# Saltley --Railway oddz n sodz !!



## fluffy5518 (Dec 31, 2009)

Hi all !!
Saltley is an area of Brum which had a massive part to play in the running of Britain's once proud railway system,for here was a huge engine shed and many yards and sidings spewing out trains from the industrial heatlands to all the corners of country.It was home to many hundreds of railwaymen and the train crew depot was one of the largest in the country.In latter years the drivers and guards here became known nationally as The Saltley Seagulls--Because they went everywhere and shit on everyone in the process !!
The area is now very run down and although there is still a Freightliner depot located at Lawley Street the engines,sheds,yards and men are mostly long gone.!!!
This is the entrance to Dunns scrapyard at the back of the former depot it scraps mostly motor vehicles these days but still sends scrap away by rail.!!





Here is the old diesel storage and pump house,which would transfer the fuel oil to the loco shed ready to replenish the many loco's visiting here.




Storage tanks.




Inside of the Pump house showing the redundant switchgear.




Starter switch for No1 Fuel Pump.




Isolating cocks for the main feed lines from the storage tanks.




Underneath the main lines from Brum New St-Derby is this walkway which links Landor St (Saltley)to the Freightliner depot at Lawley Street,this saves the Drivers from crossing the main lines.I dont know anything about it but it looks as though it used to be a tunnel for locos to access the depot.




Now we move on to the old train crew accommodation block opposite the now demolished shed,this was closed about 5 years ago and the remaining men moved to the new Portacabin block near to the main running lines.
This is the old Booking on point where drivers,guards and firemen would report to the foreman before starting work.




Here they would obtain there workings for the day and also read the many general and emergency notices that required their attention.








This is the interior of the foremans office and was once a hive of activity.




Notice the Bloody air conditioning unit that i just walked under (I still dont know whats holding it in place )




Finally we move on to what was the Messrooms,these places were huge areas full of tables n chairs where Drivers and Firemen would take their break or await their next duties.I can remember working to here on nights with Freightliner trains to and from Southampton in the early 1990's and struggling to get a seat owing to the amount of men awaiting their next workings.Now only ghosts await the call for 4M79 and 4O31 !!!




























Thanx for your time !!!


----------



## tom83 (Dec 31, 2009)

I like that.

Cracking report


----------



## Foxylady (Dec 31, 2009)

Fabulous explore and pics, fluffy. Love your first photo...it looks like something from the original computer game Doom. 
Interesting stuff.


----------



## godzilla73 (Dec 31, 2009)

Beautiful pics Fluffy, particularly that first one and the one of the tanks later on. I wonder who Nick James was and what he bottled out of?


----------



## night crawler (Dec 31, 2009)

Ah I can see you had an hour or so to wait around there Fluffy. Nice one


----------

