Severn Valley Railway Autumn Gala

Double-headed 41241 and 46443

This Saturday, 26th September 2009, I had a change and visited the Severn Valley Railway for their Autumn Gala.  Beautiful Autumn sunshine and 13 locos steaming, some resident and some visitors – a brilliant day. 

Bradley Manor

The event ran from Friday morning until Sunday evening non-stop! It was certainly well attended on Saturday with a number of trains full to capacity.5764 leaving Bridgnorth

Great Northern Railway Class N2 0-6-2T No.1744

The stations were shown at their best too.

The Bridgnorth to Hampton Loade shuttle with 5764 in charge waiting in sidings for the big boys to come through!The favourite on the day – 43106

The roping-off of the area in front of the shed at Bridgnorth was well done.  It showed visitors where they could go rather than where they couldn’t!  Nice to get up close and personal to the locos!!

Don’t forget the first visit by ‘Tornado’ to the Severn Valley Railway,

24th October to 1st November.

The Colonel Worksplate – Museum Addition

One of the latest acquisitions of the Museum is the worksplate from Hudswell Clarke loco 1073/1914 0-6-0ST  ‘The Colonel’. Ordered by Houghton Main Colliery Co.Ltd., Yorkshire on William Harrison’s behalf, the Colonel was probably delivered new to Brownhills.

The loco was named after Colonel Harrison, Chairman of Harrison’s Grove Colliery.  He was also Chairman of Cannock & Rugeley Colliery.

After a spell at Area Central Workshops – May 1960 to June 1961, went back to Grove then to Coppice Colliery at Heath Hayes for a few months in 1963 before transfer to Granville Colliery in November 1963.

All we need now is to re-unite the worksplate with the nameplate.Pictured at Granville Colliery, 12-6-1964

Christmas is a comin’

Santa won’t be long, now!

With his friend Meccano Joe

It’s time to think about booking for your visit:  go to

http://www.chaserail.com

for your booking form or ring 01543 452623

To see the Meccano working, use the link to youtube

and enter ‘meccano’ in the search box

Brownhills L & NWR Station and Buses

I’ve been familiar with this station since the late 1940s when I used to go to school in Lichfield by steam hauled train.  In the early 1960s I started work in Walsall and used the train in the opposite direction, to Walsall, but by that time steam had virtually disappeared and diesel had taken over.

Looking in the other direction, towards Walsall, the second arch of the

bridge can be made out.  This did indeed lead to the canal basins and the Wyrley And Essington canal, and sidings on both sides of the main line.This unusual picture shows some of the sidings, looking back towards Brownhills Station in the Lichfield direction.  Goods were unloaded by the building on the left-hand side and delivered by Scammell Scarab hauled lorries.The exit from the goods yard was difficult enough in those days – at the junction of Pelsall Road and Chester Road, virtually on the corner.  Just as well there was not much traffic about back then!

These maps shows the line to the canal basins, passing the bus garage on the way.

London & North-Western Railway Buses

On 1^st October 1912 the London & North-Western Railway introduced a bus service between Brownhills, Norton Canes and Hednesford using two Milnes Daimler double-decker buses purchased second-hand 3 years previously from the Associated Omnibus Co., London.

The following year, on the 16^th June, a variant of the above service began running via Chasetown and Chase Terrace and additional buses, double-decker Commers were sent to Brownhills.

Painted in standard coaching colours of chocolate and milk, buses carried the company name or initials on the front, back and sides of the top deck and displayed the company Coat of Arms on the sides of the lower deck.

The majority of the LNWR bus services in various parts of England and Wales were withdrawn on 17^th April 1915, both Brownhills services included.  The decision to withdraw services being brought about by the continued ‘call-up’ of staff for military service and the probability of buses being commandeered by the War Office.

Museum Exhibit No.488

Brick from F.H.Gordon, Brownhills

It may seem strange thing for a railway museum to have a collection of bricks, but bearing in mind that Chasewater Railway runs on what is left of the mineral railways of the district and they were used for moving coal and a lot of pits had their own brickworks, maybe you can see the connection!  This particular brick had us guessing, as none of us could remember a brickworks in Brownhills.

It seems that the Brownhills Brick Works was near the present Clayhanger Bridge and had wharves on the canal for loading.  Among its products was ‘our’ building brick.

The brick works were started by Francis Harry Gordon in the 1870s, the area having a 30ft measure of clay.  The buildings included three drying sheds, the largest measuring 150ft x 30ft and had a cast iron plated floor.  The neighbouring Walsall Wood Colliery Brick Works undercut the price of F.H.Gordon and the Brick Works closed in 1896.  (Which is probably why none of us can remember it!)

Industrial Gala

Sunday 13th September

The second day highlight in the heritage centre was this six coupled diesel loco – it’s just a pity more people didn’t see it.  As I said yesterday, our visitors don’t like walking round to the back door.  There were times when there was no loco movement in the vicinity and it would have been safe to cross – if only we had a Station Master on duty to control the crossing.  It would surely be a quite simple task for someone with an understanding of the timetable.  To continue the now regular moan about station staff, it does seem absolutely ridiculous that the railway has a Gala, with a fairly complex timetable, and no-one on duty on the platform, in uniform to help our paying passengers.  Earlier in the year, were five people not appointed Station Masters – what has happened to them?

One is now a valued member of the museum staffBut that still leaves four!

As for the Gala attendance, it didn’t seem to be as busy as you would expect  – not what you would hope for with such good weather.  A lot of work went into the Gala, especially by the train crews, but with no different locos on show, interest seemed to be lacking.  Also there were a quite a few other events held over this weekend.

The highlight of the running locos was, for me at any rate, the re-appearance of the ‘Bass No.5’ diesel engine – nice to see it back in the yard.

The narrow gauge ran demonstration trains for a while, but, with no passenger facility, didn’t seem to generate much interest among the public on this occasion.

The museum also continued to suffer low numbers, with just an occasional burst of activity, in spite of having the Industrial Railway Society’s Eric Tonks nameplate collection on show.I hope that passenger figures prove me wrong as to the overall ‘feel’ of the Gala, but after the great success of the 50th Anniversary bash it felt a little flat.It’s a frame-up!!

Thank You

A quick thank you to whoever returned my tripod case – lost as mentioned in yesterday’s post – and handed in to Brownhills West Station.  Much appreciated.

Industrial Gala

Saturday 12th SeptemberGetting steam up!

The first day of the Industrial Gala and beautiful warm sunshine – couldn’t be better!  Once timetables were available and things started moving, everything seemed to run very well and right on schedule.For the first time for a number of years we had the Western Re-enactment Group showing what they could do.  They certainly enjoy themselves and try to ensure that spectators enjoy it too!  Everyone knew that they were there – those guns had no silencers!!

There were the usual passenger, coal and freight trains, together with the popular push-and-pull with Asbestos and Colin McAndrew in action with the riding van and a brake van.The only down-side as far as I could see was the number of visitors to the museum.  Whenever our visitors have to walk around the platform instead of entering the Heritage Centre via the crossing, it seems that they just won’t do it – numbers today were well down on recent weeks, enthusiasts come to see us but not ordinary passengers.   Perhaps it will be better tomorrow if the narrow gauge is running demonstration trains.Bearing in mind that Sundays are nearly always better-attended than Saturdays, and the weather forecast is still exceptional, we should be very busy tomorrow.

Finally, somewhere in the region of Lakeside Station and Chasewater Heaths, the carrying case for my tripod went missing, if anyone should have picked it up, would you please hand it in to either Chasewater Heaths or Brownhills West Station?  Thank you.

Maryport & Carlisle Coach

Maryport & Carlisle Railway Coach

Shown here after restoration in the 1970s.

Built in 1875 by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon works.

This six wheel, five compartment coach is believed to be the only remaining vehicle of the Maryport & Carlisle Railway.

It was sold out of main line service about 1922 to the Cannock& Rugeley Colliery Co. to form part of the ‘Paddy Train’ to ferry miners from Hednesford to the Cannock Wood pit.

Maryport & Carlisle Railway

The Maryport & Carlisle Railway was incorporated in 1837, and absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish (LMS) Railway as from 1/1/1923.

The mainline from Maryport to Carlisle was completed in February 1845.  The line was 42 miles long, 28 miles of which was double track.

Among the rolling stock were 31 locos, 51 carriages and 1404 goods wagons.

Manchester, Sheffield & Lincoln Coach

Manchester Sheffield & Lincoln Railway Carriage

This six wheel Composite Brake Coach was built in 1890 at Gorton.

The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincoln Railway became part of the Great Central Railway connecting it to London (Marylebone) at about the turn of the century, and later became the L.N.E.R.

The carriage was used on the line near York known as the “Easingwold Light Railway” until retired in 1949, and then left on a siding to suffer the effects of the weather.

The Railway Preservation Society rescued the coach in the 1960s and stored it for restoration.

This vehicle came to Chasewater and is at present under restoration following an internal fire.

MS & L Coach at Easingwold with J72 Class loco, 1947/48

Manchester, Sheffield & Lincoln Railway

The Company was first formed in 1847 as the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincoln Railway to run services from New Holland (Lincs.) to Hull.

On its extension to London in 1899 it became the Great Central Railway.  It gave a good service to London for such places as Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester and Rugby.

The line ran from Annesley North Junction to Quainton Road, and from Harrow to London – Marylebone.