Cross City Line Cool facts

[Joe_Dodman]

Bit of a random one but hopefully someone can help

Im doing a project for college which I'm calling Welcome to the cross city line for which I am trying to find something interesting about every station on Birmingham's Reddtitch/Bromsgrove-Litcfield line

I have come up with most of them either myself or with the help of a friend but need a hand with a few...

If you know anything interesting about: Northfield, Erdington, Blake Street or Shenstone, please let me know, it would be much appreciated

Thankyou

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

A fire destroyed the original booking office at Erdington in the late 80s.

 

[Joe_Dodman]

A fire destroyed the original booking office at Erdington in the late 80s.

Thankyou

 

[SargeNpton]

Hopefully, you are spelling Lichfield correctly in the project.

 

[hexagon789]

Bit of a random one but hopefully someone can help

Im doing a project for college which I'm calling Welcome to the cross city line for which I am trying to find something interesting about every station on Birmingham's Reddtitch/Bromsgrove-Litcfield line

I have come up with most of them either myself or with the help of a friend but need a hand with a few...

If you know anything interesting about: Northfield, Erdington, Blake Street or Shenstone, please let me know, it would be much appreciated

Thankyou

Northfield - the station building was set on fire by suffragettes in a 1913 protest. The blaze was extinguished without any lasting damage done.

 

[Sunil_P]

You get a weekly train from Leeds to Birmingham (and beyond) diverted via Lichfield, currently departing Sundays at 0930 from Derby.

 

[Ken H]

Blake St is the last station in WM county going north. The crossover there is north of the station, so WM Centro would not fund it when x-city first started. So eventually all trains went to Lichfield.
I may not have that 100% right, so may be worth doing some digging.
If you can find old copies of Modern Railways it was documented in there.

Have you found the line that ran from the current 5 Ways Station to the Central Goods Station. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/ have stuff about that.

There was some link with the canal company when the line was built south of Brum. Which is why the line follows the canal between 5 Ways and Bournville. Again you may have to dig to find the link.

 

[SargeNpton]

You get a weekly train from Leeds to Birmingham (and beyond) diverted via Lichfield, currently departing Sundays at 0930 from Derby.

Not a diversion, that is its booked path.

 

[Sunil_P]

Not a diversion, that is its booked path.

Well, yes, but normally XC go via Tamworth.

 

[SargeNpton]

Well, yes, but normally XC go via Tamworth.

That's true, but it is also true that many routes around the country have a token train that runs via a diversionary route - so that crews can maintain their route knowledge.

 

[Russel]

You get a weekly train from Leeds to Birmingham (and beyond) diverted via Lichfield, currently departing Sundays at 0930 from Derby.

Also, looking at RTT, it's booked to call at Gloucester, which is unusual.

 

[Sunil_P]

That's true, but it is also true that many routes around the country have a token train that runs via a diversionary route - so that crews can maintain their route knowledge.

But this thread is specifically to do with the Cool Facts about the Cross City Line.

 

[DanNCL]

When the line was first electrified in the 1993 the line used class 304, 308 and 310 slam door units to cover for the class 323s that were delivered late, not entering service until 1994. In the case of the 308s they were transferred from the Great Eastern Main Line to cover.

The same also applied to the Airedale and Wharfedale lines in West Yorkshire, electrified at roughly the same time and also ended up using cascaded 308s to cover for the undelivered 323s. However, unlike the Cross City examples, the West Yorkshire 323s were never built.

 

[365 Networker]

The class 323 was the first EMU to successfully use regenerative braking - this is where the motors return power back into the overhead lines. The 465s were also fitted with this, but it has not been used in practice - they only ever used rheostatic braking which converts the energy into heat.

 

[nw1]

Erdington was the location of a recent byelection?

(Not sure if that's interesting enough)

 

[thecrofter]

Here's a nerdy fact on the power supply to the overhead lines on Cross City. Cross City North is normally fed from Washwood Heath Feeder Station (F2) and Cross City South (Redditch & Bromsgrove and through New Street to Aston) is fed from Winson Green (only one feeder here called F4). The Neutral Section at Aston Mid Point Track Section Cabin (MPTSC) keeps the opposing supplies separate (to avoid a big bang!).

 

[01d-and]

In the early 1970s, Bromsgrove's meagre passenger train service included a northbound "loco and stock" departure at around 07.20 ? It was known as "the commuter" and ran possibly to Leeds ?

 

[Gloster]

Sutton Coldfield was the site of a Motorail terminal. (And also the site of a serious accident.)

 

[zwk500]

Perhaps if the OP provided an example of what they have found for another station the suggestions could be made with more precision? Some of these facts, whilst interesting, will only appeal to a niche readership.

 

[jfollows]

In the early 1970s, Bromsgrove's meagre passenger train service included a northbound "loco and stock" departure at around 07.20 ? It was known as "the commuter" and ran possibly to Leeds ?

1E10 06:55 Gloucester-Leeds D350; see #20 and the rest of the discussion in this other thread is about the 1982 (and earlier) lack of services to Redditch prior to electrification including timetable extracts.

 

[Sniffingmoose]

In the early 1990s the Cross City line north was used to test some of the Eurostar Trains (Wahwood Heath built sets) in the middle of the night around 3am when no other trains were operating. The tests under their own power were only between Lichfield and Erdington.

Also some of the Northbound station buildings at Sutton Coldfield station were burned down in the 1970s.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Before it was electrified, wasn't the Cross-city line the most intensive diesel-worked service in Europe, or the UK or something?

 

[birchesgreen]

A serious incident was narrowly averted at Erdington in 1966 when a obstacle was placed across the tracks. Luckily someone spotted it and alerted the nearest signalbox.

Blake Street is on the border between the West Midlands and Staffordshire, the county border is just north of the platforms.

Shenstone has it's original LNWR building, most of the other stations lost theirs when the CC line was electrified.

 

[Shrewbly]

Northfield - the station building was set on fire by suffragettes in a 1913 protest. The blaze was extinguished without any lasting damage done.

Arsonists were more successful in the 1970s when they successfully destroyed the original station building.

Of more interest to current day travellers at Northfield may be the no longer accessible centre platforms. These were originally landscaped after the Cross-City line opened, and the remains of sculptures installed in 1993 can still be seen. The sculptures were made from old sleepers and were carved to represent 'Town and Country' items including a bolt, a saw and an ear of wheat.

 

[Ken H]

Arsonists were more successful in the 1970s when they successfully destroyed the original station building.

Of more interest to current day travellers at Northfield may be the no longer accessible centre platforms. These were originally landscaped after the Cross-City line opened, and the remains of sculptures installed in 1993 can still be seen. The sculptures were made from old sleepers and were carved to represent 'Town and Country' items including a bolt, a saw and an ear of wheat.

I have used the centre platforms at Kings Norton. It was when the bridge taling the New St - Stetchford line over the line in from Water Orton was being constructed. NE - SW trains went via kings heath and Birmingham passengers changed at Kings Norton. Someone on here will know the date.

 

[2T57]

Also, looking at RTT, it's booked to call at Gloucester, which is unusual.

This service takes the Gloucester route as it's booked to continue to Bristol via the Severn Tunnel.

 

[crosscity]

I moved to Birmingham in 1978 (the same year that the enhanced Crosscity line started with the new stations and frequent service). Since then I have lived in Bournville, Longbridge and Kings Norton and have used the line for nearly 45 years. Here are some facts:
- The Camp Hill line was built first by the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, opening in 1840. The Birmingham terminus was at Camp Hill and the line was the current main line to Gloucester via Cheltenham, by-passing Droitwich and Worcester. Kings Norton station didn't open until 1849.
- The Midland Railway (MR) bought out the B&GR and obtained rights with the London and North Western to use their new New St station from 1854. So that year saw the first trains from New St to Kings Norton, but via the Camp Hill line.
- In 1876 the MR opened a single track railway from Granville St to Kings Norton via Selly Oak and Stirchley Street (now called Bournville). The railway had the grand title of the Birmingham and West Suburban Railway and operated eight trains per day in each direction. This is the existing line from just past Five Ways to Bournville following the canal. It reached Kings Norton not via the existing route, but continued to follow the canal with which it shared a bridge under the Pershore Road at Breedon Cross (Lifford Lane) then went under the Camp Hill line and made a right turn and climb to join the Camp Hill line at what was called Lifford Canal Branch Junction. The Pershore Road bridge over the canal is still there, and you can see the arch through which the trains ran.
- It wasn't until 1886 that the existing 'direct' line from Bournville to Kings Norton was opened, along with the line from the west end of New St up to Five Ways station. At the same time the line was doubled throughout.
- The electrification of the line from Lichfield TV to Redditch came about because of a death. Lichfield's Conservative MP John Heddle took his own life in December 1989, thus triggering a by-election. The proposal for the electrification had been waiting for Ministerial approval for months and was finally given by the (Conservative) Transport minister during the by-election campaign. It didn't do him any good as Labour won the by-election, but the electrification was in the bag.
- With electrification five minutes was lopped off the time taken to get from Kings Norton to New St.
- For one timetable period (I can't remember when exactly, but before electrification) an additional train per hour from Longbridge to New St ran non-stop from and to Kings Norton with a scheduled journey time of ten minutes.
- With the re-modeling of Proof House Jct in 1986 Kings Norton became the centre of the NE/SW InterCity Network instead of New St. The middle platforms were re-opened for about six-weeks, complete with a kiosk selling hot drinks. Trains from the North East to the South West and vice-versa (Eg Leeds-Paignton, Newcastle-Bristol etc) stopped at Kings Norton instead, and passengers for Birmingham and the North-West had to change here on to a Crosscity-line dmu. A special supplement for Table 51 of the passenger timetable was produced with Kings Norton at its centre!

 

[Bald Rick]

Chester Road is on a tight curve with superelevation (cant). This is very useful, if for example you live at Wylde Green, and are on a northbound train late in the evening after a few shandies in central Birmingham, you can position yourself such that when the train is on the curve your head bangs against the adjacent window to wake you up just before your stop.

A friend told me this. Honest.

 

[Ken H]

@crosscity talking about the proof house iremodeling, i think it changed the routing of the cross city trains between new st and Duddleston. Proof House was needed as 4 trains an hour crossing the eastern throat of New St was difficult to path. Discussion here

Proof House Junction literature

Hi all, very stressed student here! For my final year report, I'm trying to remodel the tracks outside New Street, specifically Proof House Junction. For my Critical Literature Review, I need to suggest why, in recent years, Proof House has been the cause of so many delays in the West Midlands...

www.railforums.co.uk

BTW the Proof House, visible from the line, is for proving gun barrels. Still in use for that today. They have a website that describes what they do.

The line to Redditch wasnt always a dead end. It used to carry on to Studley, Alcester and Evesham. The A441 dual carriageway in Redditch is built on the old rail line.

 

[childwallblues]

In the past twelve months the Class 323 used on the Cross City Line have received names of the stations they serve, all except 323240 Dave Pomfrey an engineer at Soho Depot where the units are maintained. A named example is 323201 Duddeston.
The future for the 323s is unclearwhen they are replaced by new Class 730/0 units. 19? will transfer to Northern Rails Allerton Depot in Liverpool to replace older Class 319 units but the rest seem to be surplus to requirements.