The Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Sign

 A picture I took in January 2014 that I found mildly interesting and wanted to know a little more, the plaques were on the side of a building at 125 Northwood Street, Birmingham and the company occupying the building that I was there to deal with were AE Harris & Company (Birmingham) an engineering company that as of 10 June 2022 no longer seem to occupy the site but are still trading. Looking on google maps it appears most of the site has been cleared for development.

The Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company was established in 1854 for the purpose of building locomotives and carriages for use on the railway. Despite the name the company also built aeroplanes, gliders, buses, trolleybuses, and tanks, which during World War II included A10 Cruiser Tank, Challenger Tank, Churchill Tank, Challenger Tank and Valentine Tank.

The company saw a decline in locomotive and carriage stock being built up to 1963, which was the year they restructured, dividing the works up in to smaller units and becoming a real estate and finance company. In June 2014 the company reformed as a not for profit organisation to rebuild locomotives from the 1960 and earlier no longer in use.

The picture can also be seen on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked.

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Vintage Railway Pictures. Sir Nigel Gresley, Sir Lamiel, a Mystery and the Ribblehead Viaduct

In addition to my own pictures I like to collect postcards, photo and slide collections from others. The following 4 pictures are part of a collection of slides I recently acquired and am currently digitising, the copyright was assigned to me during the purchase.

The 1st of my images from this collection is the LNER Class A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley locomotive. Built in Doncaster in 1937, the 100th Gresley Pacific built remained in service until 1st February 1966. Since withdrawal the engine has been refurbished a couple of times and now runs along heritage lines and is used for rail excursion tours along the mainline. On the day the picture was taken it was running from Marylebone Station, London to Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire.

Image 2 I have entitled Ghost Train, due to it taking on a blue hue whist I was editing it on photoshop. Other than being pictured on the 5th August 1986 I have no other information regarding what the locomotive is or where it was stopped.

The 3rd image is of Southern Railway 777 Sir Lamiel, taken on the 1st December 1986. The loco is a N15 King Arthur class, built for Southern Railway by the North British Locomotive Company. Entering service in June 1965, Sir Lamiel ran until October 1961. Now part of the national collection it's home is the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire.

Slide 4 is of the Ribblehead Viaduct, taken in August 1976. Then was still then a double track across the viaduct and I believe it to have been taken from the near to where Ribblehead Station would have been sighted. This was during the period of the station being closed between 1970 and 1986. The viaduct was also subject of closure threats along with the line during this period, with British Rail proposing that the costly repairs to the Ribblehead Viaduct would make the line unviable.

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Jubliee Class Locomotive 45562 Alberta.

The video that follows is a short one taken on the 29th February 2020. I also took 3 images from the video which can be seen below. 

On the day I was out for a walk through North Dean a woodland that stretchers along the valley from Copley to West Vale and up towards Greetland and Norland. The main railway line between Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge runs along the bottom of the woods and whilst out for my wonder I was made aware that a steam train was due to run along the line shortly, so I decided to set up along the line from the bridge that crossers the River Calder, arriving just as the Train was approaching from Greetland Junction. I had enough time to set up my action camera facing east and my phone facing west near to the track but a safe distance away, I didn't want to become a safety issue. 

The end result is the short video below, which can be seen here or on YouTube.

I can't push the point enough that although it may look close to the railway at no point was I anywhere near the trackbed. The following were taken from the footage and can be seen on Clickasnap.

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