• 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

Snow Hill Station

Richard Dye said:
WOW! What a wonderful picture Pete…..

Do you know where it was taken and is the photo commercially available?
Click to expand...
Hi Richard

It was taken at Carrog station on the Llangollen steam railway, lovely spot. I am in regular touch with a former footplateman who used to work out of Aberystwyth on these "Manor" class locomotives. So glad that so many of these excellent engines have been preserved so that we can enjoy views like that of Pete's.
 
mw0njm. said:
berwyn station,

a more modern CCE double header 2 37s:(But a great sound and when they go over the barmouth bridge it shakes
Cambrian-Coast-RW-Jones-1.jpg
Click to expand...
The reason for the Yellow 37s is that the in-cab signalling system on the Cambrian Coast Line restricts the trains which can work the line. I believe Network Rail has 4 37s which are fitted with the special signalling system so that they can carry out PWay work.
 
TerryD147 said:
Hi Richard

It was taken at Carrog station on the Llangollen steam railway, lovely spot. I am in regular touch with a former footplateman who used to work out of Aberystwyth on these "Manor" class locomotives. So glad that so many of these excellent engines have been preserved so that we can enjoy views like that of Pete's.
Click to expand...
Hello Terry,

Thank you for that information! I did look the station on line but nothing about the Llangollen steam railways. I am familiar with Llangollen (60years ago), I had an aunt who had a sheep and dairy farm we would visit.
I really miss those old trains, particularly GWR and am a big fan of Brunel!

Thank you for the insight……
 
DavidGrain said:
The reason for the Yellow 37s is that the in-cab signalling system on the Cambrian Coast Line restricts the trains which can work the line. I believe Network Rail has 4 37s which are fitted with the special signalling system so that they can carry out PWay work.
Click to expand...

european Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)​




Lineside signals have been replaced with in-cab signalling, and automatic train protection has been implemented. The project will reduce costs, improve performance and enhance safety. ERTMS is being rolled out on the Great Western Main Line as part of the large-scale re-signalling and route electrification; on Thameslink to support the achievement of 24 trains per hour operation through Central London and then on the East Coast Mainline to improve capacity and accommodate new rolling stock.
We have built an ERTMS National Integration Facility to support ETCS development, simulation and dynamic testing
n November 2008 the locomotive was named 'John Tiley', honouring the former Network Rail Engineering Manager and worked on the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Early Deployment Scheme over the Cambrian lines in Wales; the pilot project for Level 2 deployment on other parts of the UK network. European Train Control System (ETCS)
maxresdefault.jpg
 
I see post 868 has been corrected by post 875
As the image of the two locomotives heading the Cambrian Coast Express is at Berwyn Station., beside the River Dee. The Cambrian Coast Express, in BR days, travelled by Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury where the train reversed to use the former Cambrian Railway lines (from Welshpool).

In later times, the train would be hauled by a diesel to Shrewsbury and steam locomotives, usually Standard 75xxx locomotives took over for the leg along the Welsh Coast.

The Llangollen Railway formed part of a separate Great Western Railway route from Ruabon to Barmouth. This was also a very scenic line, but only parts are now heritage railways. Bala Lake & Llangollen Railway. With the Llangollen financial problems have been an issue of late.
 
TerryD147 said:
Hi Richard

It was taken at Carrog station on the Llangollen steam railway, lovely spot. I am in regular touch with a former footplateman who used to work out of Aberystwyth on these "Manor" class locomotives. So glad that so many of these excellent engines have been preserved so that we can enjoy views like that of Pete's.
Click to expand...
I wish I hadn't been such a smart-ar*e to claim that Berwyn station was Carrog. What a mistake-a-to make. Perhaps I should engage brain before releasing gob!?
 
Found some more photos from the 80's - in colour!!
Firstly - the poster in post #858:-
1635927559477.png

Next - 3 photographs from the goods yard undercroft, just before it was demolished:-
1635927676082.png
1635927720908.png
1635927768944.png

Next the shops and industrial units on the Snow Hill side of the station -the "Leprosy Mission" sign looks like it was just painted over the top of "The Birmingham Power Transmissions Ltd":-
1635927904478.png

Finally - from the station itself - taken from Gt. Charles St bridge - possibly around the end of platform 8? 2 of the new building are already up - this was not long before the track was re-laid and the new station was built:-
1635928059595.png

I have also found lots of (very sad!!) photos of the stations final demolition - I will post these in due course - as a taster here is the "Leprosy Mission / Bham Power Transmissions" sign in the photo 2 above:-
1635928274663.png
 
Your photographs of Snow Hill are a fantastic record Mark. I don't think you've said whether you took them yourself. If so, you clearly had an eye for a good picture.

Someone above has commented how these images almost made them weep for what has been lost and it is strange the power they have to take us back the best part of half a century and more. I guess these sights are buried deep in our memories and in seeing them we are returned to another time.
 
tomkil said:
Your photographs of Snow Hill are a fantastic record Mark. I don't think you've said whether you took them yourself. If so, you clearly had an eye for a good picture.

Someone above has commented how these images almost made them weep for what has been lost and it is strange the power they have to take us back the best part of half a century and more. I guess these sights are buried deep in our memories and in seeing them we are returned to another time.
Click to expand...
Yes I did take them myself - the negatives were "mislaid" for many years but I recently "rediscovered" them. We lived local to the station in those days so I regularly wondered in to see what I could find. Today you would not be allowed to wander in and photograph from the bottom of lift shafts up to the platforms above like this one I guess.....
1635935439380.png
You would HAVE to wear a hi-viz jacket that would protect you if it collapsed on your head.........
 
I and a friend travelled on the last train day from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low level and back. While in Snow Hill we were routing among the debris in one of the offices and came across a cast iron kettle with BR (W) on it. We left it because it wasn't a GWR kettle. I have regretted that ever since.
 
tomkil said:
Your photographs of Snow Hill are a fantastic record Mark. I don't think you've said whether you took them yourself. If so, you clearly had an eye for a good picture.

Someone above has commented how these images almost made them weep for what has been lost and it is strange the power they have to take us back the best part of half a century and more. I guess these sights are buried deep in our memories and in seeing them we are returned to another time.
Click to expand...
tomill, very well said! Looking at them made me feel I had returned to many yesterday's. I loved to go to that place an$ spend the day looking at trains and train stuff!
Thank you!
 
Mark Tooze said:
Yes I did take them myself - the negatives were "mislaid" for many years but I recently "rediscovered" them. We lived local to the station in those days so I regularly wondered in to see what I could find. Today you would not be allowed to wander in and photograph from the bottom of lift shafts up to the platforms above like this one I guess.....
View attachment 163265
You would HAVE to wear a hi-viz jacket that would protect you if it collapsed on your head.........
Click to expand...
Great photos and I agree . But I think it might be the safety helmet that would protect you, not the Hi-Viz jacket
 
A touring gallery in a railway coach at Snow Hill Station. It showed images of the role of the railways in the exit from Dunkirk. The display brought to mind, for me, the exhibition in more recent years of the images from the Phyllis Nicklin collection at the station. Thereby making a period of history or past events more accessible to a high level of footfall. Viv,

0F8779AC-22B4-41AD-817D-BAE601D5565F.jpegEFB5DB1B-0965-451C-84BC-E50E7AC04753.jpeg
 
Thanks very much for these Images they bought back special memories of when
we left Birmingham to go to Australia.
I presume we left from this Station to go to Southampton and board a ship there
I remember walking near a station very much like this, with my parents and brothers
and sister with our suitcases and being asked by a man, were we going on holidays to
which we replied ( with a big grin on our faces ) no we are going to Australia
Barry
 

Attachments

  • Snow Hill Station 2.png
    Snow Hill Station 2.png
    595.7 KB · Views: 27
I took the boat train (I think it was called) to Southampton when I came to the US, I was 19. I took a suitcase and my Moore & Wright tool box on the 29 bus from Handsworth to Snow Hill alone. The shipping company had my small trunk. When I got off the train they took my luggage and I was close to the docks on a rainy November afternoon. Then I saw a pub about 200 meters from the boat. I walked in and ordered a pint of bitter, then another and another. When I boarded the boat I made a few friends at the bar not much older than me, but the beer was in tiny glasses, about 1/3 or a pint.
Snow Hill was always my favorite spotting place, and then Tamworth
 
Hi Richard Dye
So It probably was Snow Hill Station we left from not far from where we lived in Lawrence St
I was only 12 years old so for me there was no drinking beer, but my dad had plenty at times
we left in June 1959 on the ship Fairsky no school for 5 weeks, plenty of swimming in the pool
My older brother used to go to Handsworth Technical School for a while before we left
Do you still live in the US ???
Barry
 
shorttermer said:
Hi Richard Dye
So It probably was Snow Hill Station we left from not far from where we lived in Lawrence St
I was only 12 years old so for me there was no drinking beer, but my dad had plenty at times
we left in June 1959 on the ship Fairsky no school for 5 weeks, plenty of swimming in the pool
My older brother used to go to Handsworth Technical School for a while before we left
Do you still live in the US ???
Barry
Click to expand...
Hello Barry,

I left on the SS United States in steerage in November 1962. I went to HTC on day release for ONC and started HNC. I’m still here but I have moved around with my work(engineering/management). Went to University when I got to the U S and am six sigma trained. Also met the love of my life, we are married 53 years in July.

Are you still in Australia? You left a little before me and a little younger.
 
Hi Richard
sure thing still live in Australia, Coffs Harbour NSW on the east coast, great place
I was in the building trade for many years till I retired, so were all my 4 brothers
4 carpenters and 1 bricklayer in the family
Met my wife here and have been married same as you 53 years last march
we have a grandson who is hoping to go to America soon to work in the aviation industry
for a while
 
shorttermer said:
Hi Richard
sure thing still live in Australia, Coffs Harbour NSW on the east coast, great place
I was in the building trade for many years till I retired, so were all my 4 brothers
4 carpenters and 1 bricklayer in the family
Met my wife here and have been married same as you 53 years last march
we have a grandson who is hoping to go to America soon to work in the aviation industry
for a while
Click to expand...
Hello Barry,

My first job in the US was in the aviation industry, at Curtis-Wright. I started running a lab in technical reproduction which was taking photos of the airframe drawings, lofting profiles etc., then moved to the stress group and then flight teat. I worked on the X19 a VTOL which was a forerunner of the Osprey.
Boeing has a number of facilities but if it were my grandson I would steer him toward Boeings Charleston SC plant. We had a home on the water near there and it is a wonderful place to live! Education is also abundant there which he should get.
Congratulations on almost 54 years!
Are your brothers still there?
 
Richard
rather than continue here and leave the main theme
I have started a new conversation
just with you if you wish to continue
Barry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top