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LNWR 2-4-0 Samson Class No 2153 'Isis' stands adjacent to Monument Lane shed's coaling stage and water tank. Harry Jack writes that this was 'another batch of Bleasdale's mystery prints showing various engines posed in front of a water tank with a large shed behind. This group includes Bloomers TORCH and TRENTHAM, Samsons ISIS, LOADSTONE and SPHINX, Newtons MARLBOROUGH and ABERCROMBIE, Crewe Goods No 337 and saddle tank No 946. For some reason it has been claimed that these pictures were taken at Wolverton, but checking against old plans of this and other possible sheds left the location in no doubt: it could only be Monument Lane. Fortunately, this part of Birmingham was covered by Ordnance pans surveyed in 1886-7 and published in 1889 to the magnificent scale of 1:500 – 7.2in to 100 yards, or about 10½ feet to one mile! From these plans it can be seen that the shed in the photographs was the original building of 1858, parallel with and just south of the main line. This shed held only three roads, although it looks bigger on some photographs because of the wide angle of the camera lens. From details on the plan (plus a little local investigation) other photographs can be recognised as at Monument Lane shed. The 2-4-0 tank 2251 and another Samson, UNICORN, were taken looking south-east from the shed, with the canal retaining wall behind. Two other Samsons, LIVER and SERPENT, were taken at the west end of the shed. recognisable not only by the architectural details but also by the St. Vincent Street skew bridge in the background. If all these Samsons were at their home shed, then No 2153 to No 2158 were based at Monument Lane in the late 1870s. Another example of the block-allocations described by SS Scott.
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