-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Remains of old Curzon Street Engine House unearthed in Birmingham
- Thread starter SquireBev
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It's amazing how construction keeps raising the ground level all the time - happens everywhere!
gordonthemoron
Established Member
The cathedral in Riga, which is probably the oldest building in the city, is several feet lower than everything else
randyrippley
Established Member
- Joined
- 21 Feb 2016
- Messages
- 5,135
Thats the base of the turntable and the bottom of the sunken inspection pits.
There would have been brick masonry above that. When the building was taken down they would have taken the bricks for reuse or rubble, leaving the poured concrete foundations below ground level. Not worth the effort of digging those out so they would have been covered over and hidden
gg1
Established Member
Very interesting. Does anyone know when it would have been filled in? Did it last until the end of steam or was it much earlier than that?
SquireBev
Member
Opened in 1837: https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/curzonstreet_shed.htm
Demolished before the first 25-inch OS maps were surveryed in 1887: https://maps.nls.uk/view/115633308
I've overlaid an old track plan onto a modern satellite image, so you can see exactly where it used to stand:
Last edited:
rogercov
Member
It was there in around 1846, but gone by 1887. The Maps from 1887 show that area to be full of tracks into what was then the goods station.
(Map courtesy of NLS)
gg1
Established Member
Thanks
I did look on the NLS site and (wrongly) assumed the turntable was inside the large shed occupying the triangle of land between the canal, approach tracks and Curzon Street itself, although looking at the perspective in the photo it's now obvious it's further south than that.
SquireBev
Member
There's a BBC news article about it now: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-51820160
DarloRich
Veteran Member
similar was discovered when the ROC was constructed at York. This kind of thing is fairly common in urban construction
randyrippley
Established Member
- Joined
- 21 Feb 2016
- Messages
- 5,135
gone by 1887 - presumably the turntable was too small for the incoming generation of locos, there wouldn't be room to replace it with something larger so the whole building had to go
the sniper
Established Member
- Joined
- 4 Sep 2007
- Messages
- 3,499
Nice overlay. The demolition date answer is in your own post on the Warwickshire railways site, it was done in or around 1859.
Having lost its passenger services Curzon Street needed expanding to handle more goods, the round house was in the way. It was also seemingly unable to cope with the increased number of engines that required servicing.
shap summit
Member
I watched a YouTube video yesterday uploaded by nodrog of a site visit he made recently. Sorry I don't know how to post a link
Shap Summit.
Shap Summit.
LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
Makes you wonder how they would have accommodated the Oxford & Birmingham railway if the connection to Curzon St from Bordesley had ever been completed.
The maps show the construction would have come in almost at light angles to the station throat, where the cattle market was sited.
New St and Snow Hill had/have their faults but it's a good job they built the through routes.
Otherwise Curzon St would have been our München Hbf or Milano Centrale.
The maps show the construction would have come in almost at light angles to the station throat, where the cattle market was sited.
New St and Snow Hill had/have their faults but it's a good job they built the through routes.
Otherwise Curzon St would have been our München Hbf or Milano Centrale.
kevconnor
Member
shap summit
Member
That's it, thanks Kev.
- Status