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.

Old days

Another rare view of a train hard at work on the Walsall Wood branch during the 1950s.

The 16-ton mineral wagons are pictured close to Leighswood Road (Aldridge), the scene of a derailment in late August 1960 when engine number 44333 went down the embankment (see post of March 21st 2009).

Copyright unknown.

Tornado

A shot from 20th October showing the new-build 60163 'Tornado' coasting down through the outskirts of Rushall towards Ryecroft Junction.

Switch panel wagons

6D44 Bescot - Toton with tilting points switch-panel wagons in the consist, led by 66114 on 27th November.

60074

60074 'Teenage Spirit' seen in heavy rain at Walsall Cement Depot, and also running light past Streetly on 7th November.

66066

66066 + 66107 steam through the Hardwick Crossing on 4th November with 6D44 Bescot - Toton and a fine rake of old wooden-bodied engineering wagons.

Kicking up the dust on 23rd October was 66069 with 4G53 empty cartics heading down to Bescot.

60074 again

A cement dust-covered 60074 seen at the Hardwick Crossing on 23rd October with the 6M82 empties from Walsall.

60009

60009 caught working the 6M82 cement empties, thundering through Hardwick Crossing on 4th November.

The new Freightliner Class 70

...70001 seen running over the Park line in gloomy weather on a training run today.
.

Friday The 13th

66060 passes the site of Aldridge Town Station with the 6E08 steel working on the 13.11.09

Class 20s restored

Having been refurbished at Eastleigh, DRS Type One's 20304 + 20305 are caught being returned to Crewe by 37609 on the afternoon of 24th September. Hopefully the Class 20s will be seen working flask trains once more.

Streetly Station

A rare shot of Streetly Station from around 100 years ago. The photographer was standing on the upside platform looking towards Walsall.

On the downside platform can be seen part of Streetly Signalbox (extreme left), which was the first box to close along this route, prior to the 1950s. The box stood on an island platform, a loop running off the down main passing behind the signalbox.

A fine set of Midland Railway gas lamps and semaphore signals can also be seen. The main station buildings, a typical design for this line, are on the upside at right, and existed until the mid-1990s.

Copyright unknown.

R.A.F.

This chappie passed over Daw End on the afternoon of 1st September so I thought i'd get a shot in, lest it be some sort of experimental loco on a proving test...

SVR Here We Come!

Making their way to this weekend's Severn Valley Railway diesel gala are 47580 and 37264 working 0Z37 10:04 Tyseley to Kidderminster. Photo taken on 6th October 2009.

Leighswood Aerial

The main item of interest in this aerial view of Shelfield circa 1930 is that the dark shape of the single track Leighswood branch can be made out (just about !) on the extreme right of the picture.

In the bottom right hand corner the railway passes under Four Crosses Road (no trace of this bridge exists today), and continues upwards under the Lichfield Road (where one bridge wall currently remains). The line then heads dead straight towards Stubbers Green Road (near top right) which it passed by means of an overbridge. No trace remains of this bridge today, a mini-roundabout occupying the site. The railway line then curves to the right and just off-photo it split into two, the left hand track running to various Aldridge brickworks and the other line continuing across to Stubbers Green Colliery (which closed very early in the 20th century) and eventually to it's terminus at Aldridge No.2 Colliery at Leighswood (known as the "bare bones pit").

Lichfield Road crosses the photo diagonally from top left to bottom right, and viewers familiar with the area will recognise the Four Crosses pub. The Spring Cottage pub at the crossroads isn't really visible in this view.

Photo by Aerofilms (1930).

Nick Broome took this fine shot of 97304+97301 working 5Z97, a Network Rail test train running from Derby to Shrewsbury, seen here approaching Ryecroft Jcn on 29th September.

Crompton Charter

John Edkins took this cool shot of WCRC Crompton Class 33 33207 working the "Merry-le-Bone" railtour past Wylde Green on 5th September.

This class of loco was built at BRCW Smethwick, Birmingham but are now fairly rare visitors to the Midlands.

Nene Valley 706

66706 "Nene Valley" is seen thundering across the Park on 7th August with Petrochem tanks for Stoke Marcroft.

Rarely-seen Fastline Type 5 66305 is snapped at Streetly on 7th August with a returning train of empty coal hoppers from Rugeley Power Station.

Electric convoy about town

56311 is seen passing Ryecroft Junction on Wednesday 16th September with a convoy of electric locomotives en route Long Marston - Crewe, the first time such a convoy has passed this way, the usual route being via Bescot.

Of special interest is the last loco in the line-up, 86401 "Northampton Town" (originally AEI 1966-built loco E3199), which has been restored in Network South East colours...

60011 at Sutton Park

A great shot of Mainline-liveried blue 60011 working the Walsall - Tunstead cement empties through the old Sutton park station, 27th August, by the Flying Ferret.

Lighting the way

66612 is seen heading for Bescot with 6G16 from Stud Farm with a rake of 70-tonne loaded stone hoppers on 7th August.

Class 37 Infrastructure return..

The ever popular 37670 was surprise traction for one of last weekends Bescot DS - Hamstead and return ballast trips in partnership with 37401. Here the pair pass Walsall PSB on their way back to Bescot on Sunday 30 August.