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.
• 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. 
• 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.
• 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in the headcode boxes, and is devoid of the bodyside grills that LMR locos carried for most of their lives. 40128 was withdrawn in 1982, and this pic probably dates from about 1979.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.
• 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.
• 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 four 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.
• The same "West Midlands Gas" train is seen a few yards further south, crossing over Car Park 2 on its way to the terminus station near the Boulevard. The monorail was operational from 1991 to 1995, when it succumbed to a mixture of technical and safety issues. I didn't visit Merry Hill often during this period, and I always avoided busy periods such as the run-up to Christmas because the place would be gridlocked. But when I did go I seem to recall that the monorail wasn't always operating, and when it was running I never saw many people actually use it. This may have been because it didn't really go anywhere useful, and you had to pay to ride it.
• 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.