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GWR Article
Operating Moor Street Station
Great Western Railway Magazine Vol XXV111 No 6 June
1916.
The Great Western station at Moor Street, Birmingham, which
has recently been completed, occupies the site originally planned to be the
terminus of the Birmingham and North Warwickshire Railway, prior to that line
being taken over by the Great Western Railway Company, and is situated about
half a mile south of the Company's principle station in Birmingham. The first
intention was to provide only a passenger station, but subsequently the
opportunity arose to purchase from the City Corporation the adjacent premises
and site of the former Moor Street Police Station. This enabled a scheme to be
projected for the construction of a commodious goods depot also.
The passenger station authorised by the Great Western
Railway (New Works) Act of 1908, was commenced in September 1908, and opened
for traffic on July 1st, 1909. At that time, however, the buildings were of a
temporary character. The construction of the permanent buildings was not
authorised until 1911 and, due to considerations of substructures connected
with the construction of the goods depot, was only brought to completion in
1913 and opened early in the following year. The station consists of an island
platform about 700 feet long, with buildings comprising the usual public and
staff accommodation. It will be possible to add another platform, 600 feet
long, when the traffic demands it, and the usefulness of the present
accommodation for the already heavy traffic suggests that its provision may be
necessary before very long. Two engine traversers, each 60 feet long, obviated
the provision of a cross-over road, and thus economised platform room.
A start was made with the provision of goods accommodation
in 1909, the completion of the passenger station being then in abeyance. This
scheme embraced the laying out of a high-level yard beside the passenger
station, with direct access to Moor Street; and two low-level yards themselves
now known as Shed A and Shed B , access to the first
named being from Park Street, and to the second from Allison Street. At the
Allison Street level is also provided stabling for 67 horses, with provender
and straw stores, loose boxes and shoeing forge. The first contract for goods
accommodation included simply the paving and permanent way under the arches
constructed to carry the passenger station between Park Street and Alison
Street, now constituting, part of Shed B. In 1909 the new viaduct
was widened between Park Street and Allison Street in arches of brickwork.
In 1910 a contract was let for covering in the area between
Park Street and Allison Street in lateral extension of the arches already
mentioned. This was effected in ferroconcrete, both for the actual covering -
over which the high-level yard exists and for the columns supporting the
yard. This ferroconcrete work is of Hennebique construction, to the designs of
Mr L G Mouched of Westminster. Included in the contract were an arch over
Allison Street and a retaining wall thence to the south abutment of Park Street
which bounds the western side of the low-level Shed B. The
construction of the walls of Shed A was next carried out, and then
followed in sequence the erection in steelwork of the bridge over Park Street,
the roofing over the high-level goods platform, and the construction in
ferroconcrete of the covering of Shed A, i.e. between Park Street
and Moor Street. The completion of these works, which included the removal of
buildings, soil, &c., to level down the sites, left the completed
shells of the two sheds ready for equipment with the necessary
permanent way, platforms, roads, and appliances for the handling of goods
traffic, and successive contracts were placed for the carrying out of these
works.
The first portion of the goods accommodation was opened in
January 1924, the remainder being opened from time to time as completed. The
offices were built by Mr. A. Hopkins, of Birmingham, and the whole of the works
of the goods depots were carried out, under contract, by Mr T Rowbottom, also
of Birmingham, subcontractors for the constructional steelwork being Messrs E C
& J Keay Ltd of Corporation Street, Birmingham. The goods depot, as a
complete entity , is on three levels, viz.:-
The high-level yard, extending over the whole area between
Moor Street and Allison Street, with a platform 400 feet long, with roof
covering over it and with a roadway and siding to serve it, together with a
mileage siding on the opposite side of the roadway. The yard also includes four
other sidings with complementary roadway and two short sidings to which access
is given by turntables. In this yard, perishable market traffic is dealt with
and when that is disposed of, general traffic as well. In Shed A
are two sidings, with ample platform accommodation, and a cart road. This shed
is intended for metal traffic. Shed B is about 8 feet lower in
level than Shed A owing to the natural fall of the ground in the
southerly direction. It contains five lengthy sidings, three shorter ones, and
two platform sidings with a roadway 40 feet wide between them; it serves the
general traffic of the place and in heavy rush of the season, for surplus fruit
traffic from the high-level yard.
Traffic access to and from the high-level yard to the
low-level sheds is afforded by means of hoists which lower and raise wagons
with their contents. A 30 ton truck hoist serves Shed A; and two
truck hoists, one of 20 ton and the other of 30 ton lifting capacity serve
Shed B. Other machinery includes a travelling jib-crane and
traverser between sidings and capstans, &c., in Shed A, while
another traverser serves all the sidings in Shed B. All the
machinery - that in the goods depot and the engine traversers of the passenger
station - is worked electrically. The whole of the engineering work was carried
out under the supervision of the Great western Railway Companys New Works
Engineer, Mr.W.Y. Armstrong, and the resident engineer acting for him on the
ground was Mr.H. Reis, now chief assistant to the Companys divisional
engineer at Bristol.
The opening for traffic of this large depot at Birmingham
has completed the chain of Great Western goods stations and yards extending
right across the city from north to south. They are:- Company'sSoho mileage
yard Hockley goods station Moor Street goods station Bordesley
mileage and cattle depot Small Heath goods station and special shed for
dealing with returned empty packages.
The station at Moor Street serves the very heart of the city
and is within yards of the markets. Formerly all fruit, vegetable, fish, and
meat consigned to the market salesmen had to be carted from Hockley, a distance
of about two miles, so that the advantages of the new station from this point
of view are very great. Immediately the first part of the goods station opened,
in the early part of 1914, the train service from the Worcestershire fruit and
vegetable sending stations was overhauled. As a result, a new train was put on,
leaving Worcester at 9 pm travelling via Honeybourne and Stratford-on-Avon, and
reaching Moor Street soon after midnight. This has proved highly successful.
Unloading is commenced upon arrival and delivery is effected immediately the
markets are opened, which during the summer months, is at 5 am Fish from
Swansea and South Wales is due at 4 am and from Grimsby at 4 30am.
A second train with fruit and vegetables from Worcester
district, but which runs via Stourbridge Junction, arrives at 4 am and others
from Southampton and Weymouth with Channel Islands produce etc, during the
early hours; and, as may be imagined, the scene at Moor Street on a summer
morning any time between one and nine o'clock is a most animated one. That the
advantages offered are appreciated by the market traders is shown by the
increase in the volume of market traffic dealt with by the Company (the GWR)
since Moor Street was brought into use, notwithstanding the dislocation of
business consequent upon the conditions brought about by the war (the First
World War). Not only market traffic, however, is accommodated at Moor Street.
The new station serves a large and important manufacturing area.
Simultaneously with the opening of Moor Street depot in
1914, twenty-four horses were transferred there from the Hockley stud, and this
number has since been increased. This necessitated arrangements being made for
the loading of outwards general traffic and for an adequate train service to
deal with it, because the Carmen whose horses were stabled at Moor Street had
to take into that station goods collected from the city for dispatch. The
offices, which are commodious and well arranged, are occupied almost entirely
by a staff of girl clerks, whose work is performed under excellent conditions.
The Moor Street goods depot is an important addition to the railway facilities
of Birmingham, and is rapidly becoming one of the principle goods stations in
the city. It is under the charge of Mr J Bassage, goods superintendent, to whom
the writer is indebted for information embodied in the latter part of this
article.
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