Train Staff from Walsall Wood
This is the staff which was used on the single track from Walsall Wood Colliery to Norton Junction on the LNWR at Pelsall. Until the staff was given to the Museum, I must confess that I didn’t know that there was such a line.
There it is – just below the word ‘Clayhanger’
The staff was donated to the Museum by Mr. Trevor Astbury and his son Tom.
For anyone who knew Brownhills some 50-odd years ago, there was a seed shop in the High Street called Cockram’s. Mr. and Mrs. Cockram worked in the shop with an assistant by the name of Sid Pritchard. (Anyone who does remember the shop must surely remember the warm, sweet smell of the seed in the sacks, and if you were a child, the feeling of running your hands through the seed – that shop will never be forgotten by anyone whoever paid a visit.)
Back to Sid – he had a brother who worked at Walsall Wood Colliery and when it closed, somehow or other, he kept the staff. Sid was later given the staff, and later still, passed it on to his next door neighbour. This was Trevor. Trevor’s brother lives in Hednesford and is a good friend of mine, and he knows that I am a volunteer in the museum. Ron, my friend, mentioned this to his brother and eventually he donated the staff to the Chasewater Railway Museum. It is one of the few remaining items of railway equipment used on the local mineral lines.
The staff is marked on all four sides. ‘Walsall Wood Colliery’ ‘Canal Bridge’ ‘Train Staff’ and ‘Norton Junction’.
Chasewater Railway Museum 