Stop,Look & Listen. Train Station from 1976.

[Ashley Hill]

Who’s old enough to remember the schools program Stop,Look & Listen. I found this episode from 1976 on YouTube. It features a group of children having a train ride somewhere in the midlands. There’s plenty of nostalgia here for the enthusiast but can I ask a couple of questions.
Q1. Which signal boxes are featured?
Q2. What type of ticket machine is that in the booking offices?

 

[John Webb]

The first shot from a train on the move is entering Birmingham New Street - note the unusual triangular signals at the platform ends which were unique to this station.

The signal box interior is of a former LNWR location from the style of the levers.

At around 6 minutes they appear to have gone onto former GWR territory - lower quadrant signals and a typical GWR box from the style of the windows.

From the couple of glimpses of canals with the typical cast iron bridges the programme was made in the Birmingham-Wolverhampton area.

 

[Trackman]

Excellent!
Is that Chris Tarrant?

 

[Ashley Hill]

I would say the interior shot is definitely a western frame. The instruments are definitely GW/WR and judging by the windows possibly a McKenzie & Holland box. Of the two junction boxes the second could be Stourbridge Jct.
The DMU destination blind looks like Kidderminster.

Excellent!
Is that Chris Tarrant?

He is the narrator. He worked for ATV at the time.

 

[Sprinter107]

Its a journey from Kidderminster to Birmingham. But the film seems to be mixed up, as one minute the train is going towards Birmingham, and the next its going towards Kidderminster. The level crossing featured is Langley Green. You see Smethwick Junction box, where the kids are on the embankment. Stourbridge North Box is on there, as the train veers right. I think the signal box interior may be Lye. Although the film is from 1976, I think it was probably filmed earlier. The wrap around yellow front on the class 304 emu on Soho depot gives that away.

 

[Ridercross]

The station at the beginning is Kidderminster, even though Chris asks for tickets to Kidderminster!

 

[Ashley Hill]

@Sprinter107 Thanks for the info. I’ve tried looking for photos of Lye box but currently drawing blanks.

 

[Gloster]

Both boxes seen end on look GWR: the first may be Smethwick Junction, the second probably Stourbridge Junction North.
The first interior is Western, the second may be, but I am not sure about the windows.

 

[Sprinter107]

@Sprinter107 Thanks for the info. I’ve tried looking for photos of Lye box but currently drawing blanks.

No probs. It was on the up (Birmingham) side about a hundred yards from the end of the platform. I think it closed in 1973, but I'll stand corrected, thats why that film mustve been filmed a lot earlier than 1976. The booking office at Kidderminster is pristine, as is the station at Old Hill, which was rebuilt and opened on the 22nd May 1968. So id say it was filmed around 1971ish.

 

[Gloster]

No probs. It was on the up (Birmingham) side about a hundred yards from the end of the platform. I think it closed in 1973, but I'll stand corrected, thats why that film mustve been filmed a lot earlier than 1976. The booking office at Kidderminster is pristine, as is the station at Old Hill, which was rebuilt and opened on the 22nd May 1968. So id say it was filmed around 1971ish.

Lye closed 30-12-1973, but Cradley Heath was the same design.

 

[Ashley Hill]

The top of Cradley Heath is at Totnes on the SDR. The stairs are the wrong end to be Cradley.

 

[Sprinter107]

Lye closed 30-12-1973, but Cradley Heath was the same design.

Would you happen to know if Old Hill box closed the same day by any chance. I know it was 1973.

 

[midland1]

At 7.31 you can see one of the GWR ATC ramps on the track.

 

[Gloster]

Would you happen to know if Old Hill box closed the same day by any chance. I know it was 1973.

Old Hill Junction closed 25-03-1973.

 

[Ashley Hill]

The ATC ramp well spotted. That may help date the film.

 

[Sprinter107]

Old Hill Junction closed 25-03-1973.

Thanks for that.

 

[John Webb]

The signal box interior is of a former LNWR location from the style of the levers.

Apologies - made a mistake there - yes, a GWR frame, not LNWR.

 

[AY1975]

No probs. It was on the up (Birmingham) side about a hundred yards from the end of the platform. I think it closed in 1973, but I'll stand corrected, thats why that film mustve been filmed a lot earlier than 1976. The booking office at Kidderminster is pristine, as is the station at Old Hill, which was rebuilt and opened on the 22nd May 1968. So id say it was filmed around 1971ish.

Probably right, as the Class 116 DMU that they travel on appears to be in the later version of BR blue (I believe that a lighter shade of blue was originally used in the 1960s), and if you look carefully in the closing scene where they get off at Kidderminster you can see at least one door in the centre car that still has a figure "1" for First Class.

Not sure when 1st class was abolished on West Midlands local services, though I have a feeling that it was withdrawn on services worked by Class 116 DMUs (maybe mid to late 1970s?) a few years earlier than it disappeared on services such as Birmingham-Walsall and Coventry-Wolverhampton locals that were worked by Class 304 and 310 EMUs (early 1980s as I recall, at the same time as it was done away with on 304-operated services in Greater Manchester). See also this thread on the last trains to run on BR with 1st class but no toilets: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...on-br-with-first-class-but-no-toilets.237607/

Note also the pre-refurbishment interior of the DMU, with Trojan seat moquette and red leather or fake leather headrests.

Unfortunately the commentator doesn't mention the colour light signal that the train passes towards the end, or the Automatic Warning System (AWS) bell that sounds as the train passes it.

Also of note is that the man (presumably a teacher) travelling with them buys separate tickets for each of them rather than a group ticket for the whole party.

I was also half expecting to see at least one of those children who was playing by the lineside do something stupid such as stepping onto the track and getting run over by the train or having a near miss, just like in another safety information film from around the same era in which a group of children at their school sports day take part in a running across a railway track race (which I think may have been linked from another thread on here somewhere).

 

[Ashley Hill]

I was also half expecting to see at least one of those children who was playing by the lineside do something stupid such as stepping onto the track and getting run over by the train or having a near miss, just like in another safety information film from around the same era in which a group of children at their school sports day take part in a running across a railway track race (which I think may have been linked from another thread on here somewhere).

Stop,Look & Listen was a schools program designed for 5-10 year olds. The narrator did mention that the children shouldn’t have been there.
The film you’re thinking of is The Finishing Line by British Transport Films. It was replaced by the more well known film Robbie.

 

[Dave W]

Marvellous!!! Some of those accents "I think we'll turn to the roight" - takes me right back!

If this is indeed all on the Stourbridge Line, any idea where those flats are/were? Are they the ones in Old Hill (town, down the hill from the station)? They seem a bit too close to the railway for those, but can't think of any other high rise flats?

I think where the train is above the lorries at 5:10ish is the end of Chester Road in Cradley Heath, there's still a "stop" junction there to this day.

 

[Ashley Hill]

On Google earth those blocks of flats appear to be
Wesley Court and Addenbrooke Court in Cradley Heath.

 

[Trackman]

Found this on the web, apparently there was more than one..
from https://www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Stop,_Look,_Listen/1975-93

Remakes​

The episodes described here were a progression of the original Stop, Look, Listen series from 1971, covering many of the same topics. In fact in fact in the case of several early episodes, film sequences from 1971 were literally re-used with a little extra to bring the programmes up to date and change the commentary: for example the 1971 Rail episode showed teacher Harvey Higgins and a group of children buying tickets at Birmingham New Street Station, taking a railway journey and then alighting at Stourbridge Junction. The updated 1976 Station episode filmed a new teacher and children buying their tickets in 1976, but then re-used the original footage of the journey with all the things the passengers could see from the train in 1971 (including some very naughty children playing on the railway embankment), and then showed the new children alighting further down the line at Kidderminster in 1976, all with a new commentary by Chris Tarrant. The later 1986 Trains episode followed the same journey from Birmingham to Kidderminster again narrated by Chris Tarrant, but was completely re-made to show up-to-date scenes.

 

[alxndr]

Are those electro-pneumatic points at Birmingham at the very beginning? They look like it from what I can make out, but are missing the covers I'm used to seeing on them. Are covers a more recent addition or were some varients of EPs not furnished with covers?

 

[chris_in_salop]

Marvellous!!! Some of those accents "I think we'll turn to the roight" - takes me right back!

If this is indeed all on the Stourbridge Line, any idea where those flats are/were? Are they the ones in Old Hill (town, down the hill from the station)? They seem a bit too close to the railway for those, but can't think of any other high rise flats?

I think where the train is above the lorries at 5:10ish is the end of Chester Road in Cradley Heath, there's still a "stop" junction there to this day.

I think they were the flats in Riddins Mound, built in the late 1960s then mostly demolished in 1996. They seemed to loom over the line at that point, particularly in the days when 116s were crawling up Old Hill Bank.

I agree with you that the view at around 5.10 is above the Chester Road junction with Cradley Road, just downhill from Cradley Heath main post office. Back in those days there were still loads of terraced houses all round there!

 

[P Binnersley]

Ah - memories (even to the ATV logo & theme). I lived in Kidderminster in the 1970's and did this journey quite regularly. This is the first time I've seen this as we used to watch BBC children's programmes.

The ticket machine looks like an Omniprinter (see this post) where code numbers were used for the destination. At this time there was an hourly service terminating at Kidderminster with only a few trains a day continuing to Worcester.

00:30-00:47 Arriving at Birmingham New Street from the Wolverhampton direction.
00:48-02:51 Kidderminster. This is the then new 1974 station. The disused signal bracket from Kidderminster station signal box (closed 1973) is visible at 02:45
02:58-03:38 Departing Birmingham New Street towards Wolverhampton (The Bridge is St. Vincent Street). This is the area now covered by the Indoor Arena.
03:41-03:51 Passing over Soho East Junction & Soho EMU depot towards Wolverhampton.
03:55-04:01 Langley Green Level Crossing (Station Road/Crosswells Road).
04:08-04:26 Old Hill station (towards Birmingham).
04:26-04:32 Smethwick Junction at Smethwick West Station.
04:38-05:11 Lye Signal Box (The Signal box diagram) shows the siding in front of the box and the large building in the middle of the window is still extant.
05:13-05:26 Cradley Road, just after Cradley Heath station heading towards Birmingham.
05:26-05:41 Beauty Bank, just west of Old Hill station heading towards Kidderminster.
05:48-06:04 These are the flats between Cradley Heath and Old Hill, the train is heading towards Birmingham. Same flats (compare windows), but done up and less of them.
06:08-06:34 Stourbridge Junction North Signalbox (straight on for Dudley, left for B'ham).
06:42-06:52 The tunnel Between Rowley Regis and Old Hill (heading towards Stourgridge).
07:08-07:22 Redlake Road & Worcester Lane bridges south of Stourbridge Junction (towards Kidderminster).
07:27-07:42 (probably) Heading towards Stakenbridge Lane bridge with Blakedown distant (towards Kidderminster).
07:47-08:00 Blakedown viaduct (towards Kidderminster).
08:03-08:32 Stakenbridge Lane again (towards Kidderminster), this time looking out of the opposite side of the train.
08:34-08:42 Hodge Hill Farm (now Garden centre) between Kidderminster and Blakedown (towards Blakedown). The remains of the traction engine are now at the entrance.
08:46-09:52 Arriving back at Kidderminster (from Birmingham).

Thanks to Trackman for explaining how Signal boxes that closed in 1973 could appear with a station that opened in 1974!

 

[Sprinter107]

Found this on the web, apparently there was more than one..
from https://www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Stop,_Look,_Listen/1975-93

That explains a lot. Cheers for that. Wonder if the other episodes are available to view somewhere.

Probably right, as the Class 116 DMU that they travel on appears to be in the later version of BR blue (I believe that a lighter shade of blue was originally used in the 1960s), and if you look carefully in the closing scene where they get off at Kidderminster you can see at least one door in the centre car that still has a figure "1" for First Class.

Not sure when 1st class was abolished on West Midlands local services, though I have a feeling that it was withdrawn on services worked by Class 116 DMUs (maybe mid to late 1970s?) a few years earlier than it disappeared on services such as Birmingham-Walsall and Coventry-Wolverhampton locals that were worked by Class 304 and 310 EMUs (early 1980s as I recall, at the same time as it was done away with on 304-operated services in Greater Manchester). See also this thread on the last trains to run on BR with 1st class but no toilets: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...on-br-with-first-class-but-no-toilets.237607/

Note also the pre-refurbishment interior of the DMU, with Trojan seat moquette and red leather or fake leather headrests.

Unfortunately the commentator doesn't mention the colour light signal that the train passes towards the end, or the Automatic Warning System (AWS) bell that sounds as the train passes it.

Also of note is that the man (presumably a teacher) travelling with them buys separate tickets for each of them rather than a group ticket for the whole party.

I was also half expecting to see at least one of those children who was playing by the lineside do something stupid such as stepping onto the track and getting run over by the train or having a near miss, just like in another safety information film from around the same era in which a group of children at their school sports day take part in a running across a railway track race (which I think may have been linked from another thread on here somewhere).

I believe 1st class was abolished on the Tyseley 116s in 1976.

 

[L+Y]

The section with the 47-hauled freight is almost certainly pre-1976, given the working headcode panel that hasn't been wound to "0O00".

I noticed one of the EMUs passed at the 03.50 mark has wraparound yellow ends, which were an unusual late 1960s feature from the very earliest days of corporate blue. I would have thought these would have been painted in standard BR blue by the mid 70s, so that probably adds to the likelihood of this footage being earlier on in the 70s.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Found this on the web, apparently there was more than one..
from https://www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Stop,_Look,_Listen/1975-93

I’d imagine the original film was wiped after it was re-edited and remade.
Thanks @P Binnersley for the minute by minute guide. I didn’t think I’d get much of a response about a children’s program,thanks everyone.

 

[AY1975]

That explains a lot. Cheers for that. Wonder if the other episodes are available to view somewhere.

Here's the one from 1986.

 

[Dave W]

Thanks to all for indulging me on the high-rise question. If the majority of the blocks closest to the railway went in 1996, this would explain why I didn't recognise the looming nature of them, instead only recalling - as @Ashley Hill pointed out - Wesley and Addenbrooke which sit a little further back from the railway. Particular thanks also to @P Binnersley for outlining in such detail. Those terraced houses on Chester Road are long gone - I think at first replaced by an industrial unit and, as with the cycle of life, back to houses - my brother lives in one!