Railways around Coventry

What a shame Philip . What was the shield on the rail car for.

Hi Morgana, The railcar worked initially between Leamington & Coventry. The shield was a derived pattern for Michelin rubber who were trying to develop a rail pneumatic tyre. All rail vehicles have tyres, its just that they are usually made out of high quality steel, not rubber. It was the outbreak of war that stopped the development, which had resulted in Michelin setting up a local subsidiary called " The Coventry Pneumatic Railcar Company". The other big issue was that the rubber tyres would not operate track location sensors.

Thank you Philip for explaining about the shield and tyres on the trains . Off to watch Oh Mr Porter now on you tube

I was very interested in Ron's train photos, those locomotives look very impressive with their flash paint jobs, headlights and things. Excuse my ignorance but are these trains run by private companies or do they come under the British Rail Banner. And What the hell is Evian water? I used to work for British Rail in the 60's as a fireman and boy from these posts have things changed with freight trains to Europe and all that. The photo with the gas works brought back a few memories, weren't those gas holders impressive, like standing works of art, a pity they're gone. I remember going on a school trip for a guided tour of the gas works, we must of walked there from the Broad Street School, I can't remember any transport being supplied. What a place, with all those wheels and dials, the massive buildings, going up and down lots of steel stairways the smells and the dirt. I'm pretty sure we didn't even have to wear a hard hat and went home gloriously dirty. One of the jobs I did on the railways was passenger runs on the Nuneaton line but I can't remember much about it, not even those gasholders, that's why the photo gave me a bit of a shock, how come I didn't remember them while working along there, strange. I'm posting a photo of a local passenger train to Nuneaton that I was fireman on at Coventry station headed by a standard class 5. Cheers

Love the photo Kerbstone mainly because it's so typical of Coventry (Standard 5s and Black 5s).

Hi all Thank you for a fabulous picture of a Standard Class 4. It is a class 4, slightly smaller than the five. The fours were built (on paper at least) to update the western region manors, able to run on lighter routes than those that were barred to the heavier class 5s. They were good sturdy locos, both in single & double chimney versions. The closure of so many of the secondary routes, particularly in Wales meant that they were used on main routes towards the end of steam. I do remember them working the Nuneaton to Leamington line. The larger standard class 5s (in contrast to the LMS black five) were quite rare in our area, the only one that I can ever remember was on a football special from Southampton, as most of the standard class 5s were allocated to the southern.

Fortunately, six of these survived into preservation 75014 - Dartmouth Steam Railway 75027 - Bluebell Railway 75029 - North Yorkshire Moors Railway 75069 - Severn Valley Railway 75078 - Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 75079 - Mid Hants Railway

One for Philip - I'm sure he will immediately recognise this location - 46050, 14 April 1982 And some rare visitors to Nuneaton - a class 415 waiting for onward transfer back to SR from BREL Horwich, 26 April 1982

Hi & yes to the first picture Would a fish & chip shop, or a pub called the "Dog" offer clues to the location? The train in the top pic, headed by what we called a "Peak", although the real Peaks were actually the prototypes, is heading for New St, having travelled from Derby. Most of these services started either north of the border or Newcastle, & finished up either in Plymouth or Cardiff. The line coming in from the far right is from Nuneaton.

It looks like Water Orton, looking east from the footbridge near the station bridge. According to Google maps there is Dog Inn nearby. Peter.

Without naming it, Philip has as expected immediately recognised the location as Water Orton - clearly popular with train fans years ago, and still so today - and of course, the chippie is close by!

Hi both, Thank you both for this, very happy memories. The car park is attached to the Dog pub, It was a mecca for train-spotters as everything travelling north east out of B'ham can be seen. Also at this date, several collieries as well as the oil terminal & English China Clays were all in action providing freight passage to both Bescot & Washwood Heath yards. Back in the fifties it was where I saw my first midland region garratt.

Many think it is a joke when you say when a loco or carriage or wagon has a flat tyre. As Philip has said, every rail-going vehicle has a steel tyre. When you hear a 'ber-dum' as it passes at least one wheel has a flat. When that is the case it must be taken out of service at the very first opportunity due to the severe damage they can cause to todays high-speed/heavy tonnage rails. A flat is normally created by a sticking brake - if the brake locks on the wheel can no longer rotate causing the outer steel tyre to slide along - rather than run - the steel track, thereby creating a flat. They are replaced in the same way as road-going tyres - knocking the steel rims off the axle and replacing with a new one. Some locos have their tyres 'turned' at depots, the closest so equipped to here is Tyseley depot in Birmingham. Evian water ???? Incredibly over priced bottled water from a spring in France. Perhaps it's me but I cannot taste the difference between Evian water and Severn Trent. The ironic thing is this traffic first started to run in 2007, a summer that was marked by excessive rainfall that caused flooding in many parts of the Country. Fortunately we missed most of it around here. Tonight sees me properly back on line for the first time in a little under a month. Once I've got myself up to date I'll post another 'then and now' from the area, especially seeing as work has finally gotten underway on the building of the station at the Ricoh. If anybody has got any requests.....

Whilst riding around Cov on Sunday for the heritage weekend - I rode up London Road specifically to see if I could see Stephensons Viaduct across the Sherbourne. What a truely undiscovered gem. I'll wager 9/10 people who travel along there or visit the tip have no idea the bridge is even there let alone who was involved in getting it built. And a quick google reveals it may even be resurrected as part of a park across Charterhouse fields............. Telegraph News

Hi Neil, This was a pic that I posted of the same viaduct, when we were searching through Coventry's engineering depots, looking for a depot location.