This site is intended for those who, like myself, have a keen interest in local history and the region's railway history. Although the site is 'Rail Around Birmingham' I have chosen my boundary to suit those areas that interest me so the site covers a wide area - see the 'Regional Map' link. My eventual aim is to have visited the site of every disused station and operational station in the area covered as a snapshot of the current state of the railways in this part of the West Midlands. However, this is going to take some time to complete so for now not all stations have been visited. It has been an eye-opening experience when researching for the site just how much of our railways we have lost in this region and it has also been quite nostalgic for me to visit sites I remember from my youth - if only I'd had a camera then!

Out Now! Volume 1 of a three-part Rail Around Birmingham book series, covers all the station sites within the County Borough of Birmingham as of 1948. The book contains over 200 photographs, with many previously unpublished historical photographs and photographs of my own that have not been displayed on this website. The book is broken in to chapter so you can travel line by line, visiting all the stations, past and present. Order your copy HERE!

There are two methods of navigation around the site:

• Click on the 'Regional Map' tab at the top of the page. This will bring up a map of the whole area covered by this site with all its stations past and present. Clicking on the stations will open a page of information and photos on that particular site.

• Use the two drop-down menus above-right: 'Operational Stations' and 'Abandoned Stations'. Click on the station of your choice and you will be taken to that page (note: only those stations for which the photographs and information are prepared are shown).

I hope the site is of some interest and I would love to receive feedback - please use my Contact page. Anyone with any interesting photos or who know of glaring omissions/errors, please let me know: I'm not overly familiar with some of the lines and am sure to make the odd mistake! Also, a big thank you to everyone who has used the site and given me feedback since the site originally went live in July 2003: especially Paul Walker (see links) for his long-standing interest and encouragement, Andrew Smith (see Links) for advice and for loaning me a 1947 OS map, Steve Jones for allowing me to use some old photographs from his collection and Mark Norton (see Links) for all of the above!