Tyseley Shed Allocations & Memories

Use the links below to access the following sections on this page:

• Memories by Colin Gortin
• Locomotive Allocation for Tyseley Shed (TYS) in 1909 (72 locomotives)
• Locomotive Allocation for Tyseley Shed (TYS) in 1921 (114 Locomotives)
• Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (TYS) in 1930 (106 Locomotives)
• Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (TYS) in 1937 (103 Locomotives & 3 Railcars)
• Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (84E) in 1950 (114 Locomotives)
• Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (84E) in 1959 (70 Locomotives)
• Recording Locomotive Sightings 1943 - 1968

Memories by Colin Gorton

Tyseley - Probably 1946 My father had a friend whose brother, John Counter, had worked for the GWR since the 1930s and had reached the position of fireman. A visit early one Sunday morning was arranged.

I was quite overawed. Towering above me, a rather small ten year old, were these huge, dirty monsters. I didn't even reach anywhere near their wheel axles. They hissed and sizzled in a haze of smoke while the overpowering mixture of hot oil, steam and smoke pervaded everywhere. A distinctive aroma never to be forgot-ten. Ever. Men in blue overalls were cleaning, oiling, repairing or discharging ashes from smoke boxes or fire boxes into the pits below. In the centre of each of the two sheds was a turntable from which all the engines radiated. I saw one cleaner all curled up and fast asleep inside one of the cleaned out, but still warm, smoke boxes. John helped me up climb up onto the footplate of a few engines to show me the controls, all totally out of reach. When we finally left and walked back outside, the daylight seemed very bright in contrast to the smoky gloom of the sheds.

Some years later, John told me how difficult it was at night during the war trying to keep flare from the fire hidden from enemy aircraft. To do this they stretched and tied large tarpaulins from the cab roof back over the tender. They would spend ages in loop sidings alongside a main line, usually out in the country, to allow faster, more urgent traffic to take precedence. His driver would halt as close as possible to the signal that would eventually give them right of way again. John would climb up the signal and hang an empty bucket on the horizontal signal arm. When it was finally lowered the bucket would slide off and clatter onto the ground or, better still, the cab roof. Driver and fireman were thus able have a bit of a snooze without losing their slot back onto the main line.

Tyseley - 1966 Following a plea from Pat Whitehouse after one of his superb film-shows for the Great Western Society in Birmingham (we could see steam rising above Snow Hill station from the lecture room) I spent many Sundays at the Sheds helping to clean Clun Castle. It was a very dirty experience as I spent most of my time in the pit levering off vast quantities of oil- hardened mud from frames and connecting rods using paint-scrapers and wire brushes.

There was a reward of course - probably why I stuck it out so long! The engine was (partially?) overhauled, re-painted and all complete by 19 Feb 1967. A happy, relatively clean afternoon was spent charging up and down the sidings on the footplate.

We kept Clun cleaned-up for a few 'Specials' before Joan, my wife, and I travelled behind her (the engine that is) to Birkenhead on the final day of steam from Snow Hill on Sunday March 5th 1967. The engine was not steaming well on the return and we watched, somewhat emotionally, from the down platform as she disappeared into the tunnel for the very last time wreathed in leaking steam.

By this time restoration of pannier tank 1638 was well under way to be steamed for the first time in mid-March. I also worked on 'Kolhapur' for a while early in 1968 - hours and hours spent smoothing its connecting rods. With a file! By late March she too was receiving her final gloss coats.

Colin Gorton

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Locomotive Allocation for Tyseley Shed (TYS) in 1909 (72 locomotives)

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Locomotive Allocation for Tyseley Shed (TYS) in 1921 (114 Locomotives)

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Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (TYS) in 1930 (106 Locomotives)

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Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (TYS) in 1937 (103 Locomotives & 3 Railcars)

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Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (84E) in 1950 (114 Locomotives)

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Locomotive allocation for Tyseley shed (84E) in 1959 (70 Locomotives)

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Recording Locomotive Sightings 1943 - 1968

The following information is provided courtesy of Shed Bash UK (http://shedbashuk.blogspot.co.uk/)

A generation of enthusiasts recorded the movements of locomotives around the railway system. These records of visits to locomotive depots have been collected and carefully analysed to provide an overall portrait for the period 1943 to 1968. During that period of steam's final years, there was a marked change from the pre-grouping types that still found work at a few depots, to the modern BR designs that worked until the end in 1968. The handling of freight and passenger services was a major undertaking from town and cities, ports, coal mines and factories. All of it traversed the labyrinth of lines that criss-crossed the country. There were numerous 'sheds' spread throughout the length and breadth of the land that provided and serviced the vast army of steam locomotives (20,000 in 1948). Here is just a taste of that history.