Birmingham New Street Station

BR Period Locomotives: lnwrbns_br342

Monument Lane shed's 2F 0-6-0 No 58271 heads a southbound enthusiasts' special, waiting to leave Birmingham New Street's Platform 9, on Saturday 30th May 1959. A Stephenson Locomotive Society headboard would be fitted to the engine before departure. The special was put on to visit local lines not usually open to the public, such as the Halesowen branch. A similar train was run the following Saturday. No.58271, a former Midland Railway veteran built in 1896, was well suited to the purpose, as anything heavier than a 2F would not have been allowed to cross the Halesowen branch's viaduct. It was withdrawn two years later from Monument Lane in June 1961. Behind it Saltley's 4MT 2-6-4T No.42337 heads a southbound local service standing at Platform 10. Built in March 1929, this parallel boilered engine was an early version of a successful LMSR standard type used on suburban and main line stopping trains. In the early sixties it was reallocated to Stockport, from where it was withdrawn in December 1963.

John Dews

Mick Bramich (an old 'arbun' name) writes 'This image shows ex-MR 0-6-0 No 58271 which was for many years the Harborne Branch Line locomotive. The engine was known affectionately by Monument Lane crews as ‘Molly’. I watched it often, as a boy on the way home from school, struggling up the bank from Harborne and having to pause for a blow up, or even reversing back to Harborne to shed some of its load in the goods yard. I also called the fire brigade on one occasion after she had set the Hagley Road cutting on fire with her efforts. I often saw her shunting at Hagley Road as well. This was all between 1957 and 1962 when she was replaced by a diesel shunter for the last few months of operation.

I may even have ‘cabbed’ her at Monument Lane shed, a regular Sunday morning bike ride in those steam days. I saw the last train with a pair of Ivatt 2-6-0s but was unfortunately not aboard. I walked the track from Harborne to the junction with the main line after closure and a friend took lots of pictures. I do not have any of the prints. My father was on one of the last passenger trains in 1934. One of the reasons given for closure at the time was that the Harborne station master’s daughter was coming home from school and the train was stopped on the bridge before the station and she mistook the stop for the station, opened the door, and fell to her death down the high embankment near the Chad Valley toy factory (possibly still the Mirror Laundry at that time).'

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