Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str2876

The Pines Express, a service between Manchester and Bournemouth, stands at Platform 7 waiting to depart. The train indicator clocks and fingerboards are on the right stating that the train was due at 12:43pm and would depart at 1:08pm calling at Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bath and Bournemouth. The Pines Express service only stopped at New Street station during the week whereas at weekends it, and the two reliefs, avoided the station by directly taking the Camp Hill line from the Derby line.

An article by Cecil J Allen M.Inst.T on the Pines Express and how it passed through Birmingham appeared in the June 1929 edition of the Meccano Magazine on page 442. BWL Brooksbank wrote in an article in 'Steam World' dated August 1994 that 'the normal procedure with Western Division expresses from New Street to Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow etc. was to bring in the empty stock from Vauxhall carriage sidings and send the loaded train out from the west end of New Street. Nevertheless several did leave from the east end. The Pines Express and its related through trains which switched from the Western to the Midland division in Birmingham, came into New Street from the Aston direction in order to avoid reversal. However, if not required to stop at New Street, trains to or from Bristol to the LNW lines, after traversing the Camp Hill line, gained the LNW lines by the branch from Castle Bromwich to Walsall - and this included the Pines Express on summer Saturdays. The locomotive for these trains was normally changed at Walsall, but through working of Western Division engines down the Bristol line was common on specials or in times of pressure'.

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