{"id":3843,"date":"2024-02-29T02:29:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T02:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/dramatic-dudley-developments-1\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T02:29:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T02:29:21","slug":"dramatic-dudley-developments-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/dramatic-dudley-developments-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Dramatic Dudley Developments (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nostalgia Nuggets?<\/span><\/p>\n We now have a few railway lines running to the east of the hill..<\/p><\/div>\n fbb remembers a huge poster to that effect clearly visible from Dudley’s bus station. The zoo had a chair lift to assist folk up to the craggy summit …<\/p>\n … and once up there you would find a whole range of entertainment including a miniature railway.<\/p>\n Todays chair lift looks a lot more secure …<\/p>\n … has taken a leap onto modernity. There is also a land train.<\/p>\n But next to the castle and zoo excrescence was once Dudley Town station, not to be confused with Dudley Port station or Sandwell and Dudley station.<\/p><\/div>\n … because, as you all know what fbb didn’t, namely that the orange Dudley is in Boston USA.<\/p><\/div>\n The Great Western arrived ex northwards from Wolverhampton, calling at Tipton. From the north east came thr South Staffordshire Railway, (later the LMS) running from\u00a0 Walsall via Dudley Port Low Level.<\/p><\/div>\n Ane here it is on an aerial Streetview view.<\/p>\n But back to the Town station.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n The slightly more notable route for passengers was a shuttle to Old Hill.<\/p>\n (click to enkarge the timetable<\/span>) whilst the other route, manly freight only, continues to Kidderminster and was used to get goods trains to Bescot yard without cluttering up central Birmingham.<\/p>\n The station had two Island platforms, the one on the left being for GWR trains and then one, accessed via the over bridge in this north facing picture, was for the LMS. The LMS chimneys are disinc.tive!<\/p><\/div>\n … and an ex LMS “rail motor”.<\/p><\/div>\n It is not at all surprising that these lines have been closed completely for passenger trains.<\/p><\/div>\n Across Castle Hill from the Zoo\/Castle mound is a road called Birmingham Street. It is a very tired and tatty thoroughfare …<\/p>\n … which forms a back entrance to the current bus station in Dudley. It also led to the previous bus station once visited by fbb.<\/p><\/div>\n fbb can find no pictures of the bus station as a whole, but these two buses are on the slope …<\/p>\n … and there is the castle, faint but real, top right.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n