31 Returning To Nature.....

The cab of one of the several dozen Class 31 locos in Bescot Storage Sidings gently rots away in January 2001. It took a few years to dispose of the withdrawn engines that were stored here.

Class 31 machines were never a favourite of mine but it is was still sad to see them like this.

The beast explodes

Wait for it... thar she blows !

Train Control

The LNWR Bescot Train Control as seen circa 1912, The controllers would be in constant contact with the 60-odd signalboxes on the route, and manually mark the positions of trains on the 20-foot diagram using brass pegs placed in sockets at the relevant locations, similar to what a power box displays electronically these days.
Bescot Yards comprised 52 "roads" back then and can be seen in the centre of the diagram with Walsall above it. New St is at lower right (between the desks).
From a photo by W E Hall.

Open Day Western.

D1062 Western Courier from the Severn Valley Railway was one of the exhibits at the Bescot Open Day in 1992. Here the diesel-hydraulic stands in the holding sidings, with a Class 31 for company.