Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str3083

Ex-LMS 2-6-0 5P4F 'Crab' No 42707 passes carefully through a demolished New Street station in 1964. The nature of the railway network in the area meant that New Street Station could not be closed to traffic while its complete rebuilding took place during the 1960s. Some services were diverted through the ex-GWR Snow Hill station, but other movements had to pass through the building site. Here, demolition workers stand watching as No 42707 picks its way east past one of the former platforms on the south side of the station. In the background, is Hill Street, a number of pedestrians looking over the temporary fence along the street have a grandstand view of the scene. On the left lie two broken sections of the massive cast iron columns which until recently had supported the double arched roof of the Midland Railway side of the station. The building shrouded in scaffolding in the background is the casino in Hill Street. Built as LMS No 2707 by Horwich works in January 1927, No 42707 was to remain in service only for a few more months after this photograph was taken being withdrawn during October 1964 from 8H Birkenhead shed to be scrapped by the Central Wagon Company of Ince near Wigan.

Toby Clempson

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