Racehorse 'sculptures' between Wolverhampton and Birmingham

sburnley · 15 Oct 2013

Sorry if this has been covered before - searching the forum was not successful.

On the station at Wolverhampton, and in several lineside locations between Wolverhampton and New Street, there are full size flat sculptures of what appear to be racehorses.

Does anybody know who put them there and the reason for doing so? How long ago were they installed?

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eastwestdivide · 15 Oct 2013

Searching google is a bit more successful.

The wikipedia articles for both stations:

In 1987 twelve different horse sculptures by Kevin Atherton, titled Iron Horse, were erected between New Street station and Wolverhampton

And this site: http://lux.org.uk/collection/artists/kevin-atherton says he also did the Brixton commuters, and the Iron Horse effort was

commissioned by British Rail and the West Midlands County Council for the Birmingham to Wolverhampton railway corridor

sburnley · 15 Oct 2013

Great - thanks for the update.

I shall now have to see if I can spot all twelve - which will make it an ever-so-very-slightly more interesting journey for a time.

Thanks again.

AlexS · 15 Oct 2013

Last time I bothered looking several of them were disappearing into the undergrowth, so wouldn't be surprised to find they've been nicked and weighed in :lol:

Signal Head · 15 Oct 2013

sburnley said:
Great - thanks for the update.

I shall now have to see if I can spot all twelve - which will make it an ever-so-very-slightly more interesting journey for a time.

Thanks again.

I used to travel this route daily when these were installed. One day I noticed that one of them (I think the one near Dudley), had been embelished with an appendage, in the form of a long, thin, sand filled sock, slung in the, erm, 'appropriate' place. :oops:

Gareth Marston · 15 Oct 2013

Thought I remembered them from being at Uni all those years ago 89 to 93!

the sniper · 16 Oct 2013

Additionally, you can see a real horse roped to the ground on the canal path adjacent to Dudley Port station occasionally...

Racehorse 'sculptures' between Wolverhampton and Birmingham

sburnley

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eastwestdivide

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sburnley

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AlexS

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Signal Head

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Gareth Marston

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the sniper

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