Birmingham New Street Station

An interesting assortment of photos and to a degree they take me back to my youth, except in those days everything was rail blue (no large logo) and there appeared to be Peaks everywhere you looked!

QUOTE (steam-driven boy @ 12 Dec 2008, 08:54) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And the above photo to my mind shows some interesting ideas for weathering.

Regards

Hi BRITHO,

Thanks for your comments, If only we had a time machine and could go back and do the things we know darn well we should have done

I have to admit that living throughout the small logo era I couldn't raise much enthusiasm for what seemed to me to be a fairly drab look, as someone interested in graphic design (if only in a "I know what I like..." kind of way) I did react very positively to the updating of the design to large logo.
The large logo / executive livery and railfreight grey / triple grey did bring a marked improvement to the look of the BR system. All these views are always going to be very subjective and coloured by personal initial points of contact, and taste in design.

One aspect of my modelling will certainly cover this period, but I do also get a bit of a nostalgia kick from the layouts I see covering the earlier 'style'.

I had noted the roof condition on 47431, but hadn't noticed until recently the partial cleaning of the logo on 47804 (middle picture), I'm not certain if the resultant clean shape has any significance to someone, but it amuses me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on! (perhaps it's a recollection of the lettering on the Daleks comic strip from my youth).

Regards.

Hi all,

Not hearing any audible sniggering about the picture quality so I thought I'd visit upon you a few more (I have a small number -honest - of holiday snaps of preserved 'kettles' if anyone might be interested )

First, back at New Street:





And then the following year at Leamington Spa, this was yet another test of the camera after a final trip for it to the importers for them to have one more crack at it - the camera died soon after and was consigned to history *





The following two should prove popular with rust-junkies...





And finally...





* I did love the 18x24 film format and contented myself with a very nice single-lens Konica until the advent of affordable digital cameras, but should have 'wasted' far more of my time recording this period for my own enjoyment, my favourite before the hounds of privatisation were unleashed.

Regards.

Brilliant Stuff

Do you know the date? The presence of 47/8's and Swallow livery plus no footbridge I'd guess at 1989/90? More please!!

Cheers

Jim

QUOTE (jim s-w @ 20 Dec 2008, 17:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Brilliant Stuff

Do you know the date? The presence of 47/8's and Swallow livery plus no footbridge I'd guess at 1989/90? More please!!

Cheers

Jim

Thanks for that comment Jim,

I've written 28/09/89 on the back of the New Street transparency mounts, and 02/90 for the Leamington shots.

As mentioned previously there's nothing additional of any note as they were really only tests of the camera and stupidity is my only excuse (and not having the use of the TARDIS anymore... ).

While we're talking 'Brilliant', your P4 New Street was the prompt for sharing these pics, I hope we get to see it as a 'work-in-progress' in the not too distant future, my physio is going well enough that apart from serious progress on Solsbury Hill, I should be able to visit a limited number of shows again next year.

A Happy Christmas and New Year to All

Regards.

Hi,

Having taken another look at them, and 'cleaned-up' some rather ropey images to the best of my ability with the help of Photoshop Elements and a good stiff-bristled scrubbing brush, I tentatively submit the snaps held back. I claim no expertise with the software (although I've had plenty experience with the brush) so do accept them as the best I'm able to produce

















And finally, from my impressionist period...



Some of them were better than I first thought, some were/are compromised in a fashion that I wouldn't have submitted to clients of old (but we're all chums here ), and I pushed my limited experience with the software to correct the more easily correctable.

Just goes to show what one can achieve if suitably motivated to 'give it a go', I hope the following stages of my layout construction also prove equally surprising to me

Again, the photo's are from the same time as previous New Street shots.

Regards.

QUOTE (John H-T @ 22 Dec 2008, 21:19) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Great set of Shots Steam Driven Boy.

Do you have any shots of the "Real" New Street before it became a concrete wilderness?

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Hi John,

Thanks for that.

Sorry, but when the work was underway on the rebuild I was being trailed around the city shops as a kid on our regular family Saturday trek (back home just in time for the first Star Trek episodes), so I was far too young even then to be allowed access to the family 127 Brownie , let alone have anything beyond the most rudimentary grasp of anything railway-like.

New Street, when I did become interested - and could afford my first halfway decent camera - was very much secondary to Snow Hill in my eyes, and Snow Hill was a lost gem by then anyway. I know there have to be far more educated minds with knowledge of the earlier New Street, and my library only gives me a few images - probably nothing noteworthy - from the time prior to the rebuild.

As I've commented before on this thread, I do know better now...

Regards.

I really like this one:

QUOTE (steam-driven boy @ 22 Dec 2008, 20:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Real memories of my days at New Street, if I'm right it's one of Tyseley's "finest" and in fact another good example of a well weathered loco. (It always seemed to me that all 47's in the Midlands were tatty)

Regards

Steam-driven Boy and Jim S-W.

Thanks for you're responces and Jim thanks for the Snow Hill Link, although very sad!

When I was "spotting" at both New Street and Snow Hill in the late 50's I, sadly, didn't have access to a camera and wouldn't have been able to have afforded the film and processing anyway.

I have found a couple of interesting books on the second hand shelves:

New Street Remembered (1854-1967) by Donald J Smith and
Birmingham Snow Hill, A First Class Return. Both bring back memories.

Philip Hawkins, railway artist, was a Birmingham Lad and has done a number of excellant paintings of both Stations. His Book: Tracks on Canvas, has been "remaindered recently. I picked up a copy for £7.99 and several of the Birmingham Paintings are in it.

Best wishes,

John H-T.