The Stour Valley Line

In the early 1960s, I was a regular visitor to a number of signal boxes in the West Midlands and there's a series of posts about my experiences. At the time, I lived in Wolverhampton but most of the signal boxes I visited were in the Tipton and Dudley Port area. I was working for a local company as an Electronics Engineer, so most of my visits were on a Saturday. Going through the Notebook I've recently found for Sedgeley Jn., I'm surprised at what a regular visitor I was. It seems that most Saturdays saw me leaving home early to visit one of my friends in a Signal Box.

My home was about 30 minutes walk from Wolverhampton High Level Station and I must have set off somewhere between 6.0 a.m. and 6.30 a.m. Occasionally, I'd get a trolleybus to town (yes, Wolverhampton had trolleybuses until 1967) but they were a bit thin on the ground at that time of day so I'd usually walk.

On arrival at the station, I'd get a return ticket to either Tipton or Dudley Port (according to where I was headed and what trains were running).

The Sedgeley Jn. Notebook includes brief details of some of these journeys, so I thought we'd take a look. Original notes are in italics with recent comments in square brackets.

Visit to Sedgeley Jn. Mon 24th December 1962

From Wolverhampton platform 2 with two ‘Type 4’ in multiple – D268 and D229. [Clearly, a London service].

Visit to Sedgeley Jn. Sat 12th January 1963

I travel on 1B03 departing Wolverhampton at about 7.15 a.m. The 6.55 a.m. Up Local is still stuck in the Down Bay, boxed in by a 2-car DMU. 1M16 arrives just before we leave.

Visit to Sedgeley Jn. Sat 26th January 1963

I travelled on an Up DMU which arrived Dudleyport at 8.59, departed 9.0 a.m. I later discovered that the Guard arrived back on foot at 9.08 to report the DMU failed in the section. With a Wrong Line Order, the Parcels Engine went onto the DMU at 9.23, dragged it back and cleared the main line at 9.36. It was arranged that the passengers off the stranded DMU would be taken forward by 1B08. There was one passenger for Oldbury so a Special Stop Order was issued to 1B08 so that the Oldbury passenger could be set down. The failed DMU was left at Dudleyport until an engine could be found to drag it back to the Depot. [The Wrong Line Order would be issued by the Dudley Port Signalman to the driver of the Parcels Engine, allowing him to return to Dudley Port, dragging the failed DMU. An impressive example of an operational problem swiftly dealt with].

Visit to Sedgeley Jn. Sat 9th February 1963

To Dudleyport from Wolverhampton behind 46228, "sounding like an engine!". [Presumably a London service and a welcome change from diesel haulage]. Noted that 61018 is ‘Gnu’ [?]

Evening Visit to Sedgeley Jn. February 1963

50460 is Dudley end of local. 6.30 p.m. Wolverhampton – Burton is a 2-6-0 tender first with a British Rail 1st/2nd Composite and an ER Brake/2nd Composite! [Rather cryptic, I'm afraid].

The London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway called itself 'The Premier Line' for some years. The railway could not be accused of false modesty! It was run for many years by Captain Mark Huish (1808 - 1867). Later, with Sir Richard Moon (1814 - 1899) as Chairman and with the towering, if controversial, figure of Francis William Webb (1836 - 1906) as the Chief Mechanical Engineer ruling his empire at Crewe with a rod of iron, the railway was bound to have a high opinion of itself. But in many ways, that opinion was justified. The railway was a joint stock company, owned by its shareholders, so the first measure of success was did its shareholders receive a good dividend? Yes, they did - consistently.

The railway boasted some of the finest permanent way in the country, made possible by the steelworks using the Bessemer process set up at Crewe so that the railway could manufacture its own rails, in longer lengths than otherwise available, reducing the number of rail joints and improving ride quality.

Webb believed that manufacturing in-house led to highest quality and lowest cost to the railway so Webb is also responsible, amongst other things, for the distinctive L.& N.W.R. signals and signal boxes. There's a little on L.& N.W.R. signalling here and on the 'Crewe' All Electric signalling system here. Steam Index has a wonderful Webb collection here.

1054 at the Battlefield Line in 1997 (Photo: John Fairclough).

But, of course, Webb is best known as a locomotive designer. The only Webb locomotive I've had an opportunity to drive is the preserved 'Coal Tank' number 1054, when she visited the Battlefield Line in 1997.

Slideshow at Brewood

Clockwise from left front: Phil, Mick, Ian, Dave, John, Keith.

My friend Phil arranged for Keith to give a slideshow on 18th March 2011 to a small group of interested people. Keith talked about his involvement in the partial restoration of the main station building at Wolverhampton Low Level. Needless to say, there was also animated discussion during the evening of other historical railway subjects. Present were Phil, Mick, Ian, Dave, John, Keith and Jan.

Clockwise from left front: Dave, John, Keith, Phil, Mick, Ian.

World Travel

Jan at the summit of Hyana Picchu, Machu Picchu in 2005.

In applying for a Russian visa for my trip in 2011, I had to list the countries I'd visited in the last ten years. I was quite surprised at the list:-

2002 Thailand, Fiji, USA, China.

2003 Poland, Germany.

2004 Canada, China, Macau, Hong Kong.

2005 Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Ukraine, New Zealand, Brazil, USA, Peru, Egypt.

2006 Australia, India, Equador, Chile, Hong Kong, Mexico, Tahiti.

2007 Australia, Japan, Argentina

2008 Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Mexico, Panama, USA, Cuba, Dubai.

2009 Myanmar, Thailand, Jordan, Egypt, India, Bhutan.

2010 Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Norway.

2011 South Africa, St. Helena BOT, Ascension BOT.

At the top of the blog, you can click an entry in the list 'Labels to select a blog topic' to find the posts on a particular location. Some of these labels are still in code - for instance, 'RTW5' means my fifth trip round the world. Alternately, 'Search' in the header at the top of the blog will find posts including a particular word or phrase.

Following the collapse of the 'Fotopic' photo hosting site, most of my travel photographs have now been moved to various 'Collections' on my 'Flickr' site here.

I'm sorry that many of the picture links in the blog still point to the dead 'Fotopic' site but I'll update them as soon as I can.

I've been very fortunate to be able to see all these exotic places for myself.