Guest Book: Page 17

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Congratulations on an excellent site. I too came on it purely by chance. I found the sections on Saltley and Monument Lane sheds fascinating. A big thanks to you.

David Dalton

This website is excellent, and a valuable tool to those writing about railway history. It must have taken an enormous amount of work and knowledge.

Geoffrey Kingscott - Author of 'Last Train from Trent Station', 'Lost Railways of Nottinghamshire', 'Lost Railways of Leicestershire & Rutland', 'Lost Railways of Derbyshire' and 'Lost Railways of Northamptonshire' (due out in October 2008).

Hi, I've literally just stumbled across your website, well done! My interest is the GC and Rugby in particular and so feel I should add a word or two concerning the two photos of the howitzers being loaded. I first saw these as part of a large framed 'montage' hiding in the back of Rugby library in the early 90's. Other photos showed troops on the way to the station and on the Hillmorton Road bridge outside the booking office.

Interestingly one showed artillery horses being loaded into cattle vans. All the loading photos were taken in the GC goods yard, around the loading dock which was situated at the rear of the yard and which had an end loading facility, very useful for big guns! Construction of the ordnance depot at Barby wasn't started until June 1943, by the way. Hope this helps.

Cheers - Tony West

Mike - Fantastic site easy to navigate and full of nostalgic memories for me! I was browsing through the pages of routes where I used to live and wanted to let you know about one minor correction needed to the Soho Road page. The map you show is actually of Soho Station that was sited in Smethwick and was the stop immediately after Smethwick Rolfe Street heading towards Birmingham.

The Photo marked 'lnwrsoho1514' is actually taken at the site of Soho Station. If you look at Andy's great site too you will see he has a different map listed at Soho Road and this explains the siding disappearing out of view in the photos of Soho Road. Thanks for a superb site that brings back many happy memories of train spotting in Smethwick especially Handsworth & Smethwick on the GWR.

Regards, Frank Garrison

Hi Frank - Many thanks for the correction which I have now changed. As someone who did their trainspotting at Tile Hill station near Coventry and only occassionally went to Birmingham New Street, the far reaches of the county's borders (which mirrored Birmingham's) are unknown to me and somewhat confusing with two LNWR stations and one GWR with Soho in the name. If you can recommend any good books for information and/or sources of photographs please let me know. Regards Mike

I have been looking further at your photos of Brinklow station preparatory to starting a model and am worried about the image labelled 'lnwr_brin1101' as this shows extra tracks to what I believe existed at Brinklow. When I print out this photo it comes up labelled 'lnwr_shil1101' and I think this should in fact be labelled as near Shilton not Brinklow. What do you think?

Have you any suggestions where I might find a track plan for Brinklow, it would save a lot of guesswork. Thanks again for a great site.

Mike Sloan

Hi Mike - Thanks for the comments regarding the site, its very much appreciated. Regarding the query, whilst you are right to say that I initially logged the photo as from Shilton it is very much Brinklow as close inspection of the other photos of the station show there were three tracks including the up slow.

A copy of the rebuilding plan dated 16 January 1882 is to be found in Dr R Preston-Hendry & R Powell-Hendry's book 'A Historical Survey of Selected LMS Stations' published by OPC ISBN 086093 168 4. It too shows three tracks. Hope this helps.

As an ex-trainspotter and former resident of Leamington in the good old days I found your web site really fascinating which brought back many happy memories. Many thanks for taking all the trouble to create this site. Now I have more time, I am indulging in building models of Southam and Harbury and Leamington engine sheds, so I'll be a regular visitor to your site. Once again, many thanks.

Chris Berry

Excellent site, will be back. Especially if I get started on my model of Brinklow station!

Mike Sloan

I have just been browsing through your web site on the North Warwick line as I have lived all my life in the area. I have seen a lot of changes over the years. Back in the late 50s there used to be a circus held on the main Stratford Road in Shirley. The circus animals used to arrive by rail and I use to see elephants being unloaded at Shirley cattle dock and paraded up Haslucks Green Road. The Shirley carnival used to start from the station with some of the railway lorries being used as the carnival floats. The station master, a Mr. Jones, was involved with the event. Last of all there were some cottages at Earlswood whose only source of drinking water was brought in by rail every day on the local tripper and placed in the sidings. Hope this is of interest to you.

Roger Stanbridge, Hall Green, Birmingham

Many thanks Roger for your memories. I am sure that there will be many people who would be surprised to hear about the elephants arriving by rail and cottages being supplied by water. I wouldn't like to depend on today's operators for this service. Regards, Mike.

Wonderful site. I was taking some photos today of Marton Junction, and Googled to see what it looked like in it's heyday - and found your site. Thank you

Further to my message in your Guest Book, thank you for such a great site. I was at Marton Junction today taking some photos from the cast iron road bridge, and from your site learnt that it's 50 years since passenger services ended. I didn't see any modern photos on your site, but if a "today" image of Marton would be of interest, I'd be happy to send you one. With best wishes, and thanks again for such a detailed and fascinating site.

Joe Godwin

Thanks for the offer Joe but I must regretfully decline your kind offer. I have at least three years work ahead of me in upgrading the site and if I started to add photos that portray the post-steam scene then I will never complete the task. Andy Doherty of Rail Around Birmingham might be interested as he portrays the scene today. Regards, Mike.

Thanks for keeping the railways alive. They were the life line of the UK when I was young and living beside the main line from Newport to the Midlands ,the Palethorpes sausage van came through every night !!

Alan Hughes

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