Class 116 Derby 3-car Suburban DMUs
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50061
25th February 1981
The old unused island platform at Kings Norton station gains a new crisp coat on the morning of 25th February 1981. 50061 is making for Redditch with a train from Four Oaks, it is passing the old Midland station buildings which outlasted the main buildings by many years. In the background two WMPTE buses can be seen on Pershore Road South. Geoff Dowling.
17th March 1962
Standing in the middle of the Wolverhampton Canal near Dudley Rd Birmingham is a large brick pillar. This photograph shows that it once supported the steel bridge that carried the Harborne branch railway high over the water. On 17th March 1962, a grim, dark day, the Branch Line Society ran a Birmingham area railtour that included the Harborne Branch in the itinerary, a branch that was 2.5 miles long and terminated at a neat little station in Harborne. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1934 but freight from Chad Valley toys, M&B brewery and several coal merchants kept the branch alive until 1963. Today the station area has been built over but most of the trackbed is a delightful well surfaced walkway, an oasis in the busy city.
Image taken by Peter Shoesmith.
This picture appears in B.R. Past & Present #61 Birmingham p.24 Dowling & Whitehouse 2010. Geoff Dowling and John Whitehouse Collection.
50863
Set Number: 313
circa 1976
Class 116 set (C)313 (50863 and presumably 59371 + 50916) heading away from Barry Island station. Probably circa 1976. Stuart Mackay Collection.
53095
27th May 1988
M53095 at Vic Berry, Leicester on 27th May 1988 with SC59568 just behind in blue/grey with Scottie Dog and most likely SC59560 above in Strathcylde. Nicholas Youngman Collection.
16th August 1975
Stitched, good and proper. What could go wrong? A guarantee of a Western, a sunny day and an unimpeded classic view towards Birmingham City centre, lovely. The Western appears on time and, beneath the feet a horrid vibration and the mocking rasp of dmu exhaust. Oh no not now, please! Well they are only 3 car, could just get away with it...no, it HAD to be a 6 car set and the 116 leading just HAD to have a dodgy engine. The loco was D1054 Western Governor and it was working the 12.25 Birmingham - Paddington. I never did get this shot with a Western. In these digi days with a zoom lens and multiple shots per second this could easily be avoided, me I'm still crying inside...
The scene is much changed today, all the buildings have been swept away and the land has been given over to the Small Heath by-pass, the railway is shielded by a tunnel of tree growth. 16/08/1975. Geoff Dowling.