I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed when I
arrived at the site of the former MR Central Goods Station. As a child I remember the
deserted site with an array of remaining platforms, loading ramps etc . . .however, I appear
to have been a couple of years too late to see any of the remains when I took the above
photo. Furthermore, information on the station is scant at best - other than, for those of
you interested, Midland Record No.17 which carries some 30-odd pages on the history of the
station and is well worth a read - possibly due to the research prediliction for passenger
stations (perhaps they were deemed more aesthetically pleasing). The station opened in 1887
and closed in 1967. Above we see the Cross-City line cutting to New Street from Holliday
Passage today: Central Goods occupied the land to the right.
The station was fed by a high level line running parallel to Five Ways
Station which entered a tunnel emerging the other side of the left-hand wall in the picture
we see above-left off Holliday Passage. Above-right we can see the sprawling new development
taking shape on the site of the old station.
Above-left we are on the trackbed of the line to Central Goods looking
towards the site of the long-defunct Granville Street station which was cleared when the West
Suburban Railway completed its link to New Street Station and it was decided to extend the
line from Five Ways station to a new goods station. Above-right we are still on the trackbed
but this time at the mouth of the tunnel which leads from the site of Granville Street
station to the site of Central Goods - a civil engineering fete that was sited as being
proibitively expensive when proposed with regard to extending the line from Granville Street
(then the West Suburban line's terminus) to New Street station, only to emerge as a viable
option one year after closure of the stretch of track from Five Wyas to Granville street!
Whilst looking around the site I happened across Holliday Wharf which, in
the view of Holliday Passage, sits behind the wall on the right-hand side. There appears to
be some contention as to Holliday Wharf's railway heritage but, after having a good rummage
around the site, it appears to me that it served as a transhipment wharf with a rail
connection which passed out of the site to the right of the above-left image. Just to the
right of the aforementioned picture is the old Granville Street Station site and a
'railway-like' bridge connects these two sites at the side of the canal. In additon, the
above-right picture shows three goods wagons in the undergrowth - there are several of these
strewn around the site minus their wheels. For more on the Central Goods line see Granville
Street station and Five Ways station.
