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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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Curzon Street Excursion Station
This facility was brought into use because of the
difficulties of coping at New Street with heavy excursion traffic -
particularly on Bank Holiday Mondays and for the annual Onion Fair (held at the
end of each September). The first advertised excursion was on Good Friday 3rd
April 1874 to Sutton Coldfield (advert in Birmingham Daily Post 28th March
1874, page 4). Albeit then referred to as “Curzon Street Goods
Station” or “New Canal Street”, it was later dubbed “Curzon
Street Excursion Station”. Subsequent use – particularly for traffic
to Sutton Park on Bank Holiday Mondays – was both by L&NWR and Midland
companies, to Sutton Coldfield and Sutton Park stations, respectively. The
facility also came in useful in autumn 1884 for diversion of trains while the
L&NWR tunnel into New Street was under engineer's occupation –
presumably in connection with the expansion of New Street station the following
year (this was some twelve years prior to opening the second pair of tracks
into New Street from the south). The final identified use was on Easter Monday
3rd April 1893 when 4,000 (!) excursionists were carried from Curzon Street to
Sutton Park according to Birmingham Daily Post, 4th April 1893, page 5. A news
item in Birmingham Daily Post, 18th April 1893, page 5, warned of the
forthcoming closure and an L&NWR advert in the same paper of 18th May 1893,
page 1, stated that Curzon Street excursion station would not be used at
Whitsun 1893. The same was emphasised in their advertising for August holiday
Monday. Part of the excursion station had to be taken out of use to accommodate
works for new layout of the Aston line, introduced 7th May 1893. Thereafter
Vauxhall & Duddeston (L&NWR) and Saltley (Midland) were used for the
Sutton Park excursions. It is possible that occasional subsequent use may have
been made until the end of the century, although no mention has been found in
the Birmingham press.
As an aside, Michael Quick's compilation RAILWAY PASSENGER
STATIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN - A CHRONOLOGY (2019) states (page 74): "L&NWR
Officers [minutes] 10205 and 10344 show that for Birmingham Onion Fair in 1873
L&NWR trains to/from south used it." However, all press advertising
relating to excursions to the Birmingham Onion Fair (25th-27th Sep 1873) that I
have found showed them to/from New Street, and the Birmingham Daily Post report
(of 25th Sep 1874) about the 1874 Onion Fair does confirm that 1874 was the
first year that excursions for the Fair used Curzon Street. I therefore assume
the reading of those minutes (I have not had the opportunity of seeing them
myself) is erroneous in suggesting that trains used the station in 1873 -
although I have every reason to believe that the difficulties encountered in
dealing at New Street with the excursions for the 1873 Fair led the L&NWR
to convert part of the Curzon Street goods depot as an excursion facility in
time for the 1874 season, but as this is surmise on my part, I do not mention
the 1873 Onion Fair in my text above.
Richard Maund
If you are interested in knowing more about Curzon Street
Excursion Station you can do no better than to read Richard Foster's series of
books on Birmingham New Street - The Story of a Great Station including
Curzon Street published by Wild Swan Publications Ltd of Didcot. I would
like to take this opportunity of crediting Richard Foster as being the source
for much of the rich information provided in the captions to the
photographs.
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