Sunday, November 4, 2007

Steaming into Sutton (4) - Town Watering Hole




Sutton Town station was opened in 1879 and closed in 1924. The old station site is on the boundary of Sutton Coldfield town centre, about half a mile east of the old Sutton Park station.
The station buildings still exist and are used as offices, but the railway is now fenced off from them. So it was a surprise to find that the tour loco was to be watered here. The train came to a halt, still on the down main line with freightliners and coal trains whizzing by on the up line, orange-jacketed men appeared from all sides, a stepladder was thrown over the fence and a water pipe connected up to a fire hydrant on the other side of Midland Drive !
All great stuff and well done to the Steam Trust and Network Rail for this unusual photo oppurtunity (which was however hampered by a thick hedgerow...).
I took a few pics but couldn't hang around to see the actual filling up of the tank, as I had to get to Streetly asap for the beast shots !

1 comment:

BEN CRUACHAN said...

As you suggest, great work by all involved. Nice to see that it can all still be arranged in this day and age! Super shots.