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I had so much fun sewing these blocks together! I'm using the tutorial over at Stitched In Color how to sew a 4 penny patch.
Taken from a print in my collection, no further details known.
SECR C class, built Longhedge numbered 592 February 1902. SR A592, later 1592, after 1923. Renumbered 31592 December 1948. Transferred to departmental stock DS239 July 1963. Withdrawn December 1966 and used to supply steam until August 1967. Later sold for preservation.
©2014 Julia Forsyth, Windows, acrylic paint on paper, 10" x 8"
Gelli plate monoprint
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A print of the late 1890s shows Birmingham New Street station as it most certainly is not today. The station at the time was shared between the London & North Western Railway and the Midland Railway, which operated side-by-side under separate roofs. This is the LNWR side, under the wide span of the original roof of 1854 - until the opening of St. Pancras in 1868, the widest single-span roof in Britain. The station was fronted by the elegant Queen’s Hotel, making for an attractive ensemble.
Bombing in World War II led to the demolition of the LNWR overall roof, and the Queen’s Hotel was deemed to be outmoded. With the centre of Birmingham in the throes of comprehensive redevelopment in the early 1960s, the opportunity was taken to sweep away the entire New Street station complex. British Railways sold the lucrative air rights above the station site, and an execrable office and shops complex was built above the station site, so typical of the era. The station platforms were cramped into a gloomy subterranean area, trains’ diesel fumes guaranteeing abysmal air quality. During the 1970s, British Rail chose New Street as a hub for its cross country services, so passenger volumes increased to far beyond the levels originally planned. Changing and waiting for trains was a singularly unpleasant experience.
Further redevelopment endeavoured to address these problems in part, although greater priority seems to have been given to the retail rather than the travelling experience. Now branded as Grand Central, the new complex officially opened in 2015. I have yet to use it: I have long preferred to take the Chiltern Trains route when visiting Birmingham, using the vastly more agreeable Moor Street station.
Back meanwhile to the print of Birmingham New Street in its happier days: a pair of LNWR 2-4-2Ts stand in the platform, awaiting their next duties on suburban trains. They are still fitted with upward-hinged smokebox doors, a feature that was phased out by 1900. The print is hand-tinted, but the man responsible clearly did not know his LNWR: the locos are shown in crimson lake colours, with polished brass domes. Crimson lake was the Midland Railway’s locomotive livery, while brass domes featured on the Great Western. Actual LNWR engines were in well-polished black - and no brass domes.