Jump to content

BCN Railway Transhipment Wharves


cheshire~rose

Featured Posts

This might be a question for the railway buffs amongst us?

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a souce of information about the various railway transhipment docks and wharves that would have existed around the BCN? If there is a website or book we can beg, steal, borrow or buy that would offer this info that would be helpful but feel free to share what info you know.

 

If I can identify the names and places of the wharves then I can work out if they are still attached to a navigable stretch of canal (even if there are flats there now!) I would also like to try and get some old photos of the wharves so some names and places will assist with searching archives

 

In addition to that would the different railways use any boat to tranship via the canal or would L.M.S. have exclusive use of L.M.S boats for example?

 

Thanks in aticipation

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The Other 60 Miles"  by Richard Chester- Browne  is a good starting point , along with Richard Dean's map Canals of Birmingham and the Black Country.  A magnifying glass is also useful if your eyesight is not perfect!

Both items were available via the HnBoc or whatever this week bookshop.

 AFAIK a transhipment basin would accept any boat with cargo  to or from the owning railway.  Day boats (joeys) traded to and from railway basins on jobbing trip terms (as tramp steamers did at sea,)  as well as the regular loads like the 'liner' style fleets which served the big coal users from the collieries.

It was also the case that owning  day boats did not mean you had any men/hosses to move them.  Movements of boats was also done by steerage companies, who might have their own boats as well as contract boating for other owners- a bit like modern boat movers!

 

N

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Birmingham Canal Navigations - A cruising and walking guide', 1984, IWA Birmingham Branch subcommittee

 

It looks like Tim's online version doesn't exist any more.

 

It's a roughly A5 book with a blue cover and a plastic spiral binding and rare. If you can find a PDF version, you can print it out at A4 making it readable, put the pages into a more logical order and colour it in to make the diagrams easier to understand. 

 

It takes a canal and describes it in a linear form listing all the lines, junctions, arms and wharfs

 

Richard

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birmingham-Canal-Navigations-cruising-Walking/dp/B00I3O0YYC

https://captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.com/2011/10/birmingham-canal-navigations-cruising.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, RLWP said:

'Birmingham Canal Navigations - A cruising and walking guide', 1984, IWA Birmingham Branch subcommittee

 

It looks like Tim's online version doesn't exist any more.

 

It's a roughly A5 book with a blue cover and a plastic spiral binding and rare. If you can find a PDF version, you can print it out at A4 making it readable, put the pages into a more logical order and colour it in to make the diagrams easier to understand. 

 

It takes a canal and describes it in a linear form listing all the lines, junctions, arms and wharfs

 

Richard

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birmingham-Canal-Navigations-cruising-Walking/dp/B00I3O0YYC

Thanks - That's really helpful

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, RLWP said:

Let's play for a second pint

 

Taking another view at this, Mike Musson's excellent 'Warwickshire Railways' might help. I'm guessing you want the MR/LMS basins:

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/index.htm

 

Richard

Steady on!

 

It's a bit early in the day for a second pint!

 

But thanks! and yes ... if we do find ourselves idly wandering around Brum canals later this year it would be interesting to get some context on how our boat may have slotted into the history of the area

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've lost at least two evenings browsing around nls maps on this very subject, being able to overlay satellite views with o.s. maps is interesting but time absorbing.

 

great bridge

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.81325934105347&lat=52.5331&lon=-2.0334&layers=6&b=4

 

switching to the current satellite view i almost seem to see the tracks 

 

springy

 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, cheshire~rose said:

This might be a question for the railway buffs amongst us?

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a souce of information about the various railway transhipment docks and wharves that would have existed around the BCN? If there is a website or book we can beg, steal, borrow or buy that would offer this info that would be helpful but feel free to share what info you know.

 

If I can identify the names and places of the wharves then I can work out if they are still attached to a navigable stretch of canal (even if there are flats there now!) I would also like to try and get some old photos of the wharves so some names and places will assist with searching archives

 

In addition to that would the different railways use any boat to tranship via the canal or would L.M.S. have exclusive use of L.M.S boats for example?

 

Thanks in aticipation

 

 

Chillington

 

http://captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.com/2019/04/?m=1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Interestingly, that map calls it Gorsty Hill Tunnel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Interestingly, that map calls it Gorsty Hill Tunnel.

It isn't unusual to see it spelled that way, or with an h too

 

Can you imagine trying to translate broad Black Country into Ordnance Survey?

 

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ray Shill, the BCN expert who posts on this forum as Heartland, wrote a book called “The Industrial Canal: The Railway Interchange Trade” in 1996.  Audlem Mill appears to have a copy https://www.canalbookshop.co.uk/Secondhand list for website 090120.pdf

I also remember an article by Tom Foxton in a magazine, possibly Waterways World.

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Paul H said:

Ray Shill, the BCN expert who posts on this forum as Heartland, wrote a book called “The Industrial Canal: The Railway Interchange Trade” in 1996.  Audlem Mill appears to have a copy https://www.canalbookshop.co.uk/Secondhand list for website 090120.pdf

I also remember an article by Tom Foxton in a magazine, possibly Waterways World.

 

Paul

You mean this one. Written by Tom Foxon, published by Heartland.

IMG_20200115_135838858.jpg

Edited by pearley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We definittely have a couple of copies of Ray Shill's book "The Industrial Canal, The Railway Interchange Trade" at CanalBookShop.  This is the standard (and perhaps only) work devoted to railway interchange basins, and it's required reading if you want to know about them.  We also have "The Other Sixty Miles".  These books are of course secondhand. We may have a copy of the Blue Book, correctly known as "Birmingham Canal Navigations, A Cruising and Walking Guide", but I can't check tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 15/01/2020 at 11:48, matty40s said:

Interestingly, that map calls it Gorsty Hill Tunnel.

 

On 15/01/2020 at 12:33, RLWP said:

It isn't unusual to see it spelled that way, or with an h too

 

Can you imagine trying to translate broad Black Country into Ordnance Survey?

 

Richard


And it is not hard to find published photos where the actual signs at the end of the tunnel say Costy HIll - it is a tunnel with many variants in the name, (even more so than in it's height!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.