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New Street Station 1967 - 2014

hi
to my reconing new street station as as three make overs in my life
and i beleive they are gonna change it again so you can add more picto your collection mark there is ones from the old rear entrance to the station with the old waiting rooms
and the front [ main entrance] but i surpose its needed now with the volume of trains
we have today compared with the old puffers [ steam and smoke ] i used to train spot up at monument rd train station from the bridge and then i got daring and went down the side in cope street to the sheds and walked in amongest the steamers
always on a sunday when no one was around one sunday some kids came in a stole a tin of the detornaters and they walked around the st spring field st and stour st puting them under bricks and then throwing another one on top to make it go bang
have a nice day every body ,astonion
 
I'm sure you've all heard the news that the go-ahead has been given for a multi million pound revamp of the station, it occurs to me that we need to create a comprehensive photographic record of what its like NOW as after the revamp it will be HISTORY !! Maybe years down the line ( no pun intended !) people will be looking at those photos and thanking the folks who took them, just as WE do with the pics of the old brum which WE remember all those years ago. So come on ladies and gents, get out yer Nikons and yer Canons etc and lets get cracking !! TIME MARCHES ON !!!!
 
you are of course quite right colin...it would be nice to go and take some pics of the station...i have to to into town next week so i will make a start...good idea that....

lyn:):)
 
What ???? a glass cathedral to replace the Pallisades ??? LOL I guess the platforms will still be claustrophobic and underground though -
 
From what I can see theyre just improving the shopping center, no new platforms or new lines. What with New St station and Digbeth Coach station we a a laughing stock.
 
I think the inherant problem with new St station is that it was built in a cutting. Without ,probably imposible, amount of re construction I doubt if it will ever be any better.

The far superior Snow Hill was a much better bet but I believe the steelwork was in poor condition, I seem to remember reading this somewhere, unless it was an invention by those who had vested interests elswhere.
 
Hi,
The revamp at New Street will put a very 21st century gloss - and admittedly a much needed one:rolleyes: - on Brum's main rail link, but in real terms with the site problems I can't see it making a significant difference to the throughput of trains.
One truly significant improvement will be in accessability by physically disabled, in particular those reliant on wheelchair use. I've witnessed the current 'provision' a few times and it's hardly believeable that when the present design was put together it was considered suitable on that score.
Bill Parker said:
I think the inherant problem with new St station is that it was built in a cutting. Without ,probably imposible, amount of re construction I doubt if it will ever be any better.

The far superior Snow Hill was a much better bet but I believe the steelwork was in poor condition, I seem to remember reading this somewhere, unless it was an invention by those who had vested interests elswhere.
Click to expand...
The Snow Hill revamp from 1912 was very much restricted in a similar way by the GWR not being able to do anything about widening Snow Hill tunnel or extending the station over Livery Street and/or Snow Hill thoroughfares. Taking the platforms northward beyond Great Charles Street was the only realistic solution then, and it's hard to see how there could have been any better option now if the station in that form had survived.
With internal politics at BR and the financial situation then Snow Hill was pretty much doomed to be left to rot, with the electrification of the route through New Street being the last nail in the coffin. With the lack of significant maintenance it was only a matter of time, the station was even reportedly "falling" down Snow Hill by 1974 - these problems could have been avoided if there had been the finances and forward thinking to invest in it.
I've always felt that Brum deserves two purposeful and architecturally significant rail gateways - we are still the 'second city' aren't we ;) , with this refurbishment we'll have one that at least looks the part:smile2:

Regards, Gerry.
 
Hey guys, does anyone knows if New St Station shut down its services during 1960s reconstruction or not? Any substitution of traffic were being adopted at that time? I'm really curious about it. Thanks~:)
 
New Street was operational throughout because the MR section and LNWR sections were rebuilt under a phased programme but at one point during reconstruction there was a critical point when both portions were affected simultaneously. At this point in time the station handled only a few local and cross-country services with Snow Hill and the former GWR route being the main provider of London services.

If you look at my website on New Street you will note the extent of the rebuilding and how limiting it was on operations. Visit https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/bhamnewstreet_part6.htm for a view of the station during this period in the 1960s.
 
Thank you very much, mikemusson.
You are right, on east side there must be a joint on tracks which is different from the division on west.
I think taking trains in the construction enviornment could be a terrible feeling...
 
6886953414_dc8cd88e5e_b.jpg

Are the circle of telephones still there ?? it use to be my point of meeting when meeting anyone off the train .
ragga :courage:
 
Seems incredible Ragga to have that many public 'phones available, how times change. Spent many Sunday afternoons sitting on those benches waiting for the train back to London. There was a ticket office to the left of those benches where you could buy longer distance tickets. Local tickets were bought at the ticket booths. This was in pre ticket machine days. The place always seemed to have a cold atmosphere, not a place to spend too much time in. Viv.
 
Just take a look at this artists impression. Doesn't it look glamorous and bang up to date. But, I don't think it ever really looked that swish! And it certainly wasn't that clean looking for long either. In my memory it always seemed to smell of chips and was quite dark, not bright and airy as suggested in the drawing. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1362336504.704623.jpg
 
I think this picture is of the Pallisades is it not? The escalator takes you down to the main station. I agree Viv that it did not look that good or that clean. Although this is how it was, it was not quite as crisp looking as this. Call me a dinasaur, but I prefer the old one!!!
 
Hi Shortie. I remember the very lowest level (at the bottom of that lower escalator) which brought you onto a concourse in front of train ticket barriers. And I remember the first level; if you came back up on that escalator it brought you out opposite what was Gino's restaurant on the first level. If you walked to the left it led to the ramp onto Stephenson Place. If you went to the right you could get to the bridge over Smallbrook Queensway which got you into the Bull Ring. But I have no idea where the other (top) escalator went. In fact I don't remember another escalator. Viv.
 
Hi Viv - actually, now you mention it, neither do I - unless of course it went to the car park? I am positive this is the level where the shops were (I have not got a clue what shops were there originally except, perhaps for Woolworths), and I also cannot visualise another escalator going upwards. Perhaps there was only one there in the original design, that never got built? I remember going to a shop there with my friend, in the far corner, it was a grocery shop, (was it Asda?) probably around 1968/69. Not long after, she moved to Tamworth, and we followed in 1972.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Just take a look at this artists impression. Doesn't it look glamorous and bang up to date. But, I don't think it ever really looked that swish! And it certainly wasn't that clean looking for long either. In my memory it always seemed to smell of chips and was quite dark, not bright and airy as suggested in the drawing. Viv.

View attachment 84803
Click to expand...

I don't think that version ever happened in New St Station. If nothing else, they never had a second level of shops. The escalator from the station goes up into the Pallasades but there's nowhere above that. The escalators down to the platforms are at the other side of the station concourse beyond the barriers. On the other hand, there's a shop called "Maxx" that's on the other side of the station approach from the station but still on the Queensway. It has an escalator arrangement just like that and I think they have access to the Bull Ring bridge from the upper floor. I can't remember what that shop was called before the rebuild. I'm not even sure that it was open to the public before they rebuilt the bullring.
 
shortie
I think it was Asda, though called associated Dairies then (?). I didn't think woolworths had an entrance over the station. It had one onto the open bull ring and onto the lower floor of the inside bullring. Then you went on an escalator to to the upper floor and then another to the bridge, which led to the (later) Pallisades.
 
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