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Small Heath and Sparkbrook StationSmall Heath and Sparkbrook opened in April 1863 on the Great Western Railway's line between Birmingham (Snow Hill) and London (Paddington). This line had commenced passenger operations eleven years previously in October 1852. The Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) factory in Armoury Road had been built in 1862 and the station was located specifically to serve this factory. Access to the station was from Golden Hillock Road. On either side of the railway a footpath ran from the road to each platform. The booking Office was adjacent to the entrance to the path leading to the Up platform. Limited passenger facilities were initially provided on the platforms, but these were soon augmented by new buildings. The largest of these was on the Down platform, reflecting the majority of outward bound traffic was bound for Snow Hill station. In April 1864, the station was renamed 'Smallheath & Sparkbrook’. Freight was catered for in a Goods Yard on the other side of Golden Hillocks Road. The road entrance to the Goods Yard being from nearby Anderson Road. In addition to the Goods Yard, a large Marshalling Yard was built on the other (east) side of the main line extending north towards Bordesley. This also catered for interchange traffic from the Midland Railway via Bordesley Junction. As far back as 1855 Bordesley Engine Shed and Carriage Shed were constructed on the west side. These catered for the locomotives and coaches used on Birmingham suburban passenger services. The Engine Shed also catered for the locomotives engaged on both local and main line freight traffic. To facilitate access to the sidings and control the crossovers at the southern end of the station required a 21 lever signal box, which had been built on the up platform of Small Heath & Sparkbrook station by 1875. In 1899 the station name reverted to 'Small Heath & Sparkbrook' station. The station was now being rebuilt with extended platforms and with a new Booking Office built over the lines and adjacent to Golden Hillock Road.. The access footpaths were diverted, so that passengers now had to enter the Booking Office to reach the platforms. These arrangements were completed by August 1900. In addition a Down refuge siding was provided south of the station, while several mileage sidings and a weighbridge were added to the Goods Yard. In 1904 the Council opened the 200 metre long Small Heath Bridge over the Marshalling and Goods Yards. By this time, the Great Western Railway’s line through the centre of Birmingham was close to capacity and the company had started the piecemeal upgrading of sections of track between Handsworth Junction and Olton. This involved quadrupling the track to eventually provide two pairs of lines (called main and relief lines) along the entire route (excluding Snow Hill tunnel). All the stations had to be rebuilt with two island platforms to provide a platform face for each of the four tracks. The section from Olton through Tyseley to a point just south of Small Heath & Sparkbrook station was completed by June 1908 and a new signal box was built at this location. This signal box was initially named after the new Tyseley Locomotive Depot, but was renamed Small Heath South Signal Box once another new signal box had been provided in the Depot’s approach. The quadrupling had been extended northwards through Small Heath & Sparkbrook station by January 1913, requiring a complete rebuild of the station platforms. In addition to the main and relief lines, a pair of Goods lines were also provided on the west side and a single Up Pilot line on the east. To make room for these extra tracks new plate-girder over-bridges were constructed on either side of the original brick arch bridge to carry Golden Hillock Road over the railway. Further north the Goods Yard Shed, Bordesley Engine Shed and the Carriage Shed were all demolished. The locomotives and rolling stock had been transferred to the new facilities established at Tyseley in 1908. A new Small Heath North Signal Box with 33 levers was provided in October 1907, but this only lasted until July 1910 when it was replaced with a larger signal box with 92 levers. This also replaced the small box on the platform, which by then was called Small Heath Middle Signal Box. In the Goods Yard a larger single road replacement Goods Shed was built. In 1917, during the First World War the government requested a private branch line to be constructed to the BSA Sparkbrook Works. This left the main line adjacent to the Small Heath South Signal Box, but due to a shortage of materials, the private branch was only connected in 1919, after the war had finished. In 1923, an electrically operated twenty ton goliath crane was installed in Small Heath Goods Yard. In 1937 this Goods Yard was recorded as having accommodation for 300 wagons. The total traffic dealt with at the Goods Yard in that year was 80,000 tons, including; 40,368 tons of coal, 6,082 tons of electric cable, 11,319 tons of timber and 1,355 motor cars. Truck loads of ‘returned empties’ for Birmingham were also concentrated daily at Small Heath, where they were dealt with in a dedicated shed. Once sorted the empty packaging was delivered by the Company’s cartage service. After the Second World War, the up pilot line from Bordesley was extended to join the loop siding for the BSA branch and this became the departure line for up freight trains leaving the marshalling yard at Bordesley. Robert Ferris Much of the information on this and other webpages of Warwickshire Railways is derived from articles or books listed in our 'bibliography'.
Signalling at Small Heath & Sparkbrook stationPeter Jordan writes, 'What folk might not appreciate is that Small Heath North Box had had a previous incarnation, because it started life as a temporary signal box during the rebuilding of Exeter St. David's station. Two large temporary signal boxes were erected as part of this work - the one at the London end of the station was 'Exeter Middle' and was the box that subsequently moved to Small Heath, while the other was 'Exeter West' which, far from being temporary, lasted in Exeter until 1985, and for which I started the preservation group in 1982. A frontal view of Small Heath North will reveal the fact that it was specially constructed to be easily dismantled because the main upright timbers at the ends of the wall panels are visible - on a timber box that was intended to be permanent the weatherboarding was run over these timbers and they are not visible as part of the walling'. Trains seen at or near Small Heath & Sparkbrook stationMaps
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