Railways around Coventry

Hi all A pic recorded yesterday when I was aboard the Nuneaton flyer, travelling at nearly twenty five miles per hour across Coundon Crossing.

There was a double-headed container freight on the same line tonight, a Freightliner 66 and a rare (for these parts) DRS 66. I don't think the line will be with us much longer due to a shocking lack of maintenance in recent years.

Hi Dutchman. Maybe the tide will turn. The station inspector at Coventry showed me the plans, which they have received for the first time for the new stations on that route. There has been talk about new stations for over a decade but this is the first time that civil plans have appeared for staff to see. We wait in hope, Dutchman.

Do the plans include new bridges, embankments and viaducts Philip as otherwise they will be pointless? The existing ones have been left to literally rot and they won't be able to handle the load much longer. I think there's a speed restriction already in force? To replace them will cost billions and I can't see any future government agreeing to fund that.

Forgive me if I'm wrong (not unusual) but I thought that plans had at last been approved for a station at the Ricoh Arena and and also at Bermuda, plus improvements at Bedworth

What's the point of a new station when the bridges, viaducts and embankments which support the line are crumbling away?

I assume the £23m includes provision for infrastructure upgrades

How do you define 'upgrade'? It's too late to repair the line as the damage has already been done. That leaves a complete rebuild as the only option. I've yet to see any mention of rebuilding the line in any proposal, only for new stations and platforms which will never be used.

Hi all Talking of infrastructure, this was the state of two lines running through Derby station. They could film gardening club from the site. To think that Derby is the centre of railway engineering excellence in the UK, is it not surprising that they lose orders to overseas companies? Coventry is not so bad, hey! I was aboard the train whilst it was in Derby station. The line nearest me had a loco move along it & I watched the rail sink into the rotten sleepers as it did so. The second line does not look as though it is ever used, but what a sight for a prospective customer.

Hi Neil Yes, its all gone. The only reminder of its former days is the layby siding, east of the new low bridge where the visiting Royal Trains are still parked & serviced. I still have & enjoy a bite & drink at the nearby pub when out that way. On current plans, the new proposed high speed train passes that spot at an elevation of nearly eighty feet off ground level. Some view from the pub!

Another photo, taken this morning, of the view towards Lythalls Lane bridge from Holbrook Way, showing the location of Three Spires Junction Signal Box (long gone!)

As a kid I remember playing on Morris playing fields, there was a signal box by the Swan Lane bridge and many a time the signalman would let us in and watch him at work, was this line only used for Morris Engines or was it main line for anywhere else????

That would have been Bell Green signal box. The line also served Bell Green and Gosford Green goods depots, the Humber works and Royal Ordnance Factory.

This would have been the later site of Wards of Bell Green (Builders merchants) by the Stoney Stanton Rd/ Bell Green Rd bridge

I was talking about the end of playing field where Stoke Heath meets Swan Lane just before the bridge, but do remember the Bell Green box.