Adam Turner met a group of nine other members at Five Ways station for his fully booked conducted walk of the closed line to the erstwhile Midland Railway (MR) Birmingham Central Goods station. Your scribe had started the discovery a little earlier by walking from University station along the towpath of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and was therefore able to see where the branch to Central Goods had left the Midland line from Bromsgrove just before Five Ways at the former Church Road Jn.

Adam first took us to the road in front of Five Ways station in Islington Row Middleway, from where we could see the rising incline of the branch line up to Central Goods. We then crossed that road to view the adjacent tunnel portals of Bath Row Tunnel (with the dual track to Birmingham New Street) and Bath Row Goods Tunnel (single bore for the 'Up' line to Birmingham Central). Here the branch used to split to navigate either side of a Jewish cemetery before rejoining just north of Bath Row. A stroll along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal brought us to the site of the relatively short lived Granville Street passenger station (OP 3 Apr 1876; CP 1 Jul 1885), which was the original terminus of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, a branch from Kings Norton. The issue had been that this terminus was not close enough to the city centre and did not connect to any other lines. Granville Street closed when the MR completed the necessary works to construct a deeper line to Birmingham New Street station in 1885. From beside the canal at Granville Street, we could just make out the tunnel portal of Granville Street Goods Tunnel No4 taking the goods line that would eventually emerge into Birmingham Central Goods (well beyond the passenger station) beneath the canal basin known as Worcester Wharf.















This is where we headed to next but not before stopping to spy the remains of some narrow gauge lines on the canal towpath that, we assumed, would have been for small wagons to be pushed around the wharf for loading and unloading the barges. We then walked under the remarkably wide (as it includes Worcester Wharf) Grade II listed Holliday Street canal aqueduct built in 1870. A short distance from there but totally hidden until we were almost upon it, was the parapet wall around the opening between Holliday Street Tunnel No2 and Canal Tunnel No3. (Canal Tunnel No3 takes part of the main line from New Street to Five Ways beneath the canal at Worcester Wharf.)






Through the north portal of Granville Street Goods Tunnel at Birmingham Central Goods, we could see that the blue brick double track is completely clear, with an uninterrupted view right through to the south portal. All around are now modern constructions and some derelict land, yet here was a perfectly formed railway structure built by the Midland and opened in July 1887. Immediately beyond (north of) the tunnel portal lines fanned out covering a vast area of sidings. The goods station and branch closed from 6 Mar 1967 having previously been reduced in size. I found it remarkable that I had walked across the top of the tunnel portal on Holliday Passage countless times and not known what was beneath me.






On then to Birmingham New Street station via the momentary warmth of the Mailbox shopping centre and then a pause for an elevated view of the Brutalist architecture of the iconic Grade II listed 1966 New Street Power Signal Box, which ceased signalling after 24 Dec 2022. We caught the 13.06 to Gravelly Hill station formed of EMUs 323205+323216 to see the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) 1862 two-storey booking hall building. Steps and a ramp lead down from the street to the upper level where the ticket office is. The enthusiastic West Midlands Railway employee on duty was able at once to produce A4 copies of pictures of the station in times past. Further steps and a ramp lead to the Birmingham bound platform and a footbridge enables access to the Lichfield bound platform.






The final stop on our tour was Sutton Coldfield requiring a journey courtesy of 323219 +323206. Here we studied the car park, this was because it was the site of the original cattle pen and siding, then later a Motorail terminus from where journeys with one's vehicle could be undertaken to Stirling and Newton Abbot. Originally, the site was the terminus of a L&NWR branch from Birmingham New Street for 22 years before the line was extended on to Lichfield in 1884. Part of the original platform can be seen. There must have perhaps been high hopes of tourism from the city as an enormous hotel, now flats, overlooks the station. The extension to Lichfield veered sharply from the original trajectory into a new station and tunnel, all on a succession of reverse curves. These and over-speeding contributed to a disastrous derailment of a York to Bristol train in Jan 1955, sadly with the loss of 17 lives.

Approaching the end of the tour we visited the spacious and inviting booking hall above the platforms at road level before walking to one of the other stations in Sutton Coldfield. The Town station, closed 1 Jan 1925, is on the Midland line from Water Orton to Walsall via Sutton Park, now a freight route which crosses the L&NWR line nearby on an overbridge near Westhaven Road. The Town station building, now privately owned, looks slightly odd sitting as it does in an area of flats and houses of a different era, most looking as though they were built shortly after the station closed. The other stations on this line remained open until local passenger services were withdrawn from 18 Jan 1965.






Participants were beginning to head for other appointments, one to see Aston Villa play a match, myself to see Sutton Coldfield Town Hall and the former Royal Hotel before warming up in the pub next to Sutton Coldfield station, aptly called 'The Station'. The remainder of the party was led by Adam to view the site of Sutton Park station further along the Midland line which closed in 1965, with only remnants of one of its platforms remaining near to a large Royal Mail sorting office. Latterly a secure site, the goods shed was used to handle foreign parcels with trains to/from Southampton Docks. The Post Office Sidings there were disconnected from 15 Apr 1995 then recovered in early Jan 1998. I would like to thank Adam for leading such an interesting and informative Society tour on which it was an absolute pleasure to be a participant. His use of the iPad to illustrate the various sites in their former lives was most helpful. Our tour also resulted in a donation of £110 to Cancer Research UK.

These four maps were sourced by Adam Turner and are reproduced with permission, starting at New Street, surveyed Dec 1915 by the Estates Office, Midland Railway, Derby, progressing out to Five Ways and Church Road Jn, the numbers refer to legal documents. (Midland Railway Study Centre, Derby.)