Miscellaneous

• 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe was restored to traffic in autumn 2008, and on Sunday 7th December worked a 1Z74 Dorridge - Melton Mowbray charter. It's seen here passing Washwood Heath No 1 box at 11:22, making good progress but running a little under 15 minutes late.
• 6233 makes light work of the climb out of Walsall with a 1Z34 Chester - Paddington charter. This shot was taken 18:01 on Saturday 19th July 2008, and the train was running a bit early given that it wasn't due away from its Walsall water stop until 18:09. In fact I'd only just got into position when the unmistakeable sounds of the approaching steamer could be heard emerging from Park St tunnel.
• On the dark damp afternoon of Saturday 14th November 2009 Pannier tanks 9600 and 9466 hustle their train across Newton Jct. The train is 1Z52 Ironbridge - Kidderminster, which was due to stop at Bescot for water between 12:40 and 13:50. In the event it also had to stop for water at Wolverhampton, and didn't arrive at Bescot until around 13:40. This photo was taken at 14:30, using ISO800 1/400 f4.5, plus some noise reduction in the post-processing.
• K4 class loco 61994 and its support coach pass Hamstead at 10:32 on Tuesday 2nd March 2010. It was running as 5Z65 Crewe - Kidderminster, en-route to the Severn Valley Railway for the spring steam gala. Only six of these locos were built, of which 61994 was the second, dating from 1938.
• ADB968000 is seen at Stratford during the 1979 Open Day which took place on Saturday 14th July. This Class 15 loco was originally numbered D8243. Thanks to Jeff B for supplying the exact date. 
• D1013 parked in the headshunt at Bridgnorth on Saturday August 29th 2009.
• On Saturday 12th September 2009 the SVR diesel diagram was in the hands of D1013, and the prospect of a blue Western in near guaranteed sunshine was hard to resist. I had a pop at the 13:20 from Kidderminster at Foley Park, but although the lighting was perfect the messy background of factory units rather spoils the shot. The sedate progress of SVR trains means that it's easily possible to have another go, despite the winding country roads and slow traffic through Bewdley. Here's Western Ranger climbing Eardington bank at 14:28, against a rather more picturesque background.
• Taken the same day as the previous shot. The afternoon train leaves Bridgnorth at 15:30, and was photographed descending Eardington bank at 15:40.
• D1015 heads a return Liverpool - Salisbury charter on Monday 21st July 2008. It was due to pass Bescot at 19:35, but arrived about a minute after I did, at 19:27. It was held on the up main for a down coal going towards Walsall, and an up local train. This picture was taken shortly after the re-start, at 19:32.
• D1062 arrives at Kidderminster on the morning of Saturday 25th July 2009. By chance D1062 was my very last Western for sight. I no longer have the date, although it would have been summer 1972 or 1973. I do remember that it was at Plymouth station, and Courier had arrived from Penzance. In those days many trains were re-engined at Plymouth, and buffet cars were added to up services and removed from down ones.
• A few minutes after the previous shot and D1062 stands at the head of the 09:50 Kidderminster - Bridgnorth, shortly before departure.
• D1062 at Bridgnorth on Saturday August 29th 2009. The LNER teak coaches were used with the Western, which rather spoils this otherwise convincing BR(WR) scene. The combo is caught in a brief glimpse of sunshine waiting to depart with the 15:30 to Kidderminster.
• A convoy of preserved locos ran from Barrow Hill to Kidderminster on Wednesday 4th May 2011. 0Z55 started from Carnforth with 57601, which collected 56301, 37503, D9009 and 33035 at Barrow Hill before heading south to the SVR. However 33035 ran into trouble in the Birmingham area with a hot box, and was detached at Soho EMU depot. As a result it didn't make the diesel weekend at the Swanage railway, which is where the locos were heading. Because of the unscheduled stop at Soho the convoy was about 90 down arriving at Kidderminster. Here it is at 17:09 being propelled from the turnback siding onto the down line so that it can use the connection onto the SVR. D1062 was attached at Kidderminster, and the whole ensemble proceeded south to Swanage on the morning of Thursday 5th May.
• Bescot Down Storage Sidings - Sunday 2nd October 1988.
• 40012 was one of the exhibits at the 1992 Bescot Open Day which took place on Sunday 30th August. The weather on this occasion wasn't as kind as it was for the May 1990 event, but the sun shone briefly and allowed a few decent photos to be taken. I didn't write the number of the Deltic down, but I'm fairly sure that it's 55015. The locos just visible on the right are 20092 and 20169, posed on an MGR train in the throat of the Down Yard.
• 40022 departs from platform 12 at Birmingham New St with a footex. I think this shot dates from the late 1970s, but I have no details for it. It was provided for Aston Villa fans, and was bound for Manchester. The snow is still falling and I recall that the game was postponed and the train didn't reach its destination. I seem to be the only person who's braved the snow, everyone else is staying under cover and doing the "going away" shot.
• Very few details available for this shot I'm afraid. A close look at the original scan reveals that the loco is 40128. It's acquired "cross-eyed" dots in the headcode boxes, and is devoid of the bodyside grills that LMR locos carried for most of their lives. 40128 was withdrawn in 1982, and this pic probably dates from about 1979. The train is almost certainly from Ellesmere Port, and is seen here passing Bescot Junction. It's destination will be Langley Green or Rowley Regis.
• 44008 departs from Bescot with a mixed freight to Toton. In the background the Bescot breakdown train sits on the curve waiting for the signal. This picture was taken in autumn 1979 I think, although the leaves are still on the trees so it was probably early autumn. At this time the the loco was in pristine ex-works condition and carrying the number D8 under (at least) one cab window. Class 44s were regular visitors to the West Midlands in the 70s, and even near the end there was a daily Toton - Bescot duty which arrived mid-morning and returned an hour or so later.
• The Great Central Railway held a "Mail by Rail" weekend on Saturday and Sunday 28th and 29th July 2007. D123 worked one of the Rothley - Loughborough mail trains, seen here passing Woodthorpe at 16:49.
• D123 again, this time going south through Woodville with a late afternoon train to Leicester on Saturday 17th April 2010.
• 58048 arrives at Bescot with the 6P25 empties from Ironbridge. This shot was taken at 13:16 on Friday 8th November 1996.
• Bescot, Sunday 4th November 1990. Make up your own joke.
• The New Measurement Train (NMT) went north through Dudley Port at 13:45 on Thursday 23rd March 2006. Frankly HSTs really don't do much for me. Although I was taking railway pictures in 1976 when the first ones appeared in regular service I've taken no more than a dozen or so shots of them in the subsequent 30 years. The previous HST shot I took was in June 2003. That was also of the NMT, which at least has novelty value.
• This HST included power cars 43357 and 43366, and was forming the 11:50 Edinburgh - Bristol on Sunday 29th March 2009. It's crossing Wichnor Viaduct at Alrewas. The River Tame, in the foreground, joins the Trent a few yards on the other side of the viaduct.
• An HST forming the 10:05 Edinburgh - Penzance passes Bredicot, near Worcester, at 15:36 on Saturday 25th April 2009.
• MPV DR98958 and DR98908 pass Hamstead at 12.55 on Wednesday 1st November 2006. This was an RHTT diagram, one of two daytime diagrams based at Bescot during autumn 2006.
• These next three pictures were taken on the morning of Friday 30th April 1993. My notes tell me that they were the only pictures I took that day, but it's unlikely that I made a special trip to visit Merry Hill to take them because monorails aren't really my thing. It's more likely that I'd been somewhere in the area to photograph a real train, and having failed in that mission I popped in to take these photos as the sun was out. In retrospect I'm rather glad that I did go that day - because the monorail was soon gone and I never bothered to photograph it again. This first shot shows a train entering the station at the south end of the main complex, and we're looking at the rear of the train here. The doors at the entrance to the stations worked automatically, opening to allow trains in, and then closing behind them.
• This shot shows a train departing from the same station, and running onto the nearside track over what I've recently learned is called a rotary switch. This stretch at the south end of the line was double-tracked (strictly speaking that should be double-beamed), and on this day at least conventional left-hand running was the normal practise.
• This third train was in "McDonalds" livery, and is also seen crossing Car Park 2. This monorail was a Von Roll system. It had been out of use for six years when it was dismantled in 2001. The equipment was sold to the operators of the Broadbeach system in Australia (it's near Brisbane, in Queensland). At Merry Hill there's now little or no evidence that a monorail ever existed - this very "21st Century" looking transport system didn't even survive into the 21st Century.