Heritage Railway Updates

Following a request from a commenter, I've decided to keep a running update on the blog showing when the next heritage train will be passing through the area. In general, these tend to visit Worcester Shrub Hill or Hereford (steam tours through Malvern are rare although diesel tours are more frequent). Please note that by 'local' I mean within a reasonable distance of Malvern - I won't be including movements to and from the Severn Valley Railway's depot at Kidderminster or the Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham unless they pass nearby. I'll also probably keep just the one up at a time, unless several are happening in short succession. Anyway, the widget for this will stay on the top-right of the page, so please do keep checking back to keep yourself informed.

Steam in Malvern - 27th November 2016

Sunday 27th November saw the Railway Touring Company's 'Welsh Marches Express' steam through Malvern with the 0840 Birmingham International to Cardiff Central. I managed to snap it passing in front of the historic Malvern College. 44871 and 45407 led from the front, supported by a diesel on the back for the muscle needed to climb to Colwall.

Puckrup

Just the one picture this week from a location that I've not had a chance to visit yet. This picture was taken to the west of Puckrup, a small village south of Ripple, during the early 1950s. The picture is from the collection of Ben Brooksbank who, along with Jim Clemens, must surely have the best collection of original photographs of the LMS Railway's Malvern branch. Ben has very generously uploaded most of his railway photographs to his Geograph page, providing an invaluable resource to anyone interested in railways in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire during the 1950s.

Goods train for Malvern on the branch from Ashchurch via Tewkesbury, 1951. View NW from Puckrup Lane at Bow Farm south of Ripple, also exactly on the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire county boundary. The train is headed by an ex-Midland 3F 0-6-0: note the number of cattle-wagons, much used for transporting live animals in those days. Used courtesy of Ben Brooksbank via Creative Commons.

More Pictures of Tewkesbury Junction

This week's blog post features some additional of pictures of the old Malvern and Tewkesbury Junction site on Malvern Common. I have been trying recently to find some pictures of the two signal boxes that stood here, namely the GWR box on the surviving Worcester-Hereford line (which would have stood opposite the Network Rail wasteland by County Building Supplies) and the Midland box on the long-removed route to Ashchurch. The latter would have stood somewhere in the middle of what is now the eastern side of Malvern Common, near Peachfield bridge:

If anyone has any pictures of either of these signal boxes, please let me know as photographs of these sites are extremely rare.

The old water tower at Tewkesbury Junction.

'Site of Tewkesbury Junction, Malvern, approx 1959.'

The view north-east towards Malvern. Christ Church can be seen in the distance.

More Pictures of Great Malvern Station

This week's update features some more pictures of two of Great Malvern Station's lost features: the old Midland bay and the signal box. The latter in particular is quite difficult to find original shots of - if anyone out there has any photos showing the old signal box, I'd love to see them!