Bubble Car Trainer

A route-learner for Cross Country drivers utilising a Class 121 "bubblecar" number 121034, New Street to Nuneaton via Sutton Park.

Fifty Years Today...

A two-tone green-liveried Class 47 runs alongside the pine trees near Blackroot Pool on the up line, on New Years Day 1964. The loco is showing headcode 8T64 (incorrect for a light engine), which was one of the numerous Saltley area trip workings. The photo was taken from one of the cattle arch bridges which pass under the line here. Note the old telegraph poles, long since gone! The second photo shows what became Class 25 number D5225 at Castle Bromwich, just off the Sutton Park line, also in 1964. This loco was apparently the last of the Class 25's to be renumbered, becoming 25075 in December 1974.

All Steamed Up

A Birmingham New Street to Walsall push-pull auto service stands in the down platform of Sutton Park during August 1957, while another passenger train stands on the upside. Ivatt 2MT-A engine 41220 is providing the power on the Walsall-bound service. This was the time of the World Scout Jamboree at Sutton Park, when many engines rare to the area arrived with trains from all points of the compass. The second photo shows Stanier Black 5 number 45422 shunting vans into the Post Office sidings at Sutton Park sometime during 1964. Two years later this locomotive was cut up at Cashmores, Great Bridge. Hornby have since produced a model of this very engine.