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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Harborne
The Harborne Railway Company was authorised by an Act of
Parliament on 28 June 1866 to construct a single line railway, 2 miles and 35
chain in length, from Harborne to a junction with the LNWR near Monument Lane.
It was however another three years before construction commenced and another
five years of construction before the line opened to passenger traffic on 10th
August 1874 and goods the following October. Plans to extend the line to the
Halesowen and Bromsgrove Branch Railway at Lapal were opposed by the GWR and
Birmingham Corporation. Passengers en-route to New Street would have left
Harborne station, travelled over the railway bridge at Park Hill Road before
continuing to cross the Chad Valley on a high embankment before passing under
the Hagley Road to arrive at the first station 'Hagley Road'. A little more
than a mile further on was 'Rotton Park Road' station at which point there was
a spur constructed to connect with Mitchell and Butler's Brewery. After another
mile there was 'Icknield Port Road' station after which the line traversed the
Birmingham and Wolverhampton Canal before reaching the junction with the main
line some one and a half miles from New Street Station.
The conventional view in many commentaries on the line
suggest that the service was too slow. Birmingham City Library's
Harborne Railway History web site records 'Although
fondly remembered, the service did not have a reputation for speed, and
'Harborne Express' might have an ironic ring to it! Increased competition from
rapidly improving bus services brought about such a decrease in demand that
passenger services ended in 1934. A goods service continued until the
1950s' (sic). However, this view is disputed by Colin Maggs in his book
'Branch Lines of Warwickshire' which records the growth of the railway
from an initial six trains each way per day with three on Sundays to twenty
trains per weekday only by August 1887. Most of the Down services from New
Street were timetabled to take thirteen minutes and Up trains to New Street
were scheduled to take sixteen minutes. The regularity of the service provided
a very early illustration of a regular interval service with most Up
trains leaving Harborne at forty-five minutes past the hour whilst Down trains
left New Street at fifteen minutes past the hour.
Colin Maggs also notes that by the end of the Edwardian era
the service had grown to thirty Down services (from New Street) and thirty-one
Up services per week with some services missing out Monument Lane station
thereby reducing the Down time from sixteen minutes to thirteen. Such was the
reliability and speed of the service that office workers based in central
Birmingham would return home for lunch. The conventional view of the service
was therefore incorrect for all but the last sixteen years of the passenger
service as it was the growth of bus competition post-World War One that started
to erode the viability of the railway. This competition together with the
practice of holding trains at Icknield Port Road station to accommodate late
running main line trains was the cause for a rapidly declining service which by
July 1922 had fallen to twenty-one Down and twenty Up trains per weekday.
Such was the pre-war success of the line that it was the
most successful of all the lines within the Birmingham area. The
Harborne Railway Company contracted the LNWR to operate the line on their
behalf in return for 50% of the gross receipts. Three times the LNWR offered to
buy out the company and three times they were rejected. It was only at grouping
in 1923 that both companies merged when the LMS was formed. Colin Maggs
comments 'Despite competitive fares of 3d (1.25 new pence) for a day return
ticket and a weekly third class season ticket of 2s (two shillings/10 new
pence) the decline in numbers compelled the LMS to close the line to passengers
on 26th November 1934'. The last passenger train was the 11:08 pm from New
Street hauled by ex-LNWR 2F 0-6-2T 'Coal Tank' No 7742. The booking office at
Harborne was closed but the station would still see considerable freight
activity.
Terry Callaghan of Disused Stations writes, 'The nearby
Chad Valley Toy Company used the offices and single platform for the storage of
wood for its products. The branch was still remunerative in the 1950s with coal
and sand traffic to Harborne, the sand being stored in a wharf where the
turntable once stood. The branch enjoyed three freight workings on weekdays
with a morning, afternoon and evening trip. On 3rd June 1950 the line saw its
first passenger service for over sixteen years with a Stephenson Locomotive
Society (SLS) special being run from New Street at 3:10pm. The working
comprised an LNWR 2-4-2 tank with a two-coach push-pull set. Considerable local
interest was aroused by this working, with the train being seen off from New
Street by the stationmaster complete with top hat and tails. Many local
residents lined the route to cheer the train which was packed to capacity with
enthusiasts and former regular users of the line; one such user was the guard
of the final working in 1934, a Mr Perkins. Since that 1950 working the branch
saw several visits from railtours with the last one coming to commemorate the
final closure of the line on 3rd November 1963. Hauled by LMS Ivatt 2-6-0 2MT
No 46429 it was another SLS excursion loaded with over three hundred
enthusiasts who alighted to swarm all over the track at the terminus. The
Stephenson Locomotive Society marked the last Harborne train with a special
pamphlet detailing the history of train travel through Harborne. The line would
be lifted shortly after'.
Harborne Railway:- December 1895 Timetable
Departures |
To |
Arrivals |
From |
6.45am |
Birmingham New Street |
7.30am |
Birmingham New Street |
7.50am |
Birmingham New Street |
8.10am |
Birmingham New Street |
8.25am |
Birmingham New Street |
9.35am |
Birmingham New Street |
8.55am |
Birmingham New Street |
10.30am |
Birmingham New Street |
9.10am |
Birmingham New Street |
12.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
9.43am |
Birmingham New Street |
1.10pm |
Birmingham New Street |
10.40am |
Birmingham New Street |
1.30pm SX |
Birmingham New Street |
12.40pm |
Birmingham New Street |
1.35pm SO |
Birmingham New Street |
1.45pm |
Birmingham New Street |
2.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
2.10pm SX |
Birmingham New Street |
3.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
2.50pm |
Birmingham New Street |
4.35pm |
Birmingham New Street |
3.45pm |
Birmingham New Street |
5.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
4.45pm |
Birmingham New Street |
6.15pm SX |
Birmingham New Street |
5.40pm |
Birmingham New Street |
6.40pm |
Birmingham New Street |
6.50pm |
Birmingham New Street |
7.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
7.50pm |
Birmingham New Street |
8.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
8.45pm |
Birmingham New Street |
9.30pm |
Birmingham New Street |
9.50pm |
Birmingham New Street |
10.15pm |
Birmingham New Street |
10.22pm |
Birmingham New Street |
11.00pm |
Birmingham New Street |
11.07pm |
Birmingham New Street |
11.45pm |
Birmingham New Street |
Timetable courtesy of Terry Callaghan (courtesy
www.disused-stations.org.uk).
LNWR 1910 Working Timetable - Harborne station to
Birmingham New Street station
Courtesy LNWR Society
LNWR 1910 Working Timetable - Birmingham New Street station
to Harborne station
Courtesy LNWR Society
LNWR October 1921 Passenger Timetable - Birmingham New
Street station to Harborne
Courtesy LNWR Society
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE HARBORNE LINE
by C. J. Williams from the Stephenson Locomotive Society
Journal, April 1973.
Seeing a story in the local paper about a bridge on the
Harborne line in Birmingham brought me back to childhood days. For 25 years my
home was within a stones throw of the railway line running along the bank
leading to Harborne station. One of my earliest recollections was of a Webb
2-4-2 tank engine painted in the full glory of the crimson lake passenger
livery shortly after the amalgamation. So far as I am aware, very few were
painted in this fashion. There was always great excitement when the Walsall
District Engineer's saloon appeared on the annual inspection. Usually hauled by
an ex-LNWR 2-4-0 Jumbo, I remember on one occasion it was powered by a Johnson
outside-framed 2-4-0. The last time the inspection saloon travelled the branch
(when George Dow was Divisional Manager at Birmingham) it was hauled by an
ex-Midland Class 2F from Monument Lane shed. This was on 23rd June 1960.
Often the goods trains were so heavily loaded that a banker
was required and usually this was an 0-6-2 ex- LNWR Webb Coal Tank, the same
type of engine heading the train. For a time Monument Lane shed had a Webb
0-6-0 saddle tank and this was seen on occasional banking duty. The LNWR
version of the 0-6-0 pannier often put in an appearance whilst shedded at
Monument Lane. Harborne Yard was a busy place during the late 1920s and early
1930s and I had many happy hours watching the antics of the ex-LNWR tank
engines shunting the yard. My father was a driver at Monument Lane and
occasionally worked the branch; those times were red-letter days for me: I was
popular at school among railway-minded lads who hoped to sneak a ride on the
footplate! Only four types of tender engines used the branch - because of
restricted bridge clearances - the Cauliflowers, Webb Coal tender engines,
Jumbos and the odd Midland Class 2F locomotives, some with short cabs. I recall
clearly seeing the Webb Jumbo named Snowdon on many occasions - usually on the
1.50pm to New Street. The modern engines permitted up the Harborne
line were the 2-6-2 tanks - parallel and taper boiler types - and the 2-6-0
Class 2 tender engines.
There was a strong rumour that a new shed foreman at
Monument Lane once rostered a George V 4-4-0 tender engine to collect some
empty coaches from Harborne. It got as far as the canal bridge A late Edwardian
postcard view of Harborne station. A 2-4-2 tank loco with a 4-coach train of
coveroof stock approaches. The goods yard and shed are in the left background.
Courtesy of Warwickshire Railways 27 between Harborne Junction and Icknield
Port Road station before the driver realised the engine would not go through
the bridge - at least, so the tale goes! During the school years, I used the
train every day between Harborne and Hagley Road - 8.33 in the morning, back on
the 1.03pm from Hagley Road, returning to school on the 1.50pm and home again
on the 5.02pm from Hagley Road - providing I was not 'kept in': then it was the
5.28pm or 5.47pm. In some sketches and drawings a second platform is shewn on
the turntable loop line, but in the course of many talks with the late
Inspector Frank Westwood of New Street he could not recollect it. He was a
porter at Harborne in the early 1900s so should know!
Now, all the intermediate stations at Hagley Road, Rotton
Park (the island platform which formed a passing loop) and Icknield Port Road
have vanished without trace. The track has been lifted, the bridge over the
canal at Harborne Junction removed, and the Monument Lane shed demolished, the
home of the branch line engines for so many years. Only the station buildings
at Harborne remain, in possession of the adjacent toy firm. In its heyday this
station did a very brisk business in coal and sand traffic; the turntable was
removed in latter years and a loading dock for sand substituted. The horse dock
was usually occupied by one or two horse boxes awaiting the horses from Miss
Bullows riding school in Barlows Road - she was the Pat Smythe of her day
and competed in horse shows all over the country. The original signal box at
Harborne was unusual in design for the LNWR; a fine print in the possession of
Mr P. B. Whitehouse gives a good view of it taken about 1908. It was replaced
by a standard box which was demolished in 1948 or 1950 - I still have the
nameplate.
There were two accidents on the line, both caused by runaway
wagons. The first was long ago, on 12th July 1905, when a train of 35 loaded
trucks ran away down the branch to Harborne Junction, where they finished up in
a siding with debris scattered in all directions. A similar instance occurred
in October 1953, when ten wagons and a brake van careered down the line from
Rotton Park station into the buffers at the trap points situated opposite
Harborne Junction box. One or two wagons then shot through the fence and landed
in the canal, and the main line to the north was blocked for several hours.
There were no injuries in either accident.
Long before the days of Beeching, the line was axed in
November 1934; the last passenger train to run was the 11.08pm from New Street
station. This was dealt with at great length in the Birmingham Gazette of 26th
November 1934, even to describing the tears in Driver Carlills eyes as he
left New Street on the last passenger journey! There were a number of special
passenger trains run up the branch before the final closure. One, a Stephenson
Locomotive Society special, utilised the Dudley Port motor set hauled by an
ex-LNWR tank No 46757 on the 3rd June 1950. The same society organised a trip
on 2nd November 1963; the train had a Class 2 tender engine at each end; this
was just prior to closure on 4th November 1963.
One outstanding highlight of the Harborne line occurred on
30th April 1952, when a Midland Class 2 0-6-0 tender engine No 58185 collected
ten coaches from Harborne yard and eventually managed - unassisted - to take
them up the Woodbourne Road bank (1 in 66) into Birmingham. Particularly at
bank holidays, coaches were often stored in the sidings at Harborne when those
at Monument Lane were full, and on this occasion the train was required for a
cuptie special. There were originally 20 passenger trains a day, except Sundays
- when the occasional engineer's train worked up the branch. Coal traffic was
still conveyed until the last train on 2nd November 1963; the final train on
8th November cleared the empty wagons. All these thoughts were sparked off by
seeing the photograph of a psychedelic painting under the Woodville Road bridge
between Harborne and Hagley Road in the local paper!
FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF THE HARBORNE LINE,
BIRMINGHAM
by John T. Clewley from the Stephenson Locomotive Society
Journal, November 1974.
Mr CJ William's interesting article in the April 1973 issue
of the SLS Journal has prompted me, with some pushing from another source, to
try and remember the trains that I used to know on the Branch, nearly fifty
years ago and probably just a little before Mr Williams time, when I was
a commuter from 1922 until 1928. In those days we were called
seasons and there were many of us in the morning and evening rush
hours, also at the midday period - no free luncheon vouchers then and we had to
eat at home; it was cheaper than J. Lyons establishments could offer.
In the first few years of the period, attending a school in
another part of the City meant the 8 00am from Harborne, worked by an Aston
locomotive which had come light engine up the Branch, picked up the usual
four-coach LNWR bogie suburban set at the terminus and brought it to the
platform. It was often worked by one of the 18in Goods, a Cauliflower or
Crested as we knew them, but on occasion a 6ft 6in Jumbo would do the turn; I
remember No 193 Rocket, with its enamelled 10 shed plate on the rear edge of
the cab roof, taking us to New Street on many mornings. Quite a number of
four-coach bogie suburban sets were stabled in the sidings overnight, at
week-ends, and at bank holidays. As Mr Williams says, the turntable, which was
also the engine release, was only long enough to take these types and the 17in
Coal engines which worked the pick-up goods. I believe that in later years, the
Fowler 2-6-2 tanks of Class 3P were allowed on it, although when I visited the
line after the end of the passenger service, the table had been removed and
replaced with a trailing point. After use the table was locked on the platform
road, the locking bar being operated from the signal box and released by the
signalman on hearing the locomans whistle for it. This was also a
reminder for intending passengers who, dependent upon their distance from the
station, would know whether or not to quicken their steps.
The single line staff to Rotton Park Road was taken at the
box, some 50 yards from the platform, and soon after this we had about a mile
and a half of Woodbourne Road bank at 1 in 66 to climb before arrival at Hagley
Road station, which must have been the summit of the line. A single platform
with the usual buildings and entrance from Hagley Road, destined to become a
major bus route, comprised the station which had two sidings on the Up side of
the line; these were always full of private owner coal wagons, for coal was
cheap then and the district had a full complement of very large houses,
complete with domestics to lay the fires and clean up the dirt. The
station had only one signal, Up distant, at the end of the platform but in the
Harborne direction there was a fixed distant about a quarter mile from Hagley
Road. The line proceeded down gradient from Hagley Road to the next station,
Rotton Park Road, but just before reaching the road overbridge in front of the
station entrance footpath, the passenger may have had sight of John Barleycorn,
a traction engine type industrial locomotive (Aveling & Porter 6369/07) and
in later years, Boniface, a standard type of Barclay industrial 4-coupled
saddle tank. These engines were always cleaned and polished, dark blue with
names painted on, and they sometimes worked in the exchange sidings connecting
the private line from Mitchells & Butlers Brewery with the Harborne Branch.
I feel sure that I saw one of the LNWR Potato Roasters, a
Ramsbottom 0-4-0 saddle tank, at these sidings, presumably on loan. A Mitchells
& Butlers locomotive was scrapped in 1929 and it may well have been that
problems arose with it before the purchase of Boniface from Glasgow
Corporation. These engines were my first introduction to the then huge fleet of
privately owned locomotives in the country, in which I have been interested for
many years, but at the time of which I am writing only the Premier
Line was good enough for me.
Rotton Park Road station was a centre island platform with
overbridge access; it had the usual buildings for the line on it, together with
a ground frame. A sand drag had been installed on the Down side of the loop to
stop the train that stalled and ran back, or the wagons that became uncoupled;
it may be that the sand drag was put in after the 1905 wagon runaway mentioned
in Mr Williams article. Although the line was level at the platform it
was certainly down-grade from there to Icknield Port Road station and on to the
junction with the Stour Valley line. The Rotton Park Road to Monument Lane
staff took us first to Icknield Port Road, a single platform with buildings, no
sidings, but a starter` controlled from Harborne Junction box which
was about a quarter of a mile away across a canal, but more importantly the
Branch train had to cross the Downmain before joining the Up-main for New
Street station. Towards the middle of the period of which I am writing, it was
unusual for both main lines to be clear at the appropriate time to allow the
8.04am from Harborne to continue its journey without delay; at times some 20
minutes or more would elapse before the Icknield Port Road starter
came off and allowed us to join the Stour Valley line for Monument Lane
station, the next stop, where the staff was relinquished and tickets examined.
This single line working must have been a little out of the ordinary, as
control of the Branch was from Harborne Junction box which we had passed some
half a mile before giving up the staff.
During the late twenties many passengers left the train at
Icknield Port Road as we all had bitter experience of standing there whilst the
fireman operated the plunger switch at the starter and after an
appropriate interval commenced his walk to the Junction box. When the signal
did not go off within a few minutes of entering the station, there
was a general exodus up the embankment, via the station path, to the Birmingham
Corporation tramcar which was waiting at he Ladywood terminus (route 33), just
above the station and which would take us towards New Street station, without
further delay. If we walked a little further we came to Dudley Road, with
tramcars from the Black Country, Smethwick and Bearwood all going to the Town
Hall area, again without the delays of the branch train. When this trouble
occurred, some of the rush hour services behind the one directly concerned were
affected, sometimes being unable to leave the terminus on time - bearing in
mind the departure times of 8.04, 8.19, 8.32, 8.49 and 9.15am. As this problem
continued and developed, the writing on the wall for the ultimate demise of the
passenger service became more deeply engraved; the progress of motor bus design
and reliability enabled the Birmingham Corporation to provide a most intensive
service from the suburbs served by the Branch and it took the LMS some
considerable time to introduce cheap day tickets, other than workman's
tickets.
Around 1926-27 the single rail fare from Harborne to
Birmingham was 4½d, whilst the single bus fare was 3d, so that in
general the only people travelling on the Branch at this time were those in
possession of workman's or season tickets and very few of the latter were
first-class, although every four-coach bogie set had its quota of first-class
compartments, mainly empty in those days. Fares were, in the very late twenties
and early thirties, made more competitive by the introduction of day returns,
evening returns etc, but it was too late. The last regular passenger train
departed from New Street station at 11.08pm on Saturday 24th November 1934,
behind ex-LNWR Coal Tank No 7742; the passenger service had lasted just over
sixty years, except for Icknield Port Road, which closed from 18th May 1931.
The 2 miles 35 chains of single track remained open for freight and the brewery
traffic until 4th November 1963, when complete closure took place and the
venture of the Harborne Railway Company, which had been formed in 1866, saw the
opening on 10th August 1874, never owned either locomotives or rolling stock -
it was worked by the LNWR from the start - but just could not last until its
centenary.
think that the real passenger decline commenced with the
1926 strike, during which a very restricted service was provided by volunteer
crews, mainly utilising a Webb 5ft 6in tank which seemed a most unsuitable type
for inexperienced men on a steeply graded line; a stop was often required for a
blow-up. During schooldays (1922-26) there were occasions when I
was able to return home on the 4.50pm from New Street and the locomotive for
the service was usually a Webb 5ft 6in 2-4-2 tank which quite often bore the
14S shed plate; after becoming more knowledgeable on these matters, I realised
that it had come from Stoke-on-Trent and on reflection I can only assume that
it had come in from Walsall over the Aston line, after having worked a Rugeley
to Walsall train. Possibly it had worked via Stafford and the Trent Valley, or
via Stone and Colwich. Like some of the commuter services on the Branch, it
stabled the four bogie coaches at the Harborne terminus and returned light
engine to New Street, possibly via Monument Lane shed for coal and water -
there was no water available on the Branch. This small and quite old engine
then commenced its return home as pilot to the train engine of the 6.58pm to
Wolverhampton; this was often a Prince or Experiment.
The following train on the Branch was the 5.15pm off New
Street platform 2, usually rostered for an 18in Radial tank and this too
stabled its coaches at Harborne, as did the 5.40pm with the locomotive running
back light engine; the 4.50pm and the 5.40pm were Saturdays excepted. The real
Harborne Express was, however, the 6.00pm off New Street, again platform 2; I
often travelled on this after schooldays were over and business life did not
allow me to get the 4.50pm; it ran non-stop to Rotton Park Road Mondays to
Fridays but behaved as the others on Saturdays. In my memory, I see this as an
18in Goods from Aston shed, which had to reduce speed at Monument Lane station
to pick up the staff from the signalman who had come on to the platform, and
after a hard slog up the 1 in 66 from Harborne Junction, passed Icknield Port
Road at about 20mph and came on to rest at Rotton Park Road at 6.07pm; well,
according to the time table, but generally it was about 6.10pm. The
bowler-hatted city types and others detrained here and at Hagley Road where it
was due at 6.10pm; Harborne was booked to be reached at 6.14pm. A quick turn
and run round and it was away at 6.21pm to arrive in New Street at 6.50pm,
after a wait of 6 minutes at Rotton Park Road where the 6.17pm (Saturdays
excepted) crossed it.
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