October 12th – Not enough stations have proper clocks anymore. They’ve all got those boring digital things, but few have real, wooden cased analogue clocks. Come to that, few stations are like Birmingham Moor Street, and all should be. Spacious, airy, light, it’s a gorgeous place to wait for a train. Clocks of this style were mainly made by JB Joyce & Co., of Whitchurch, Shropshire, possibly the country’s oldest clockmakers, and often bore the name ‘Joyce, Whitchurch’. This leads to an in-joke amongst railway buffs who often use ‘Joyce Whitchurch’ as a pseudonym on internet forums etc.
They really should get out more.

