Park Tours

Saturday 24th April saw two railtours routed via the Sutton Park line. First up was 67005 Queen's Messenger working Northern Belle's 'Harrogate Spring Flower Show'. This was closely followed by 47787 Windsor Castle & 47786 Roy Castle OBE working top 'n' tail on Green Express Railtours 'The Devonian'.

Pink Floyd On Tour

56312 + 56311 are caught at Streetly Gate taking 86232 to Worcester Yard from Crewe. The Class 86 had been at Crewe for tyre turning and is due to be exported from the UK.

Tractor Transfer

37516 is seen passing Streetly working 5Z37 Crewe to Tyseley.

The Great Britain III

Due to planned industrial action by Network Rail signallers the Great Britain III railtour was diverted via the Sutton Park line. 44871 and 70013 Oliver Cromwell are caught shortly after leaving a water stop at Streetly. This was the Bristol to Preston leg of this epic journey on Thursday 8th April.

Following close behind was 47760 which would provide assitance if required.

Photo's by I Jennings

37419 bids farewell to Pleck Junction.

DB Schenker liveried 37419 was in the consist of 6D44 Bescot ES - Toton on Tuesday 6 April. Also along for the ride was 67011, both locos had arrived at Bescot from Crewe on Monday.

D44 is regularly used to move locos to the Nottinghamshire depot, 66160 doing the honours here.

37419 was one of the two Class 37s repainted into DB colours last year, 670 being the other, for a short-lived last few weeks in service looking very smart. Sadly they are both now out of use.

Will this old machine ever power up again....?

Brushed Aside

Brush Type 4 47525 is snapped en route to Kingsbury EMR early this afternoon, presumably for scrapping.

WCRC Class 47s 47851/D1648 'Traction Magazine' and 47787 'Windsor Castle' were top-and-tailing the move, both loco's returning light back to Carnforth afterwards.
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Blue Monday

37087 seen making yet another appearance today. Coupled to 37423 the pair of Type 3s are caught in Sutton Park with 6M56 Berkeley - Crewe, comprising flask number 60 (once again).

70003

Fisheye lens image of new Freightliner Powerhaul loco 70003 on Streetly Gate foot crossing this morning, with the returning 4Z70 empty coal hoppers from Rugeley PS to Stoke Gifford.

Rail Machinery

Glowing Growlers

37603 + 37607 pass Ryecroft Junction working 6M56 Berkeley to Crewe.

Taking Back The Empties

70002 working 4Z70 08:53 Rugeley Power Station to Stoke Gifford through Streetly.

Shed Scenes

A selection of Class 66's seen around Streetly Gate include:-

66087 working 6D44 Bescot to Toton on 22nd Feb

66568 working 4L78 on 22nd Feb

66426 on 23rd Feb

66502 working 4L78 on 23rd Feb

66303 working 4D30 Ironbridge to Chaddesden on 23rd Feb

Demelza In The Park

Colas Rail's 47749 Demelza is caught working 0Z47 Stoke to Washwood Heath at Streetly on the 22nd February.

Turning Blue

It freezing cold conditions, 37087 Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 40th Anniversary 1968-2008 hauls a stone blower in the consist of 6Z16 Doncaster to Ashford. The move is caught at Streetly Gate crossing.

Sutton Steamers

70013 Oliver Cromwell and 30777 Sir Lamiel head through Streetly working 5Z27 08:03 Heywood to Tyseley.

Seventies galore

Not content with new Powerhaul loco 70006 working empty coal hoppers through the Park Lime Pits, Daw End on 27th January, two weeks later the same 4Z70 service was doubled-up with 70003 + 70002, albeit in much duller conditions.

Snow lay all around...

The Blues...

37087 + 37510 speed across Sutton Park with the 6M56 Berkeley - Crewe flask on Friday 5th February. Great to see blue DRS 37s in daylight once more !

Streetly Gates

Low-resolution shot showing the former wooden BR crossing gates as they appeared circa 1990.

Sutton Park 1995

Martin High spent a pleasant afternoon at Sutton Park old station on 21st March 1995, a good variety of trains and loco's being seen. This was shortly before the old station buildings were demolished.

Here are -

47525 with a down MGR.
31548 + 31514 on the up line with an engineers working.
56092 on the down with another MGR coal train.

Many thanks to Martin and Transport Topics for permission to reproduce these colour images.

Signalbox rediscovered - Penns Goods Frame

This 1940's Ordnance Survey map clearly shows the legend SB - Signal Box, at the site of Penns Goods Yard along the Sutton Park line at Walmley, at the bottom right corner of the map. Personally i've never heard any reference to this box, but it was called Penns Goods Frame, and controlled operations within the yard, being taken out of use around fifty years ago. Other references on the map include the siting of old semaphore Signal Posts (SP) and Mile Posts (MP), as well as the former Penns (for Walmley) Station, and the Benchmark Hunter will no doubt be pleased to see various benchmarked bridges etc dotted around the map (BM), though quite a few of the old brickwork structures have now been replaced with boring modern concrete bridges.

Penns Goods Yard was taken out of use shortly after January 1965 when the stations along the route were closed under the Beeching axe, despite being a profitable depot dealing in animal foodstuffs and coal for local merchants, and formerly steel traffic. The yard was serviced by Trip 51 from Water Orton, coal wagons often being taken forward to Aldridge and Walsall Wood.

The timeless Michael Mensing photo was taken on the Saturday afternoon of 5th September 1959, and shows an eastbound up mixed parcels train passing the site of the former Penns Goods Frame signal box (at the Ashurst Road bridge), heading towards Park Lane Junction behind 4-6-0 75022. At left can be seen part of the Penns Goods depot and small yard, and in the background is Eachelhurst Road bridge, in the days before the footbridge was fitted alongside.

I recently found out that the original Midland Railway wooden boxboard from Penns Goods Frame survived, it was sold via the GWR railway auctions concern in May 2006, and went for a measly £40.....

Outlook Foggy...

Video frame capture of 66599 looming out of the icy fog and ground snow earlier this afternoon with the 4E72 coal empties from Rugeley to Barrow Hill.

Merry Christmas !

66304 appears

A smattering of pre-Christmas snow has fallen on the Park as Fastline 66304 makes her way east early this afternoon with 4D30 Ironbridge - Chaddesden coal empties.

RHTT

As the railway autumn leaf-fall season has now come to an end I thought i'd post this shot taken a month ago of a jetter/sandite MPV hard at work passing through Streetly.

Testing Pleck

Having passed Pleck Junction and with the sun glinting off the rails, locomotives 31459 + 31602 head for Walsall platform 3 with the Mentor pantograph coach early this afternoon.