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A Brief Description of Tyseley Station
Six miles from the centre of Birmingham, Tyseley station
opened on 1st October 1906 as part of the Great Western Railway's early 20th
century expansion, which included building a new terminus station at Moor
Street to help serve commuter traffic on the route to Leamington Spa and later
when, on 1st July 1908, the North Warwickshire Line opened. The latter had
originally been planned by the fledgling and soon to fail independent
Birmingham and North Warwickshire Railway Company in 1894. The North
Warwickshire Line joined with the Moor Street to Leamington line at Tyseley
thus making Tyseley station itself a busy and important junction.
Tyseley station was built with two wide island platforms
because the lines through Tyseley station towards Olton were in the process of
being quadrupled. This work was completed in January 1907 and in the June of
the following year the quadrupling was also extended a short distance
northwards towards Small Heath. At this time the four tracks were operated as a
main line with a loop line on either side, but in June 1913 they were
remodelled as main lines and relief lines. The construction of a new Locomotive
Depot at Tyseley in July 1908 had allowed the old Bordesley Engine Shed to be
demolished, which provided room necessary for further quadrupling towards Moor
Street, but this was only completed in 1918.
When built the Goods Yard at Tyseley had a trailing
connection to the up loop line on the south side of the station. From here a
pair of sidings ran parallel with the running lines with one of the sidings
passing through a Goods Shed in which there were two hand-operated cranes. By
1913 these two sidings had been extended to hold 51 wagons each and a trailing
connection provided adjacent to Tyseley North Signal Box to both the Down Main
and Down Relief lines. A scissor crossing had also been provided at the
midpoint of the sidings to increase flexibility and close to this was a six ton
Yard crane. In the Goods Yard there were four mileage sidings with the capacity
to hold 31, 29, 21 and 25 wagons and a short end loading platform siding which
could hold 3 wagons. There was also a long head shunt which ran parallel with
the running lines and was capable of holding 44 wagons. In 1921, the machine
tool manufacturer ‘EW Bliss & Co’ paid £342 for a Private
Siding, but there is no record of any Private Sidings at Tyseley in the 1925
(or any subsequent) Railway Clearing House (RCH) Handbook.
In the 1920s Tyseley became a thriving industrial area
providing a home for cutting edge technology companies; such as:
- Damard Lacquer Co – who opened a factory in Greet
in 1921 to manufacture thermosetting phenol formaldehyde (Bakelite) resin - an
early plastic. When acquired by Bakelite Ltd in 1926, a new factory was built
in Tyseley, opening in 1928.
- Reynolds Tube Co Ltd - relocated to Hay Hall, Tyseley
in 1917 and using experience gained by making aircraft frames in the First
World War started to produce manganese steel tubing for bicycle and motorcycle
frames. Acquired by Tube Investments (TI) Ltd in 1928, the Reynolds 531
aluminium tubeset was introduced in 1935.
These in-turn attracted other manufacturers including
several electrical equipment and motorcycle companies. The later included;
Abingdon (renamed AKD in 1926) motorcycles and the Excelsior Motor Company, who
had premise adjacent to each other in Kings Road Tyseley, and also
Rudge-Whitworth of Reddings Road, Tyseley, whose works were taken over by
Midland Electrical Manufacturing (MEM) Co in 1936. As a result of this
increasing industrialisation, the railway’s goods facilities were
constantly being upgraded during this period:
- 1923 (£8,900) - New Goods Offices built with
electric lighting, alterations to the Stables, conversion of the six ton Yard
crane to electric-operation and provision of two new mileage sidings next to
Abingdon Road.
- 1924 (£3,440) - Electric lighting in the Goods
Shed and Station Buildings, plus the provision of an electric lift from the
Station entrance on the Wharfdale Road bridge to the main line island platform
(see 'gwrt1348'). This lift was justified due to the
quantity of motor cycles being forwarded from Tyseley station as parcels
traffic.
- 1928 (£124) – Provision of bulk petrol
storage facilities.
- 1929 (£431) – Replacement of original
weighbridge with new twenty ton cart weighbridge suitable for motor
vehicles.
- 1930 (£8,860) Extension of Goods Shed (see 'gwrt1345') and extending the length of the four
existing mileage sidings. Note at this time there were forty goods staff
allocated to Tyseley.
In the Birmingham ABC Rates book for 1935 there was an
exceptional rate for Condensed milk in casks, cases or drums at 10s/7d (ten
shillings, seven pence), which may indicate regular consignments to a sweet
manufacturer in the locality. In addition there were exceptional rates for both
Wagon Repairing Materials and Iron and Steel (list K) components.
As goods traffic declined in the 1960s the facilities and
track layout at Tyseley were slowly rationalised. In July 1964 the trailing
connection from the Down Main and Down Relief lines to the goods loop sidings
was taken out of use. This was prior to the closure of Tyseley North Signal Box
in July 1968. Tyseley South Signal Box closed on 1st September 1969 and a
replacement Ground Frame (Tyseley No3) installed to control access to the goods
yard. Four sidings in the Goods Yard were removed in March 1976 and the Goods
Shed was later demolished as the site fell into disuse.
Robert Ferris
Much of the information on this and other webpages of
Warwickshire Railways is derived from articles or books listed in our 'bibliography'.
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General Views ofTyseley station
Locomotives seen at or near Tyseley station
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Diesel Dawn
Staff of Tyseley station
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Aerial Views and Maps of Tyseley station, carriage
sidings and shed
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