The railway line that should not have been closed: part 9
THE last day trains on March 4, 1972, were formed of three coach diesel railcar sets instead of the normal single coach units. Special 28p Edmondson card tickets were issued: Souvenir ticket. Last day of service. Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level.
Mike Doubleday spent the last afternoon at Snow Hill Station with a couple of Movements inspectors who were responsible for train operations that day in the signal box which was a room on the downstairs platform. The signal panel was a prefabricated design made up of tiles that slotted together and formed the track diagram, rather like a model railway. The half full 17.47hrs from Wolverhampton Low Level to Snow Hill watched by a crowd of around 100 people left to the half-hearted singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Another large crowd turned up to watch the departure of the final service train from Snow Hill, the 17.48 to Wolverhampton Low Level. This train was formed of a sixcar diesel railcar set.
Robert Darlaston said, “It was gloomy, wet and miserable and the day was typical of the many closures in the 1960s and ’70s.” For some reason less people turned up than was expected by BR officials. The closures were estimated to save £90,000 and £22,000 signalling and communications costs per annum. It was claimed that closing Snow Hill would save millions of pounds and concentrating all services in one station would benefit passengers. In their day, both New Street and Snow Hill were busy stations with enough traffic to survive on their own. As events have proved, things have reverted almost back to the situation before 1967.
The Standard Gauge Steam Trust (SGST) reported that there was an air of sadness around the station as many people came to say farewell and/or ride on the trains to Wolverhampton. A last day Pullman special organised by the SGST (top and tailed because of the lack of run round facilities) by diesel locomotives Class 45 No.20 and Class 47 No.1543, complete with white-rimmed buffers, locomotive lamps and a special headboard Farewell to Snow Hill GWR Clun Castle Ltd, ran from Snow Hill to Birmingham New Street via Stourbridge Junction. The driver was Mostyn Wall. It was believed by many that this was the only time a passenger train ran between the two stations. The ten coach special, which include three Pullman coaches, six BR coaches and a GWR saloon, left from platform 1 and as this had not been used for a long time, a locomotive was sent to test it out a few days before the special. This train which left to exploding detonators, was the final departure from the old Snow Hill Station.
One Snow Hill line devotee travelled on the last day wearing a black tie. As a signalling enthusiast he noted only one upper quadrant signal at Handsworth Junction, all the remaining signals being lower quadrant. Signal boxes still in use (although some switched out) were Birmingham Panel, Hockley South, Soho and Winson Green, Handsworth and Smethwick, Handsworth Junction, Swan Village North, Wednesbury South, Priestfield, Wolverhampton South. Priestfield, Wednesbury South and Swan Village survived in use to December 1973 and Handsworth and Smethwick until December 1975.
Monday’s Express and Star carried a brief mention of the closure with a picture of the last train leaving Low Level Station: “Ironically, the lack of support that has brought about the closure was evident even to the end. BR put on extra coaches but the train left half empty.”
As previously mentioned, the RCTS Black Countryman Rail Tour on November 23, 1968, started at Birmingham New Street and finished its journey at Birmingham Snow Hill. This however, was not by the shortest route between the two termini! Birmingham Snow Hill Station to Handsworth and Smethwick (Queens Head sidings) was closed completely from March 6, 1972. The track was lifted from Snow Hill to Handsworth. Although refusing to support the passenger trains in 1972, the West Midlands County Council decreed that the Snow Hill to Low Level route be protected if required for future rail use and they did their best to protect the whole route by not allowing any development that would have compromised the eventual re-opening of the railway to passenger services. Freight traffic was to continue at Handsworth, Wednesbury, Bilston Central private siding, Swan Village and Priestfield private sidings served by a single connection from Wolverhampton Steel Terminal. Closure of Birmingham Snow Hill Station power box was the first of its kind in England.
Announcing the withdrawal of services The Railway Magazine stated that: “Snow Hill peters out.” After the passenger closure there were calls for the passenger trains to be brought back. During 1972 the down line from Handsworth Junction to Swan Village was taken out of use and the main line tracks from Handsworth Junction to Birmingham Snow Hill were removed. In the West Bromwich area, part of the former track bed was eventually turned into a linear park and walkway (the Low Level Railway Line Walkway) and the site of West Bromwich station was landscaped. The old platforms were retained as part of the landscaping. The Victoria Basin, Wolverhampton rail link was closed by March 27, 1972. Since 1967 it had been used by National Carriers. There were rumours that the Wolverhampton Parcels Concentration Depot at Wolverhampton Low Level was to be closed and the work transferred to the former Herbert Street Goods Depot at Victoria Basin. This was because of the cramped layout at Low Level and the rail vans having to be reversed at Heath Town Junction to reach High Level Station.
During 1974 the RDA campaigned for a Walsall to West Bromwich and Birmingham Snow Hill rail service. Dunstall Park station buildings were finally demolished in 1978 although the station subway was still intact over 20 years later. A BR Officers inspection special saloon train was arranged to traverse the Wednesbury to Hockley section on June 14, 1972, and the Wednesbury to Wolverhampton Low Level section a few days later. Originally this working was planned for the beginning of May and had to be postponed because of the Work to Rule. This working would have been the last train on parts of the route including Stow Heath Sidings to Wolverhampton Low Level Station. Birmingham Snow Hill, Hockley South, Soho and Winson Green, Queen’s Head and Handsworth Junction signal boxes were officially abolished during September 1972.
Freight trains continued to use parts of the Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level route for a number of years: Wednesbury to Bilston scrap yard and Wolverhampton Steel Terminal, and Handsworth Junction to Handsworth Queens Head (Soho Cement Terminal) for the cement from Northfleet and steel traffic from Llanelli. Class 25 and 31 locomotives worked these trains via Langley Green. Freight traffic was handled at Handsworth, Wednesbury (GW), Bilston Central and Swan Village (Black Lake). Such was the use of the line that it was probably more economic to have kept it all open including the links to Birmingham Moor Street and Wolverhampton Bushbury/stafford Road Junction. The section from Low Level to Stow Heath (by Wolverhampton Steel terminal) was disused and no longer used by scheduled through freight traffic. A short section of track at Priestfield was still in regular use. There was an Esso Depot on the Up side of the line about a quarter of a mile north of Priestfield Junction with the former OWWR line. Tank wagons were transferred to and from the sidings by the Class 08 diesel shunter from the Wolverhampton New Depot (part of the former EX-GWR Walsall Street Goods Depot) which was served from the Stour Valley Line. The Class 08 350hp diesel shunter approached the EX-GWR Snow Hill main line on the Down side, the former access line to Walsall Street Goods Depot. Sidings adjacent to this access line were used for wagon storage.
The Wolverhampton Low Level to Stow Heath Sidings Priestfield section was officially closed by May 23, 1973. The remaining South signal box at Wolverhampton Low Level was demolished in June 1973. Track alterations were made by Wolverhampton South signal box. The tracks out of Low Level into the tunnel towards Snow Hill were lifted in the late autumn 1973 and the connection from Low Level to Heath Town Junction was re-aligned so that Wolverhampton Low Level continued to receive parcels traffic via the former Midland Railway route.
Priestfield signal box was closed at the beginning of December 1973 and a number of alterations were made to the track and signalling between Priestfield and the Wolverhampton Steel Terminal. The former Snow Hill main line remained in use as a through siding from Wednesbury Central through Priestfield where the Esso Depot was situated (private siding) on the Up side, to the connection to the Steel Terminal at the Stow Heath Ground Frame. North of this both lines were retained for wagon storage for about a quarter of a mile. It was sad to see the ‘as required’ trains from Wednesbury to the Norton Barrow (Metals) scrap yard at Bilston trundling along behind a Class 08 350hp diesel shunting locomotive (08.603 on one occasion) on
Freight trains continued to use parts of the Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level route for a number of years
the remnants of a main line railway formerly traversed by ‘King’ class steam locomotives.
Ironically, as a link to the past, one of the cranes used at the Wednesbury Steel Terminal came from Birkenhead Morpeth Dock (GWR) Goods Depot. Wednesbury Central South signal box was abolished during the w/e December 10-14, 1973 and the Up and Down through sidings: arrival and departure lines from Wolverhampton Steel Terminal were slued together for about a quarter of a mile north of the station. A number of other track alterations were made, including the Down line being severed at the south end of the station platform and a buffer stop was erected to form the new scrap dock siding. Class 08 diesel shunters were used at the Wednesbury yards and Wolverhampton Low Level Parcels Depot, No.08872 being one of these.
Because of traffic congestion on the Stour Valley Line, rail traffic from Wednesbury to Wolverhampton Steel terminal (GWR Walsall Street Goods) was later re-instated by the single track line north of Bilston for a short time. The staff for this was inscribed ‘Priestfield to Wednesbury Central. Class 47 locomotive No.47195 was observed on September 29, 1980, working a freight train from Wednesbury (former GWR) to the Wolverhampton Steel terminal. Traffic on the former GWR route ceased by May 7, 1983, being replaced by a new connection from the Stour Valley line which is still in use today. Swan Village coal traffic lasted until December 12, 1981, when the line was closed from Wednesbury Central. The last section of the Low Level to Snow Hill route to be lifted was Wednesbury Central to Swan Village on July 27, 1985.
The main archways into the Down side of Wolverhampton Low Level Station buildings were bricked up in July 1976 and the former GWR
The railway should never have been taken away. A town of the size of West Bromwich must have a train service Peter Snape MP
Departure board which remained well after closure in the main hall was removed. New accommodation was made for the Rail Express Parcels Office and the Area Manager’s Office, both had new doors and insignia facing the main station approach on the Down side. Both were located in previously hard to find positions in the building.
While the buildings at Wolverhampton Low Level Station remained intact, sadly Snow Hill Station became a car park and although efforts were made to list the structure it was eventually demolished by on alleged safety grounds starting initially on October 4, 1976, and in 1977 by L.E. Jones (Demolition) Ltd and by 1978 the site was cleared to platform level. There were even proposals to use the Snow Hill tunnel for a road! BR Divisional Manager J. Pollard stated clearly that no interference to the formation in the tunnel would be allowed without the consent of the Minister of Transport. Fortunately some of the magnificent decorative station ironwork and wrought iron gates incorporating the GWR insignia were preserved for posterity. In keeping with its high ideals, the GWR employed some of the very best craftsmen of their time who designed and constructed their scroll-patterned script for the company name so as it could be read from either side. For many years the station site at Snow Hill was an eyesore and it seemed that the railway would never return. A former Lord Mayor of Birmingham wanted the Snow hill site to be transformed into parkland complete with bridged over railway track, trees, grassland, flowers and seats with perhaps a bowling green and tennis courts. North of Snow Hill, the track bed soon became a wilderness and nature soon reasserted itself. It was a depressing time for those who longed and hoped for a renaissance of the former North Main Line of the GWR.
The Railway Development Society produced in 1979 a campaign brochure Trains for West Bromwich. The document urged bus rail co-operation and interchange facilities. In conclusion the RDS stated: “It therefore remains for West Midlands County Council to urgently endorse the provision of a cross city rail link via Snow Hill and including a train service to West Bromwich. On March 17, 1980, a meeting of the West Bromwich Railway Development Committee (WBRDC) attended by 100 people campaigned for a railway station in West Bromwich. Sandwell Councillor Joe Coyne said: “The West Bromwich to Snow Hill rail link has been sorely missed. Trains could get us into Birmingham in 10 minutes.” Peter Snape MP said: “The number 79 bus is sadly inadequate. The railway should never have been taken away. A town of the size of West Bromwich must have a train service.” A letter from the BRB to the WBRDC on January 9, 1980, stated that they had no interest in reopening the line through West Bromwich. A former Lord Mayor of Birmingham
said in July 1981 he wanted the Snow Hill site turned into parkland. In May 1983 there were plans for a busway on the track bed between Low Level and Snow Hill. Construction costs were estimated at £14.25m.
The last passengers of all on the Snow Hill to Low Level line were the walkers who took part on a two and a quarter mile nostalgic stroll from Snow Hill to Handsworth on Sunday October 11, 1990. The special walk over the derelict route was organised as a last chance opportunity to view the route before it was rebuilt and utilised by the new Snow Hill to Stourbridge line and Midland Metro. A refreshment tent was provided on the platform. Special 9 coach diesel railcar trains took passengers back from the remains of Handsworth and Smethwick Station to Birmingham New Street Station.
After the parcels depot closed on June 1, 1981, there were plans to make the Wolverhampton Low Level Station firstly into a cinema and then after these plans were abandoned, to build a transport museum. As part of the re-opening celebrations for Sandwell and Dudley Station, condemned Class 25 locomotive No 25067 was repainted and stabled at Wolverhampton Low Level Station in June 1984. The track bed in the south of the station was still intact with stored wagons in the middle road. The October 27, 1984, traffic notice said that the track at southern end of Wolverhampton Low Level was secured out of use pending removal. By December 1984 the remaining track from Wolverhampton Low Level to Heath Town Junction was officially taken out of use and later that year the former Midland Railway tracks to Heath Town Junction were lifted.