Railways around Coventry

It's not that far of the mark, Philip. I assume you are aware that there have been three separate proposals to link Coventry with the former Midland Railway at Arley over the years. None of them ever stood a chance of coming to reality due to the topography - too many steep hills - and too many deep valleys. Fine for cars, but not for trains. The last one in the early 20th Century (around 1908 but my notes are currently locked away) proposed a terminus opposite Craven Street, was to run alongside the River Sherbourne and cross it roughly where the present Grayswood Avenue/Holyhead Road junction now exists. It was tied in with a proposal to extend the Tramway - the Tramway extension was authorised, not surprisingly the branch line to Arley was not.

Google Book search has some Bradshaw's guides. Here's part of page 54 from 1857: You will find timetables for other dates there too.

Hi & thank you for that Ron, I was aware of at least one early 20th Century scheme, but also that it may have been considered, as an alternative to the lengthy periods that Arley tunnel was shut, as a result of subsidence.

That is brill, Macsporran.

Wow! Thanks for that Ron Having lived in Craven Street I can just imagine how it would have been to have had a station terminus at the bottom of the road

As far as I can tell, only Bradshaw's for 1857, 1859 and 1865 are fully viewable. Here's the local train times for 1865 (page 115). Some other Bradshaw guides have been reprinted, qv. Amazon etc.

Time for another then and now.... the location is somewhat obvious. The 'before' was taken 12th March 1993, and shows Class 37 37222 arriving at Three Spires Junction, with a load of empty HEA-type wagons from Toton. By this time, Coventry Colliery is no more and the wagons will be loaded with smokeless fuel produced at the Homefire Plant. The following day, the loaded wagons will form a trainload to the Coal Concentration Depot at Blackburn, Lancashire, from where the 'coal' will be distributed on the whole to the, even then, few remaining domestic customers. Three Spires marshalling yard is in last days and will close completely after the closure of Homefire. Bedlam Lane crossing has disappeared and lies beneath the new bridge on which I am standing. The bridge was constructed to carry the A444, clearly behind me, which has yet to open. The site of Foleshill Gas Works had been cleared a few years prior to this, and lies derelict. The gas holders remain however, and were to do so for a few more years yet. The 'now' was taken a few days ago, and shows one of the heavy regular Freightliner trains heading for the docks at Southampton. The Ricoh Arena and its car park have replaced the gas holders. The shopping centre and its support infrastructure has been constructed on the site of Foleshill Gas Works. The location of the new station at the Ricoh is in the middle distance, immediately to the north of the passenger subway. Contractors will move onto the site in September, with an opening expected in May 2015.

That's the first Class 70 I've seen despite living next to the line!

Great pair of photos Ron, thanks for sharing

Freightliner 70s work every day to and from Southampton - good bets to Southampton are either of 1107 (4O49) or 1239 (4O27) at Coventry. These trains run Tuesday through Friday. Good bet northbound is 1956 at Coventry (4M99), Monday through Friday. Seeing as Freightliner loco diagrams are non-class specific, 70s can actually turn up on any of Freightliners container train workings through Coventry. Additionally, the Colas engineers train from Westbury to Bescot is timetabled to pass Coventry at 1416 and Coundon Road at 1419, Monday through Thursday. This is booked a Colas class 70 and can feature quite regularly up to three locos, as this working is used to move their locos around as necessary to meet their engineering commitments. Here is one such working about to cross Coundon Road.

An image taken over six and a half years ago and already history.... Having arrived at Wembley yard in London directly from France that morning, a Class 60 loco hauls a full-length train of Evian water destined the Danone Waters distribution depot at ProLogis Park. The weather is nothing short of atrocious and shows to a great degree one of the big advantages of digital photography. The date is 4th January 2008, and the train is taking the ProLogis branch having just passed under Lythalls Lane bridge. It will pass through the site of what was Three Spires marshalling yard (now the Ricoh car park) and over Hen Lane bridge before attacking the steep climb up to what was the Colliery site. The full length train really was massive, and regularly loaded to 44 vehicles, trailing over 2000 tons. The Class 60 is a heavy-haul loco and their availability was somewhat restricted at the time. The normal train was scheduled for a lighter Class 66, which could not haul a full-length train up the hill to ProLogis. Consequently the train was booked to work in two portions from Coventry North Yard (alongside Central Six). The first part arrived at ProLogis around 0730. The loco then ran back to Coventry North Yard to collect the second portion, arriving back at ProLogis around 0845. The full train of empties departed around 1100, heading for London, the Channel Tunnel and France. Availability of a Class 60 avoided all this messing about but did create extra shunt moves at ProLogis Park due to the massive length of the train. Today the line sadly doesn't look its best, with long grass and even small bushes growing through the track in places. Despite this it is still maintained and awaits the resumption of freight services at some point in the future....

The September edition of the magazine "Modern Railways" has a nice half-page colour picture of Coton arches which according to the caption, has just been repointed. The magazine also has another couple of colour pictures of the Nuneaton - Coventry line, one near the Ricoh stadium and the other near Three Spires junction. All these pictures were taken in July this year. As a side not, my wife spent her first few years living in the shadow of Coton Arches in the early 50's . The row of cottages where she lived have long been demolished.

Coventry pneumatic rail car. Is that you Philip looking out the window LINK

Hi Morgana, That was long gone before I was born, sadly.