Tag: Tyseley

November 14th – Now winter darkness is upon me, that Late Night Feelings thing is haunting me once again. I pitched up at Tyseley station this evening on the threshold between day and night, and all it took between the two was the journey downstairs to the platform.

The lights, the skyline, the signals. Bright, warming, steady, reassuring, control. The glistening, ever-crossing parabolas of the rails; the ever present shadow of the incinerator, innocuously operating unnoticed in the dry warm air of summer, but now with it’s dirty secrets revealed into the chill air in the form of a plume of steam.

Cityscape, geometry, light. Can’t stop the fascination, I really can’t. 

October 30th – So, they do clean them occasionally. Alighting at Tyseley on a sunny autumn morning, I happened to look up the track to the train wash. I’ve never seen it in use before. Seems to be doing a good job – this 153 ‘Dogbox’ positively gleams. Bet the inside still smells of mould, though…

October 28th – The shift from BST to GMT and the earlier fall of darkness is always depressing, but it did allow me to catch a great sunset sky over Birmingham on my way home tonight. The inclement weather had left the door open for the cold, and it felt like winter out there, cold, dark and intemperate.

Better get used to it quickly, I guess…

October 24th – In Tyseley, I left the station in the mid-morning, with a bright autumn sun cheering me up and making me feel positive rolling the past few days of rain, mud and wind. I stopped on the bridge in Wharfdale Road to look back up the line towards the city. I’ll nvere tire of that view over the rooftops of Small Heath and Bordesley. 

The pall of smoke was from a steam locomotive under test at the rRailway Museum. I couldn’t see it from where I was, but I could hear it and it’s lovely steam whistle.

Setember 5th – Tyseley, about 6:30pm, heading for Darlaston. There was a soft sun, combining with city haze, smog and no wind. The shapes of the city looked gorgeous. I’d forgotten over the summer that it could look like this. I was tired – blitzed, to be honest – but this pulled me up short. I don’t think anyone else noticed.

I love this city. This place. This moment in time. The rooftops, spires, tower blocks, chimneys. It felt like the city was mine. It’s nice when that happens.

July 17th – Further up the road in less salubrious Tyseley, the incinerator that destroys Brum’s non-recyclable rubbish is still running flat out. A workmate said the other day that he hadn’t seen it running for weeks. I pointed out that you only see vapour from the flues in colder temperatures. The incineration is so thorough that very few visible particulates remain in the fumes generated.

The huge furnaces of the waste (sorry, ‘energy recovery’) plant overlook the lost gem of Hay Hall, hidden amongst warehouses and back-street lockups. This is why I love Birmingham: jarring contrasts around every corner.

July 16th – I noticed something today that’s puzzling me. I doubt many others have ever registered it, and even fewer probably care, but it appeals to my sense of lost history. I noticed today that Tyseley Station once had a lift, or at least, the evidence points to it.

I noticed some time ago there was a tower attached to the station building, contemporary with the rest of the structure, that had no apparent door or way in. It’s a few metres taller than the main building, and is about the size of a lift shaft, but there’s no evidence of it in the booking hall, where the tiles and fittings look original and undisturbed from new.

Down at track level on platforms 1 & 2, there is a low, bricked up doorway with a modern door built in. The platform island ramps down to it. It’s the only access to the tower I can see.

At pavement level, three sides of the tower are plain, and blank (the terracotta paint is covering graffiti, note the continuous texture of the brickwork underneath) – the other side of the tower can be seen in this image series from last week.

I do hope some passing railway buff can help with this. Was it a lift? If so, why? What did it convey? Who used it?

It’s an odd little mystery all of it’s own.

July 9th – One of the best things about sunny weather is it makes yo pay attention to shadows, and the way sunlight passes through things you might not ordinarily notice. Today, leaving Tyseley station, I noticed the supporting steelwork for the old glass canopy on the station front. There can be no doubt that when it was erected, this station was in a prosperous area, and was a grand affair. These days, the heavy, hand-wrought and hot riveted scrollwork is incongruous on a down at heel, suburban station. 

It speaks of a better past, and is rather gorgeous.