Eye in the sky

Get off the bloody bridge !!! (secrets of the trade revealed...).

Dinner On The Orient Express

67012 (with 67006 on the rear) pass by The Railway Inn at Darlaston while working todays Northern Belle Noshex from Coventry to Coventry via Chester.

A 37 Heads For The Depot.

Here a light Class 37 is picking it's way through Bescot Downside as the loco heads for the diesel depot in the background. The engine is moving towards the camera and is on the Engine Release Line, just about to pass DT13 ground signal. The loco will stop clear of the points and after the driver has changed ends will move onto the depot from DT14 signal. A sister Class 37 can be seen on one of the depot maintenance roads. This view was taken in May 2002.

The Engine Release and the adjacent Arrival line have now been replaced by the new Through Sidings and all the ground signals have been removed.

Roy Castle OBE Powers Through Bescot.

47786 opens up through Bescot on a charter one summer Saturday in 2002. 47/7s always looked good on specials, now of course such workings are usually in the hands of Class 67s.

'Dutch' Transrail....

56049 runs along the Up & Down Goods line at Bescot on it's way to the Sidings in the foreground. 56s were still an everyday sight around Bescot around this time, the summer of 2002.

Close up

A telephoto view of 37610 heading the Serco test train down the Grand 10 days ago, with coach pantograph raised and 37038 on the rear.

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 It took a few years to dispose of the withdrawn engines that were stored here.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.