Bromsgrove 1979

The year began with class 37 locomotives as can be seen of the picture still providing banking power. However a continuation of the strange locomotive workings between Gloucester and Birmingham on the 1515 Plymouth to Manchester service continued. This working became well-known, attracting considerable interest from enthusiasts and photographers. 

The workings that were recorded are as follows :

Locomotive failures

A number of locomotive failures characterised the early weeks of the year. On Monday 8th January 37054  worked the 0730 Bristol to Manchester service (due to motive power shortages), and 47063 hauling the 1427 Swansea to Manchester service failed a few hundred yards from the summit of the Lickey Incline, having to be helped to Birmingham New Street Station by the two bankers 37009 (now preserved on the Great Central Railway) and 37076. Then on Saturday 3rd February 46007 with an 11 coach Plymouth to  Edinburgh train needed banking assistance, and 46033 failed at Stoke Works 3 days later with the 0655 Bradford to Penzance service and had to be pushed to Gloucester by the following 0830 Manchester to Swansea service hauled by 31286.

Unusual locomotive workings

The more unusual locomotive workings in March involved 37184 on the 0920 Liverpool to Penzance service from Birmingham New Street Station on the Saturday 3rd March, 40152 on a southbound freight on the Saturday 17th March (working back north from Gloucester on the 1110 Plymouth to Manchester service and running the 5.7 miles from Stoke Works to Barnt Green in just under 7 1/2 minutes); 40013 'Andania' on an additional York to Birmingham service on the Sunday 18th March which was extended to Bristol, and 31103 hauling the 8 coach 0730 Bristol to Manchester service (banked up the incline) on Monday 26th March.

The Wagon Works are finally demolished

The beginning of April brought a rather significant event, the demolition of the first building on the Bromsgrove wagon works site. The story was covered in the local press :

The end is nigh for the massive derelict railway works at Aston Fields in Bromsgrove, with the demolition of the first buildings on the 30 acre site - a wagon building shop. This building had been becoming dangerously close to the present railway line and station. The demolition firm Joe Fisher of Stoke Works moved in to flatten it last week.

The rest of the old wagon works once the centre for engine building in the Midlands is now living under a suspended sentence.

The site has been owned by Bryant’s for about ten years,  and they hope to convert it in a warehouse area.

Tim Brotherton, of agents Banks and Silvers, reported “lt could be knocked down next month or it could be next year while they sort out what is going to happen to the site. Some of these buildings are of real cathedral Iike proportions. This place was the biggest on the old Midlands line. I can remember before the war people in hob nailed boots and flat caps walking up there with their dinners in a pudding basin wrapped in a red handkerchief with white spots on. They all had the same handkerchiefs”.

Now the sidings, turntables, workshops, chimney, sawmill, stores and wagon works are weeded over and crumbling. The works, described as an “economic blessing” to the town and a place for the aristocrats of the local labour market in the history of Bromsgrove are now only of interest to industrial archaeologists and naturalists. They were originally sold by British Rail with the intention of becoming a gas plant, but the North sea discoveries put a stop to that.

When the wagon building shop was knocked down last week all trains had to be diverted away from Bromsgrove station in case rubble should fall on the track. One train had to be diverted through Hartlebury.

extract: The Bromsgrove Messenger Friday 13th April 1979.

Through the spring and summer period the more interesting visitors were :

Extra Trains to Bromsgrove

From Monday 1st October, for an experimental six month period, additional trains were provided for Bromsgrove, mostly by extending certain trains on the Four Oaks to Longbridge cross-city service. The Hereford and Worcester County Council provided the finance, including connecting bus services with Bromsgrove Town Centre. The extra trains were:

From Bromsgrove to Birmingham at 0716, 1648 (Monday to Fridays), 1643 (on Saturdays) & 2334

From Birmingham to Bromsgrove 0833 (on Saturdays), 0830, 1348, 1833 & 2233

More unusual locomotives at Bromsgrove

On Sunday 5th October newly-modified push-pull locomotive 47707 'Holyrood' worked the 1035 Leeds to Paignton throughout, returning north the next day on the 1053 Paignton to Leeds. These Scottish based specialised locomotives were unusual so far south, and the visit of 47707 was all the more notable bearing in mind 47704 and 47709 had also been in Southern England earlier in the year. Class 40, 40068, worked a Cardiff-Leeds service on Monday 6th October.

To round off the year it is worth reflecting on the number of services hauled by Class 31 locomotives during the year, particularly through the summer period.

These locomotives were never common on passenger work on the Birmingham - Bristol route :

Banking Locomotives observed at Bromsgrove