Longbridge Car Plant

[wulfruna]

Now that Nanjing Automotive has started a very small production line at the former Rover plant. Does anyone know if the car kits sent to the plant from China are being taken in by rail? Will the assembled cars be taken out by rail? - as Nanjing's production here is said to be for the European market.

The last I heard most of the exchange sidings at the Longbridge plant were lifted last year. Is Longbridge East Signal Box still in situe? Or has it been gutted ready for demolition? Shame if it has gone, as that was a lovely box. What plans are there in place to protect the line for a planned reopening to Rubery?

If you have any up-to-date (2007) news or photos of rail activity, or the lack of, at the plant – do post your links here.

Thanks.

 

[DescendingSadly]

Good to see a bit of industry even if small coming back to the UK, hopefully more jobs for the railway!

 

[TomThePlonker]

I drive past longbridge everyday on the way to college in the mornings and it is only 5 minutes walk from my house. Anyway the signal box is still in place as is the old Longbridge train staion not far from it although most of the track around those is now gone. It was taken up when the sidings were taken up last year, the only bit of track that now remains is about a roughly 200ft strech of track where the line merged with the main line near the current Longbridge station. This lead me to believe that Nanjing are not going to be using the rail infrastructure available in Longbridge.

When the rover factory was being knocked down paticually the main car track bridge that ran above the signal box, alot was done to protect the signal box from damage. After speaking to a member of the demolitions team to see why they protected the signal box so much they said that they belived the signal box was a listed building.

The proposed rail extension line to Rubery/Frankley last I heard from Centro when I emailed them they said it was a none starter due to mainly the fact that they were struggling to get any sort of funding for it I think they said from the Goverement.

If I get the chance i'll stop one of the nights soon and take a few pics of the signal box, old longbridge station and surronding area.