Railways around Coventry

This is 'Henry' who was built in 1901 and worked at Webster's Brick Works. During World War One it hauled gun barrels produced by the Coventry Ordnance Factory and later passed to Courtaulds in Coventry. In 1926 it was at British Celanese in Derby but returned to Courtaulds in Coventry in 1947 where it was put on display. It was restored at Tysley in 1986 and in 1998 was moved to the Barrow Hill Roundhouse Museum on loan from Birmingham Railway Museum. Henry is still at Barrow Hill which is situated at Stavely near to Chesterfield.

If I may correct the previous information regarding Henry's renovation. He was not renovated at Tysley, but in Coventry, not far from his place of work. In the early eighties I was working for Coventry Education YTS department, located at the former Alfred Herbert's works in Cross Road, Edgwick. It was here that Henry was transformed by YTS staff and trainees to a fully operational and certificated steam loco. We were fortunate to have on our staff some very experienced and able engineers who led and tutored the trainees in one of the most difficult and rewarding projects that the scheme ever attempted. Some memories; I saw one of said ex Herbert's engineers scraping one of the connecting rods, a process by which machine beds were rendered truly flat with a wonderful half-moon pattern finish. "Why?" I asked, "Because I want it to look 'proper' when he steams again" came the reply. No argument warranted there! We had the boiler certificated on site and I remember well the pride and joy when the tester gave us the ok and the accompanying boiler certificate. Lastly, the day we raised steam up in the workshop, tooted the whistle and slowly and majestically backed Henry out into the sun light. That was emotional. Of course the question then was what to do with him? I cannot answer that fully because I moved on to other things but have a memory of him going to the railway museum in Rowley Road for a while.

sjwb - I do apologise for the misleading information about Henry's renovation but my information was a direct copy of the information board which is currently attached to Henry in the museum at Staveley. I first saw Henry in 2009 and last saw him at the end of last year. To be honest he looks dusty, unwanted, and uncared for. It would be much better if he could be displayed in the city of Coventry where he performed such sterling service; where his renovation showed the depth of engineering ability and experience for which the city has long been renowned; and also where those skills were passed on to the next generation of engineers on the YTS training scheme. Henry is nowhere as big as a dinosaur skeleton!

Hi sjwb, welcome to the forum and thanks for your insider knowledge. Not Local, he would be a great guest after Dippy has gone.

SJWB, I have a vague recollection that my father was involved in that renovation. Do you have any pictures that you might be able to share?

The problem with displaying a railway engine is the weight. I would guess that Henry weighs about 25 tons which is probably too heavy for The Herbert or Coventry Transport Museum. An old engine needs to be stored inside and ideally to be used. Henry would need a new boiler if he was to steam again and this would be costly. Even then he would not be of any great use to most of the preserved railways because of his small size. The ideal place for him would be at the Chasewater Railway at Brownhills where similar engines are used on their short trains over a relatively short trip. In the meantime he sits in a dry and secure environment where visitors can at least look at him. The Barrow Hill Museum has an interesting collection of old locomotives, many of them on loan from the national collection. It is an enjoyable day out and has an atmosphere somewhere between an old roundhouse steam shed and that of a museum - it is clean and tidy but it is a bit dark inside and can be very cold. It does have a lovely cafe though and the Deltic Museum is next door for fans of big diesels. I wonder what became of those young YTS trainees from the early 80's, they would now be in their 50's and may well have successful careers thanks to the engineering grounding they received from those proper old school engineers.

Hi all, An event that I remember near to the end of the line working, was a derailment. The line, traveling in the direction from Kingfield Rd, was on a downward gradient, so passing under the Foleshill Rd, parallel to the present day canal, in a deep cutting, to the site of the loco shed. Such was the steepness of the line, the rule was that the loco was always coupled at the downgrade end of the wagons, so as to prevent runaway risk. One day, Rocket set off from the shed, having been coupled correctly to the short rake of 16 ton mineral wagons so as to push return them empty, when an object on the line caused a wagon derailment. Now I believe that there might have been a cover-up, because the regular driver, I believe his name was Edgar, but I'm not sure about that, would always inspect the line before the first journey. That was the official excuse, but I believe it was an insecure buffer, which allowed buffer locking, which could easily have caused the derailment of empty wagons on the tight twisty line as it ducked under Foleshill Rd. The line was blocked for days as the derailed wagons had buried themselves into the cutting brickwork. A huge risk with the canal bank towering above. One false move & frog men would be needed.

Wow, that's livened things up a bit! No need to apologise NL. I did have a record of the Henry renovation and have been scouring the house for it, but to no avail. As for the names of those involved they, are lost in the mists of my memory; faces though, perhaps a little better. There is something that is nagging at me and that is the current condition of said loco. As previously mentioned, the engine was fully renovated to as near as new condition and was finished in a rather splendid green. The original colour I believe. I am wondering how he ended up black and unkempt. I might just jump on my bike and visit Stavely and have a look. Interesting thought NL, reference the trainees of the time, I wonder.

The new West Midlands Class 196 have started driver training between Leamington and Nuneaton. Currently one train a day Tyseley-Leamington-Nuneaton and back. Passes Coventry 11:30 towards Nuneaton and 12:38 towards Leamington.. The training runs are "as required" so won't run every day. The Class 196 will be taking over from the class 172's later this year.

I've just found this Youtube video of the 8F that fell off the end of Coundon sidings being recovered.

That must've been some crane!

Hi all, Yes a steam crane. If a loco was derailed & needed re-railing on the level, two cranes would work in tandem at either end. Obviously impossible in this situation.

Can someone explain why the match day experience of travelling to the Coventry Arena railway station differs so much to that of visiting Brighton & Hove Albion's Amex stadium at Falmer please? Both the CBS and Amex stadiums are approximately the same distances away from Coventry and Brighton's main railway stations respectively and yet on match days there seems to be an almost constant shuttle service to Falmer and back to Brighton yet its once every whenever at Coventry. Is there a very good railway technical reason for this or is it that our service is just rubbish full stop!

Brighton to Falmer (for the AMEX Stadium) has 4 trains an hour each way on a normal timetable. These will be at least 3 car units so 12 carriages an hour. Coventry Arena has one two car train per hour. This means that the AMEX has six times the capacity to move people without any extras. To cope with the anticipated demand you would need as a minimum a four car train every 30 minutes so that is an extra driver/conductor and you have to find three two units which are probably better employed carrying shoppers into Birmingham. Southern has spare units from Commuter services that West Midlands does not. You would also need to pay for crowd control staff etc. Even with a 30 minute service you are probably quicker getting a bus into the City Centre. For comparison extra trains are run to Witton for Villa Park but this is mainly to keep Away fans separated from Home fans who go to Aston station for the Holte end. The Hawthorns (for WBA) does not have any extra trains but has four trains an hour plus the Metro. Birmingham City have a few trains make additional stops at Bordesley on Match days. . .

When they built the Ricoh arena they expected a lot of cars, to the point that they issued parking badges to locals in case they had to police the surrounding roads. There is a lot more parking provision at Coventry than at the AMEX.