LMS Route: Water Orton to Walsall

Sutton Park: mrspk341a

This close up of image 'mrspk341' shows the goods yard and goods shed situated off the up line at the end of the station. The points to the goods yard are 'trailing' meaning that access to the yard can only be gained by reversing the train. This was a safety feature common adopted by all railway companies as the two rails of 'facing' points could split with the locomotive's wheel in between in unusual, but not rare, circumstances.

Accessing the yard could therefore be a little convoluted. In the case above, a train on the up (left) line needing to enter the yard would have to stop with the guards van just past the point work adjacent to the signal on the left. The signalman would then set the points from the up to allow the train to reverse back on to the down (right) line. When the train had passed on to the down line the signalman would then set the up points to allow the train to draw forward from the down line directly on to the siding passing over the up line.

The point work seen in the distance was used to allow trains to reverse from the up line across either to the down platform seen in this view or to the down platform on the other side of this island platform. The station being the terminus for many of the local trains to and from Birmingham. A local train can been seen in the sidings alongside the goods shed.

back