 mil
loan to be paid back over 30 years Chiltern seen to be giving a date of 2011 foor Moor
Street to be re-connected. This should allow Steam Trains to be re-started fro there.

Mike Jenks
 
I saw the item on Midlands Today,very interesting it was too.
Attached are a few pics taken at Moor Street Station,in 1969.The connection to Snow Hill was being dismantled at the time,only for it to be reinstated some years later.The GWR signal box was demolished not long after the photos were taken,the station was then controlled from Saltley Power Box-hence the 'SY' plates on the replacement signals.
 
Moor St station has good memories for me. In 1954 I departed, with other teenagers from our road, on a train at 11.30 one Friday night and 6 hours later I was in North Devon for a marvellous two week holiday. It was my first real holiday and no parents around !!:)
 
Thanks Mike, Lloyd, Laurie_B and oldMohawk, all very interesting. I note with interest Laurie_B photos, the signal bracket has a mixture of upper! and lower (GW) signal arms. does anybody know when these upper quadrants were installed.
 
Hi pistonvalve.
Not sure of the exact date that the upper quadrant signal arms were fitted,but it must have been after BR London Midland Region took over responsibility for all the old GWR lines in Brum and the West Midlands on 1st January 1963.Moor Street Signal Box closed on 1st September 1969,the photos are dated 12th April 1969.
 
Article in the Railway Magazine May 2010, page 83 - Chiltern to reopen the terminal platforms ready for their new Marylebone service starting from May 2011 using loco hauled Mk3 coaches. Good news. The area around Moor St will become busy with the projected High Speed rail link terminus at Curzon St.
 
Did anyone read the news re opening of Moor St Terminal platforms in the Railway Magazine - page 79. Opening in December. If this time scale is correct track must be in-situ by now - anybody had a look yet? any pics?
 
Re: The Building of Moor Street Station

pistonvalve said:
Did anyone read the news re opening of Moor St Terminal platforms in the Railway Magazine - page 79. Opening in December. If this time scale is correct track must be in-situ by now - anybody had a look yet? any pics?
Click to expand...

I took the first 3 pictures below about three weeks ago, the fourth was taken in July

The first is of a general sign advertising the new "mainline" service

The second is a general view of the platforms (they were not open so this picture was taken through a fence). You can see the men in the distance working

The third is taken at the "end" of the platform, the men busy finishing the brickwork etc.

In the distance you can also see the men finishing off the section of arch / track that has been replaced after it was badly repaired after the war.

The fourth is a closer shot of the repairs on the arch / track that has been going on for months. This is just outside Moor St station, not sure of exact street name.
 
See also this from last year - there are also proposals to (eventually - last seriously considered back in 2007) open a new suburban route along the Camp Hill Line from Moor Street towards Kings Norton including stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell.
 
View attachment 60131

A rather forlorn GWR 28** Class 2-8-0 Churchward designed engine for heavy goods traffic standing at Platform 5 photographed on 20th June, 2007, when I was in Birmingham for five weeks nursing my Mum after a second hip replacement op.

June_28b29_2007_021.jpg


Ninety-nine of these engines were initially built between 1903 and 1919. This lonely, sad-looking steam locomotive however, Number 2885, was built in 1938 and was the second loco of a second batch of sixty-four built in Swindon under Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles Collett up to 1942. 2885 seems to have been reconverted to the original Churchward specifications because the Collett locomotives were built with side windows to their cabs; if one looks carefully at one of the many photographs of 2885, a panel appears to have been inserted where once there was a window (please note the bent handrail which would have followed the front and lower edges of the cab window).

Is 2885 still standing at Platform 5? Has anyone any information about her?
Thank you, David
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top