Historic England - The Black Country

[albion68]

I never did Old Oak Common, which is crazy because I bunked Willesden three or four times not realizing OOK was only five mins walk away!

I did Wolverhampton Stafford Road shed every Sunday morning for years, but a lack of knowledge as above [no internet then!] for the first year or so made me miss a large part of the shed! One morning as usual I entered the shed by climbing the embankment and following the pathway over the canal bridge and under the LMS viaduct walking face on towards the shed. Coming towards me in the distance was what looked like the shed foreman so I ducked into a doorway in an old brick wall on the left.

Like something from a child's book I found myself in a different world. I was standing in the central of three large semi derelict roundhouses, at the time this center one was was roofless. There were a few locomotives in there, apparently when the works yard was full they used this area to park ex works locos. I never new all this existed! The atmosphere was very eerie, it all had a quiet abandoned look about it, which is not surprising as apparently the two outer roundhouses and been closed for use many years ago.

A never to be forgotten experience.

absolutely fantastic experience woods.mine was but not so dramatic was going from Wolverhampton l.level to Stafford road on the footplate of king John.they use to change engines at low level.my late uncle was a singleman which box I don’t know somewhere between West Brom and low level.he arranged for me and my mate to be on low level at the time of the change over.can you the imagine two 13 year old kids the adrenaline was coming out our ears never to be forgotten.P.S.whats kids got today to equal these experiences.

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

absolutely fantastic experience woods.mine was but not so dramatic was going from Wolverhampton l.level to Stafford road on the footplate of king John.they use to change engines at low level.my late uncle was a singleman which box I don’t know somewhere between West Brom and low level.he arranged for me and my mate to be on low level at the time of the change over.can you the imagine two 13 year old kids the adrenaline was coming out our ears never to be forgotten.P.S.whats kids got today to equal these experiences.

Fantastic mate. I had a similar but slightly less dramatic experience. I was with a mate on the fence close to the Cannock Road signal box which was just north of Low Level station. The signal man, who turned out to be a guy that lived at the top of our street, recognized me and got us a ride on a the footplate of a little pannier tank engine that was running back to the shed. Not as grand as a King but like you say never to be forgotten.

One of the saddest sights sites I have seen was looking over the wall of Dunstall Park Station into Stafford Road shed yard and seeing all the King locomotives in a row, withdrawn from service never to run again. It was in 1961 I think.

[albion68]

Fantastic mate. I had a similar but slightly less dramatic experience. I was with a mate on the fence close to the Cannock Road signal box which was just north of Low Level station. The signal man, who turned out to be a guy that lived at the top of our street, recognized me and got us a ride on a the footplate of a little pannier tank engine that was running back to the shed. Not as grand as a King but like you say never to be forgotten.

One of the saddest sights sites I have seen was looking over the wall of Dunstall Park Station into Stafford Road shed yard and seeing all the King locomotives in a row, withdrawn from service never to run again. It was in 1961 I think.

they were all gone by 1962 woods,only 3 remaining in preservation,a little snippet but you might know they were 2king William 111,first one was involved in a accident and was scrapped just after being built and replaced by a second.that little pannier tank you mentioned it’s was still a working engine ,and probably doing a intragual job.

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

they were all gone by 1962 woods,only 3 remaining in preservation,a little snippet but you might know they were 2king William 111,first one was involved in a accident and was scrapped just after being built and replaced by a second.that little pannier tank you mentioned it’s was still a working engine ,and probably doing a intragual job.

Didn't know that about King William and I thought I knew most everything!

According to my little reference book here there were 16 panniers tanks allocated to Stafford Road in 1960. They would have been used for dragging train coaches from Cannock Road sidings up to Low Level, and back, also all the local shunting work including to and from Butlers Brewery of course. Useful little buggers. And when you got up close to one not so bloody small actually, not to a kid anyway.