Rambling, Coundon Wedge Area

Here it is. Does anyone recognise the street?

Interesting! It was originally a master watchmaker's house and would have had a huge extension at the rear where the workshops were housed. That entire row is now the playing fields for St Osburgs school.

I not sure that it is a bus stop. Post-war Coventry Corporation bus stops were always mounted on a stand alone pole and had the words "Coventry Transport" around the perimeter at the top. See www.cct-society.org.uk/corporation/general/bus_stop.htm for a description of Corporation bus stops. Midland red bus stops were square. I have found a few pictures of pre-war Corporation bus stops, both of which have "BUSES" around the top perimiter, "FOR" followed by the destinations across the middle and "STOP HERE" around the bottom preimeter.

Thank you. Hope everyone is ok this morning. Wet outside, but that will not keep me indoors. Reading the various posts on here brings back memories of events that are really only of interest to me, but I still have the urge to visit the place. Both my son & grandson have had an interest in railways over the years. When out & about, if I see a class 66 or any other locomotive, I usually text them the details. On occasions I will wander down to Coventry railway station to enjoy a mental flash-back to the fifties. I remember the staion before & after rebuilding. When my son was of school age, the station inspectors included Roy & Bill G, as they was known. I played in a band at the time and it was my pleasure to officiate at some of their railway-club night events. Happy days. Those of you with a Centro issued bus pass can travel anywhere on any train throughout the West Midlands. I might have a short hop to the pub at Berkswell for a lunch. That family run pub is under threat of demolition from the new line developement.

Hi InnisRoad, I might be wrong but I've had the magnifying glass on the original photo and I think it says "Buses Stop Here For Orthopaedic Patients Only", which would tie-in with Philip's visits to Dover St (although somewhat later!!). The picture was taken around 1944/45.

In the late fifties when I was attending the clinic on my own, the special bus stop had gone, & I had to get off nearly opposite the Coventry Garage.

As a young boy I was a keen train spotter too. Canley Halt was where I got my little book out to rule a line through each engine as it chuffed through, being the closest to where I lived. Some trains must have gone back and forth to Coventry station regularly as I recall whenever POLYPHEMUS steamed through there was a collective moan from all the boys hanging off the railway crossing gates.

Not sure you'd recognise the place now ! Looking towards to "crossing" from Sir Henry Parkes Road towards Hearsall Common Only way across the railway is via the footbridge - the road is cut-off

Ah! I thouhgt I saw something like "PATIENTS". That would explain it. The magnifying glass didn't work on the upload.

They wouldn't have moaned the day POLYPHEMUS took the gates off their hinges!

Hi to you all. It was not uncommon to see a loco in both directions anywhere. A favorite local trainspot location of mine was at Weddington in Nuneaton, referred to at the time as Weddi-meadows. If I was there during school holidays, I would often see the same loco that was on a northbound express in the morning, returning south later in the day. I was on holiday in Teignmouth one year and saw the same with Kings, Castles & Halls. Gosh! They were the days.

Hi. Polyphemus was a Jubilee 4-6-0 No, 45688. It's shed plate in 1960 was 12B. which made it a Carlisle based engine. I only ever saw it once in our area and that was in the 1958. I always like the Jub's. The hungsung heroes of the London Midland. They lacked the big loco attraction of the Scots & Coronation classes, but the loads that they worked were unbelievable. Before Coventry station was rebuilt, the service known as the Birmingham to London two hour express usually worked by these jub's often made two stops at Coventry, so long were these trains, unable to fit inside the shorter length of the old London bound platform. I once counted seventeen coaches on one of these trains. A jubilee class on my model railway. We have three of them, two in pristine condition as 45611 is here in the photo, but also a dirty work horse condition example as so many were in their final years. That is a pity, as these engines gave some of their best ever performances in their final years. They regularly outperformed the new state of the art diesels which were arriving on the scene at that time.

I cannot find a pic of Polyphemus but here is 45689,(the next loco to it) at Tamworth, photo by John Neave. This serves to show the deplorable condition that these locos were allowed to fall into. Yet, even at this time with so many diesel failures, they were pressed into express passenger duty. At this time with so many steam sheds closing, locos were being moved around all of the time & a close friend of mine has just told me that Polyphemus was shedded at Burton for a while even whilst wearing its Carlisle shed plate. From Burton it would have worked to the Birmingham area from where it would work through Coventry. From this time onwards, these locos received the dreaded yellow stripe painted on the cab side, denoting that they could not work under the overhead electric wires. That was the end of them through Coventry. It was a real safety issue. The crew of a steam engine would often have to climb on to the tender to trim the coal which then brought them within the flash over distance from the wires. Also, their fire irons used for trimming were lethal for the same reason.

WarwickshireRailways.com has this picture of ex-LMS 4-6-0 Jubilee class No 45599 'Bechuanaland' left to rot the sidings next to Quinton Road:

Thank you for that fabulous picture. Note the dreaded yellow stripe on the cab side which I mentioned in my earlier post, also the condition too. It would not surprise me if you were to tell me that the only journey left for this work horse was to be towed, either to Wolverhampton or Wolverton for scrapping. I returned from a Motor show in Earls Court, London, travelling behind this loco in 1957. Twice, the speed approached eighty miles per hour as the jub' gave such a spirited performance pulling its load of three hundred & fifty tons. In that year, there were only a handful of motor cars at the show that could have reached that speed. Now look at it. ps. I should have read your comments first as you have already stated its fate was to rot.