Bradshaw's

For those who have been watching "Great British Railway Journeys" with Michael Portillo you might be interested to know that you can purchase a facsimile of the book featured in the series. At £5 (postage free) from Amazon (listed as Bradshaw's Handbook) it's a bargain. The section on Coventry takes up half a page and is full of snippets of interesting information.

Hi & thank you for that. I do go on so much about railways that I am pleased that someone else has posted this. I have been watching it DBC.

I love watching the Michael Portillo programme too. He is very natural and makes all the journeys throughout Britain really interesting. It's sad to think of how Dr Beeching destroyed so many railways in the 60's. I have many memories of steam trains but they weren't perhaps as romantic as enthusiasts today make out. They were often very smelly and dirty. I used to love walking along the corridors on trains. I have special memories of travelling under the Woodhead tunnel to Sheffield as a child. I always found it very exciting and seemed to go on forever.

I had to laugh at this little gem from the book about the Coventry to Nuneaton line:- "After leaving Coventry, on this branch the unimportant stations of Counden Road, Foleshill, Longford and Hawkesbury Lane are quickly passed" . As for Nuneaton, most of the entry is just taken up with the architecture of the railway station.

Hi, never miss it, one of the best things on tele at the moment. Saying about trains being dirty brought back a distant memory. Going back to the 50s, as a family on a Sunday afternoon, we would walk from Lower Ford St up to Grosvenor Rd then pass over the footbridge to the Spencer Park. My treat was to wait for a train passing underneath, then get covered inside a cloud of steam and smoke, the smell was heaven. It was then onwards to Devil's Dungeon and the Milk Bar. The way back was to call in at the Rocket (I am sure it had a different name then) for pop and crisps in the garden. also watching the trains from the bridge overlooking the Cov station. I can smell it now, no smell like it.

That was true at the time, it wasn't until much later the freight terminals were added to those locations, passenger traffic increased and they grew in importance. The bridge across Holyhead Road also had to be widened to accommodate the line to the coal wharf. The transition from stone to brick construction is very visible from under the bridge. By the way, the spelling of 'Counden' was also correct at the time.

I'm always amazed at how a certain word, phrase or photo can conjure up our own image and very personal memory. Thanks for sharing scrutiny!

Yes it was the Railway Tavern. You really didn't want to be on Humber Avenue bridge when a heavy duty freight loco passed underneath. I got caught in the middle of it once and nearly choked to death!