As I am merely a rail user who doesn't profess to know all the ins and outs of everything can anybody fill me in on what the story is here?
A while back - must have been 3 or 4 years now - I heard mutterings that the EMU stabling sidings along the Stour Valley route at Soho, west of Birmingham were deemed inadequate for accommodating the number of Class 323 units that were being deployed around the West Midlands electric network and there was talk of building a new EMU maintenance depot located at Duddeston occupying the vast tract of derelict land to the west of the current station. Of course this was a huge sidings yard as recently as the late 1980s and a carriage shed also stood to the east of the station, adjacent to the platforms.
To me this seems a very logical solution as this area of neglected railway land could once again be brought back to life. After the rationalisation of the GJR from Proof House to Aston, with half of the tracks and platforms removed through Duddeston itself, the corridor is nevertheless still intact - albeit with no wires or tracks anymore.
It would make sense to have a new EMU depot here, but ever since first reading about this there has been nothing on it - has this plan hit the buffers or was it just another of those fanciful proposals that may well never see the light of day. Or is it something that lies in the hands of the TOCs only?
Looking at the area now as one passes it on the Cross City line, it's sad to see it looking so derelict and abandoned.....where once it was bustling with myriad tracks and carriages/locos.
A while back - must have been 3 or 4 years now - I heard mutterings that the EMU stabling sidings along the Stour Valley route at Soho, west of Birmingham were deemed inadequate for accommodating the number of Class 323 units that were being deployed around the West Midlands electric network and there was talk of building a new EMU maintenance depot located at Duddeston occupying the vast tract of derelict land to the west of the current station. Of course this was a huge sidings yard as recently as the late 1980s and a carriage shed also stood to the east of the station, adjacent to the platforms.
To me this seems a very logical solution as this area of neglected railway land could once again be brought back to life. After the rationalisation of the GJR from Proof House to Aston, with half of the tracks and platforms removed through Duddeston itself, the corridor is nevertheless still intact - albeit with no wires or tracks anymore.
It would make sense to have a new EMU depot here, but ever since first reading about this there has been nothing on it - has this plan hit the buffers or was it just another of those fanciful proposals that may well never see the light of day. Or is it something that lies in the hands of the TOCs only?
Looking at the area now as one passes it on the Cross City line, it's sad to see it looking so derelict and abandoned.....where once it was bustling with myriad tracks and carriages/locos.