A BLS adventure with no new track - guaranteed! Morning and afternoon groups met at NR's customer reception office on New Street concourse to explore below platform level. Our guide was NR's Adam Turner, who, we were pleased to hear, is a local BLS member. The tour began with Wetherspoon's (and may have ended there for some). Their new pub on the corner of the concourse is the 'London and North Western', ironic as it is entirely above the ex-Midland Railway part of the station! Its outside wall is covered with information about the history of Birmingham, including a view of the New Street original single span arched roof, the largest in the world when completed until exceeded by St Pancras in 1868.

Then we went down to Platform 1B for a lift to the foot tunnel below, noting the covers along the platform for air vents. This was the 'Lamp Tunnel', allowing oil lamps to be ferried from the L&NW Railway company lamp room and Midland Railway company lamp rooms, where they were prepared along with foot warmers for first class passengers from the Joint Foot Warmers room. This tunnel though was brightly lit with white walls, having been intended for use by CrossCountry to reach their mess room. There were two bike stands at the far end for those who might cycle to work.

There, a right turn took us to the start of the original underground route to the former Victoria Square head post office and sorting facility. Adam was very well prepared and even had a copy of the 1894 legal agreement between L&NWR and the Postmaster General for this connecting tunnel.

We continued into the abandoned lamp locker building basement, where temporary lighting had been set up for us, to see the remains of the coal drop, which would have fed a boiler. One member believes that, given the airtight door arrangement at this location and the remaining equipment, this space may well have been used as a bunker at some point in the past. Meanwhile I had always thought there were rooms behind the light grey screening on Platform 1B. Wrong! - Only various water tanks and temporary looking scaffolding to allow access to remove and install future water tanks in the future.

By the time of the 1960s station rebuild, technology had marched on and the Post Office needed a larger site for more mechanisation. They chose the area now known as The Mailbox, part had been Birmingham Central Goods Depot - rail traffic had ceased from 6 May 1967. A new tunnel connected it to New Street station and we were able to venture to the NR boundary. This was the breakthrough point on 23 May 1967, when Post Office tunnelling met British Railways. Ahead we could see a round tunnel, thought to be built to withstand any ingress from the nearby sewer under Hill Street!

Until the recent refurbishment of New Street station, each platform/island had a 'B' end ramp down to the tunnel below. All but one were replaced by lifts to create more passenger circulation space on the platforms. Electric tugs used to haul BRUTEs (British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment), those blue metal cages on wheels at the end of many station platforms that we assumed were there for train spotters to sit on when we were younger. They were used to move parcels, newspapers and supplies. Inside the tunnel, there are still signs limiting speed and the number of BRUTEs that could be towed.

The underground route linking the platforms is still used by CrossCountry to supply buffet trolleys from their National Rail Catering Centre. We walked up the last remaining ramp to Platform 12, originally a parcels/newspaper only platform and went through to the area of the former Red Star parcels office and the site of the East Dock siding. Watching trains from there was like the view from a prison cell.

Back on the concourse, the morning group met the afternoon group and together we set off on our surface level walk. First it was up Pinfold Street to the Grade II listed, former Head Post Office near the Town Hall, located above our first tunnel. The sorting office part had been sensitively and successfully redeveloped in 1991. Then we went on to Central Goods, passing the recently closed brutalist Grade II Listed New Street Power Signal Box which signalled its final trains on 24 Dec 2022 and is now destined to be a Network Rail training centre. We reached the eastern portal of Granville Street Goods Tunnel on the former Worcester Wharf goods branch from Church Road Jn (by the south end of Five Ways station). This is the reason for survival of the facing crossover at 43m 48ch - it was part of the original junction. Granville Street was the relatively short-lived terminus of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway (OP from Kings Norton 3 Apr 1876) until 1 Jul 1885 when trains were diverted to New Street. Joe Brown's West Midlands Rail Atlas shows the branch, passenger platforms and Goods Depot nicely.

The Worcester & Birmingham Canal Company wanted to build it but was unable to raise the finance. When the Midland Railway took it over, they doubled it, reduced some of the curvature and added the link to New Street station in 1881. For 80 years from 1887, Central Goods - beyond the passenger station - continued in railway use. Then the site started to shrink with land sold off in 1965 and 1967 to allow the new sorting office to be built. Opened in summer 1970, it was then the largest building in Birmingham at 81,000M2 and the largest mechanised letters and parcels sorting office in the UK.

As we walked back to New Street along Severn Street directly above the 1960s tunnel, we reflected on a proposal to reinstate rails to Central Goods, then underneath New Street station, with low level platforms, to create extra capacity, before rising to join the line to Aston. The diversion of Cross City is planned for the 2040s and our Society will probably be on the first train. Thanks to Adam Turner and all involved, including our organisers Brian Schindler and Kev Adlam, for a very interesting and enjoyable visit. It resulted in a donation of over £500 to Railway Children from the 17 participants.

The Blocked up tunnel beneath New Street to the former Victoria Square Main Post and Sorting Office.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

The last remaining ramp up to P12B (there used to be seven of them).
[© Chris Parker 2023]

The maintained NR side of the 1960s built tunnel to the new sorting office.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

The former East Dock at the London end of New Street P12A, the track has been lifted but ballast remains.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

At the other end of New Street the Grade II listed Brutalist-style box ceased signalling on 24 Dec 2022; the new signalling equipment cabins below it are on the site of Engine Lines 2 & 3.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

On the walk to the site of Central Goods. A wireless tram - this still seems a bit odd - to Wolverhampton is at Town Hall stop (said Hall dominates this photo, right). Background left is the Grade II listed Alpha Tower (its footprint is an alpha shape from above). Looking towards Edgbaston Village.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

Central Goods (a terminus) was behind the photographer, through the other end of the tunnel was the former Granville Street passenger station.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

The incredibly wide Grade II listed nearby Holliday Street Aqueduct carries the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.
[© Chris Parker 2023]

Our morning expedition at the Wetherspoon's 'London and North Western' establishment with a graphic of New Street's original single arch span.
[© Adam Turner 2023]

That graphic of New Street in 1854 at Wetherspoon's.
[© Keith Flinders 2023]

Despite the lack of any natural light there is life in the tunnel other than BLS members.
[© Keith Flinders 2023]

In an emergency the tunnels under the platforms could be used for evacuation. There is even a wheelchair with stair climbing ability, interesting haulage.
[© Keith Flinders 2023]