Cable car

A cable car at the Bekonscot model village.

Birmingham Snow Hill in 1914

Birmingham Snow Hill, one of the city's three railway stations, was the Great Western Railway's main station in the city. The station still exists nowadsys but it is very different to how it used to be. These three photographs are from the Railway Times in 1914 (via Archive.org) and show the station just following a major rebuild.

The station was closed in 1972 and became a car park for a while until it was finally rebuilt and re-opened in 1987, though looks very different now. It is a shame that both Snow Hill and New Street have lost their overall roofs. At least Moor Street is still close to it's original state. More old photos from Snow Hill (from the 1950s this time and showing the lines just outside the station) can be seen here.

British Airliners (5) : Vickers Viscount

The Vickers Viscount was one of the most successful British airliners of the post-war period, taking advantage of the new turboprop engines developed in the late 1940s by Rolls Royce.

Information
First flight:	1948
Withdrawn:	2009
Number built:	445

The Viscount first flew in 1948 and entered service in 1953 being the first turboprop airliner to enter service and the first turbine powered airliner to carry fare paying passengers. It was designed for short to medium haul journeys on routes with lower passenger numbers. Originally it had a fairly short fuselage and could carry up to thirty two passengers but later versions were extended. The Viscount had a pressurised cabin and large cabin windows and proved popular with passengers and airlines.

The then new turboprop propulsion proved it's superiority of traditional pistol engines and despite some initial scepticism from airlines soon proved a hit and four hundred and forty five were eventually built. It had a long service life, finally leaving airline service in Britain in 1996 but continued in service elsewhere especially in Africa. The final Viscount flight was in early 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In service with British Midland in the early 1980s at Birmingham Airport

Preserved Viscount at Brooklands

Nightingale / Leawood Arm, Cromford Canal

The Nightingale (or Leawood) Arm of the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire was built by Peter Nightingale (the great-uncle of Florence) to reach his cotton mills and lead smelters [1]. The canal arm, which opened in 1802, reached Lea Wharf, later extending to Lea Mills before being cut back due to disputes over water rights. The arm was in use up into the 1930s but fell into disuse and was closed like the rest of the canal during the Second World War.

At the junction of the arm and main canal stands Aqueduct Cottage built for the lockkeeper who looked after the lock at the entrance to the arm. The cottage was lived in until 1970 [2] but as an unoccupied building has sadly fallen victim to neglect and vandalism and is now a ruin.

[1] Hugh Potter, The Cromford Canal (Tempus, 2003) p. 106
[2] Ibid. p. 27

Butlers Lane

Just a short railway adventure this weekend, up to Butlers Lane which was the last station I had yet to visit on the Northern half of the Cross City Line. It isn't far away, indeed i was back within a few hundred metres of the station later in the day (in the car this time) when i did the weekly supermarket shop!

Now I need to complete the remaining stations on the Southern half of the line, including the new terminus of Bromsgrove. As a bonus today I travelled on a West Midlands Railway train in the new orange livery for the first time. It looks really good.