Miscellaneous

A Collection of odds and ends

This section is to display photographs that have been taken on various explorations that don't fit into any other page on the site. I hope you find them of interest!

As a boy, I spent many an hour standing on the A38/Bristol Road South road bridge peering through the railings watching car transporter trains, diesel shunters, and scurrying workers shunting and coupling trains on the Longbridge Austin Works railway. Originally part of the Halesowen Railway, the works railway lived on until the closure of the works two years ago. Many years later I married and discovered my wife's two uncles had manned the signal box here many years ago but to my disappointment had not taken any photographs! So, when the opportunity to finally gain access to the works railway and signal box presented itself, I excitedly grabbed my camera and made my way to the site to capture what will be, in reality, some of the last images of the railway in situ due to the imminent site clearance that is already at a well-advanced stage elsewhere on the works complex.

In this shot we see the remarkable well-preserved ex-Midland Railway signal box, the remaining one of two originally at the works.

This shot shows the signal box levers controlling what was a network of sidings and branches that fed various parts of the works.

Resembling something of a time capsule, here we see some of the warning/signalling equipment inside the box.

With the signal box to our left, this shot looks towards the line's joining with what is now the Cross City Line at Halesowen Junction.

Looking in the same direction as the previous shot, here we are on the incline that led to a spur into the works and the engine shed.

At the top of the incline, we are now looking at the engine shed and the line feeding part of the works branching to the right.

I nearly crashed the car when I saw this: 22 years after closure of the line, this sign at the junction of Station Road and Norton Road is still in situ!

Remains of the Birmingham & Oxford Railway's 1846 aborted Duddeston Viaduct in Montague Street.

Forgotten relic: an overgrown Halesowen Railway road overbridge on New Road, Blowers Green, Dudley. August 2003

Washwood Heath Sidings No.1 signal box viewed from Church Road looking towards Birmingham.

What's in a name? The Proofing House seen through the viaduct carrying Proof House Junction over Banbury Street.

Grand Junction Railway viaduct to Curzon Street augmented by LNWR Aston to New Street lines on top over Lawley Middleway.