Railways around Coventry

The subject of the "Ordnance Loop" has reappeared in Covjb35's "Industrial buildings" thread recently, and having researched his photos on Google Maps, I decided to take a look for myself this morning to see what remains of this piece of railway track, as I had not seen it before These are my photos taken at the end of Smith Street Looking from Smith Street towards the gates of the Ordnance Factory and beyond the gates into the Ordnance Factory Looking the opposite way, across the end of Smith Street and beyond the fence in the previous photo

Hi Midland Red, Love these pics too. Brill

70013 'Oliver Cromwell' passed Coventry today as expected, on its way to Kidderminster, ready for tomorrow's return charter. It was marshalled on the rear of the train, hauled by a Class 47 diesel, to avoid the need for any shunting of the stock whilst on the Severn Valley Railway. Here it is passing through Canley. A reminder, it calls at Coventry, platform 2, tomorrow 0937-0940.

Hi & thank you, Ron Brill!

Shunting in Coventry's goods yard, now Central Six.

I thought that was a model with a painted backdrop at first! I'd also completely forgotten the travelling crane in the background.

Me too - I seem to remember you could hear it from quite a way away?

Thanks Philip. Oh what joy, no I didn't receive a bunch of flowers but I did sit and watch The Best of British Steam Compilation 2012. Just to stand on the station platform and hear the train coming in and then seeing it appear was such a thrill for me as a child. There is a special thrill to smell it and scramble on knowing you are actually on a train ride and hoping it will go on for ever. As a matter of interest, were, if so when, did women ever become engine drivers? That would be a poser, as to who was the very first. That thought never occurred to me until now. Thank you so much for the link Philip. I am now going to watch it again over a cup of coffee, and do you know I have now learned all about inner check rails.

Hi Dreamtime During the war, women were involved with all aspects of railway operations & I can confirm that today, I see more female train managers than male.

Hi Midland Red, Hi all Bachmann do several versions of third rail emu like this one two, three or four units. The platforms are not long enough for anything longer than a two unit. When Ongar was part of London Underground, that was served by a two car 1938 tube stock. It would not take me long to add a conductor rail to the outer rail on the lines into Bishops Heath. We need at least one more DMU type train for our existing level of service & if we were to add an EMU or two, to Bishops Heath, that frees up one DMU. Bishops Heath commuter service is used daily by two of our forum ladies. They love it! Hornby do a range also like this one. Newcastle had a standard gauge metro system, so why not Coventry. We could have the southern regions cast-offs, refurbished like new & rumbling into the tunnel. By the way, gossip coming from head office suggests that Bramble Lane station has been pencilled in for closure. The station masters house would become a private dwelling. Since Hounds Hill has become a through station, its passenger numbers have soared as have Bishops Heath, but numbers at Bramble Lane have dropped. Hardly any train stops there now in consequence. Notice our authentic fiction detail, matching the thinking of BR in the fifties & sixties.

I'm not a big fan of Jubilees Philip. To me it was 'racehorse' whereas I prefer 'workhorses' like the Black 5.

Hi Dutchman, Hi all, When the Jubs first entered service, they were an instant failure, much to the embarrassment of Stanier. The Black Fives were more powerful & faster with a greater duty range. It was the work on modifying the Halls that educated the Crewe & Derby engineers that the modern colliery coal needed a bigger grate area in which to burn. From 1947 onwards, all of the Jubs received these modifications, along with others, that then gave us locomotives that really did their stuff. They then became express passenger locomotives, smaller in size than on any other region, but able to handle the B'ham two hour express to London. In fact, their performance was such that on the premium fare (with compensation for late arrival) some of their official non-stop timings were not bettered until thirty years after withdrawal. Make no mistake, I loved the Black Fives, the go anywhere workhorses of the LMS, but as a train-spotter growing up in Coventry, the Jubs were the most frequently seen express passenger locomotives in Coventry. So for me they are synonymous with our Coventry scene.

Hi On the subject of our real railways, a raging row has brewed up where a late night Virgin train from Euston to Nuneaton, cannot stop at Nuneaton as the station is shut at 11.30pm. One suggestion on the wireless this morning was to throw the passengers out on a mail-bag ejector mechanism as the train hurtles by at high speed!

Just click on picture for full BBC story.

Hi all People living in the West Midlands (Centro Area) might be losing their/our free pensioners train travel. At present, my only thoughts are that the scheme is just so hotch-potch, dependant on your post code. When Midland Red & I go trainspotting for a day, it costs him £6 whereas I at present go free. Let's hope that something good does come out of this. When I was on hols in Yorkshire, I discovered that they do not have free train travel, pensioners have to pay half fare. Centro are also cutting half of their workforce.