This piece of memorabilia from Barry Bull is a greetings message from the General Manager of the Great Western Railway 1921-1929, Sir Felix John Clewett Pole, to all members of staff for the year 1928.
The first two inside pages.
Third page.
Final page.
We have a couple of very local ones!
Stations have displayed signs showing their name since railways began – the very earliest being hand-painted, often in extravagant lettering and colours. However, since the required a sign-writer to paint them each time the colours faded – and colours tended to fade fairly often – they were gradually replaced by vitreous enamel signs, usually with a blue background and white letters, held in a wooden frame.
Some railways continued to use the enamel signs throughout their existence, while others opted for wooden boards to which cast iron or lead alloy letters were screwed. The advantage of boards was that they could be easily lettered up by a relatively unskilled painter. They were also easier to see at night.
Known officially as running-in boards, they were located at the ends of platforms. At junctions, they usually included information about connecting lines.
Once a train had come to a halt, a porter was supposed to shout out the station name. Even so, there were still passengers who missed their stop. It was to ease this problem that enamel name tablets were placed inside the glasses of platform lamps, and small nameboards, or target signs, were suspended from walls, fences, or lamp posts along the platform.
The target signs were often enamel – especially on the Southern Railway (SR). The London Midland & Scottish (LMS), by contrast, used a cast-aluminium alloy design finished in reflective yellow paint with black letters. With nationalisation, British Railways introduced the familiar totem sign in regional colours, and produced them in very large numbers.
This time a Whitsuntide Holiday Excursion from New Street to Lichfield City for 2/- (10p) return. This was the May Bank Holiday before it was moved to the first Monday of the month.
An LMS trip in 1929 to the well-known Lichfield Bower.
An old newsletter has just turned up in some old paperwork we are going through, and as it was first published at this time of year, I thought it might be interesting to show the state of play 26 years ago.
A couple of local signal box nameboards have arrived at the Museum recently.
Posted in Museum Exhibits
Tagged Aldridge, Bloxwich, Bloxwich signal box, Brereton Sidings signal box, Brownhills, Burntwood, Chasewater Railway Museum, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Heath Hayes, Hednesford, Lichfield, Norton Canes, Old Railway Lines, Pelsall, Signal Box Nameboards, Staffordshire, Walsall, Wolverhampton
The latest magazine of the Industrial Railway Society, the December 2013 edition of Industrial Railway Record 215, has been purchased by the Museum for our archive. It contains a report on their Annual General Meeting , held at Chasewater Railway, and a lengthy article about the railways of Chasewater, amongst many other interesting items.
Copies are available from Barry Bull in the Chasewater Railway Museum.
The Museum of Cannock Chase, which is based at the old Valley Colliery in Hednesford, is redesigning the coal mining display. This means that a life sized fibreglass model of a pit pony will be surplus to requirements.
An article was posted on their web site asking if any one could find the pony a new home. Chasewater Museum’s registrar John, spotted this, and promptly put in an offer for it. John’s bid was successful, beating many more offers from other interested parties, and Chasewater Museum is now the proud owner of this splendid animal.
Our thanks go to Nick Bullock for the collection from Hednesford and delivery to its new home at Chasewater.
The pony soon made itself at home in the Heritage Centre at Brownhills West.
All photo’s courtesy of John chasewaterstuff.
Due to the grand summer weather our train running operations have proved very successful, this of course has also been enhanced by having the DMU trailer unit now in regular service, our train crews have carried out the job of keeping the wheels rolling most efficiently. Members wishing to participate in train duties should report to Steve Allsopp for instruction.
Neilson 0-4-0 Locomotive
This locomotive has now passed its boiler test successfully and is now in the process of being re-assembled. I understand that the main bearings are being re-metalled. The whole project is in the capable hands of our General Manager, Derek Luker, with Keith Sergeant acting as chief assistant. We are heavily indebted to these two members for sticking to the job.
MSLR Carriage
Restoration of this vehicle still continues, also a long slog by John Elsley. John would appreciate a little more help with this vehicle. Anyone who is reasonably skilled in woodwork should report to John Elsley.
The platform building had been slowed down due to the train operations, and the Railway held a very successful Railway Exhibition at the Forum Theatre in Cannock. Very many thanks to all the people who set up the stands, acted as stewards, and in particular, to Rob Duffill and his team of ladies who manned the refreshment bar.
Since the last newsletter (March) we have been pleased to see a few members turn up at Chasewater as a result of the appeal for more support. We would like to see a few more however. There is an interesting variety of jobs, i.e. trackwork, platform building, locomotive and carriage restoration, installation of signals and signalling equipment. (Sounds familiar!!)
There was a successful Easter Weekend Steaming in spite of awful weather, and a thank you to the members who stayed overnight to light up, and those who operated the service in such vile weather.
DMU Trailer Unit
This vehicle has now arrived at Walsall from March, Cambs. And is now awaiting collection and transportation by low-loader from Walsall to Chasewater. This should prove a spectacular operation (albeit a costly one). We deserve to get maximum publicity from this enterprise. As most members will realise, this carriage has been purchased to give maximum seating capacity for the summer season’s running, also to replace our vintage Maryport & Carlisle coach now in service. The M & C now needs some restoration work, new panelling and a complete repaint.
Stop Press – 3rd May!!
This vehicle is now safely in the compound at Chasewater, after a hectic day by a small party of members and being filmed going through the streets of Walsall by ‘ATV Today’
NER 8 Ton Box Van
Due to the efforts of our Hon. Sec. Barry Bull, the Society has acquired the last wooden bodied Box Van used by Messrs. Cadbury of Bournville. Messrs. Cadbury have very kindly donated the vehicle to the Society, arrangements have now been made for collection of this vehicle on May 5th. Our grateful thanks to both Messrs. Cadbury for donating this vehicle and to Barry for negotiating the deal.
There doesn’t appear to have been another ‘Mercian’ for some time.
‘This newsletter is not intended to replace our Society journal ‘Mercian’, we (the Committee) must apologise for the non-appearance of ‘Mercian’, but this has been due to technical hitches, etc. We shall endeavour to maintain a newsletter at least every two months, and may we all hope that ‘Mercian’ will put in an appearance before too long.’
The remainder of the newsletter covers various on-going renovation work, including the overhaul of the Neilson, in the very capable hands of the General Manager, Derek Luker, ably assisted by Keith Sargeant and Colin Thomas – repairs to the smokebox and fire box – further expense is envisaged for retubing the engine.
MSL at Easingwold
Restoration of the MSLR carriage was continuing, with one compartment beautifully restored, fitted with new seats and original GC pictures re-hung. This vehicle has been completely re-roofed and original ventilators and gas lamps refurbished and fitted. A lot of work still has to be done to complete the vehicle and more volunteers were needed.
Other work included the relaying of track to the crossing from the Hednesford Road, another 300 yards needs to be done. Work was progressing on the new platform at the Chasewater Terminus (now under the M6 Toll!). Work had been started on tidying up the site, ready for the 1973 running season. The Worthington Diesel No.20 (now on loan at Coors Museum, Burton-on-Trent) was having an overhauled replacement engine fitted and should be ready by the end of March 1973.
The final piece of news was regarding a Railway Exhibition to be held at the Forum Theatre, Cannock, on the weekend of 30th June and 1st July. It will consist of Model Railway Layouts, our own ‘Railwayana’ display, plus other preservation stands, Model Engineering Society stands refreshments and bar. As usual, more help was needed.
Compiled by D.A.Ives (Chairman)
Chasewater Railway Museum 