Halesowen Railway Updates

The Halesowen Railway section of the site was one of the first railway related group of pages I worked on and I was only just beginning to find my feet when it came to researching!  As a result, a number of errors found their way onto the site.  A couple of things were the main cause of these:

• A 1939 Bartholomew's map of the City of Birmingham showed the branch to Frankley Waterworks still in place when it had been lifted many years before.
• My confusion over modern Frankley.  This area is more accurately known as 'New Frankley' with the area my father knew as Frankley being located to the west of the M5, outside of modern Birmingham.

These two lead to two of the major errors:

• The location of Frogmill Crossing
• The location of Frankley Sidings and the nearby bridge

I thank the many people who corrected me re Frogmill Crossing, many of them being ex-Rover workers who recalled it being on Rubery Lane very clearly.  My main thanks must go to David Carson, a very keen Halesowen Railway enthusiast who sent me a detailed list of corrections way back in February 2008!  Sorry to all for delay in updating the pages.  My excuse is that I had so much new stuff that I wanted to include that I found it difficult to devote the time to providing the thorough update that was needed...

Inspired by David's notes, I purchased copies of 'By Rail to Halesowen' by Michael Hale and Ned Williams (perhaps the definitive text on the line and a lucky eBay purchase for me!) and 'Midland Record No.24' which contains an article on the line by Roger Carpenter (with notes from Bob Essery).  These were both a great help with the updates I needed to do.

Anyway, I have now spent a few hours on the job and I think it's finished.  There may be a few minor issues that I haven't noticed so please let me know if you find them.  Here is a summary of the changes:

• The Virtual Trip page has been re-worked with one additional old picture (Near Halesowen Station, 1951) and two pop-ups of modern views (Newton Lane Bridge and the site of Frogmill Crossing).  I have moved two pictures from other pages (Frankley Sidings and Frogmill Crossing) to this page from other pages to make the trip more complete.  Captions have had a re-work too.  Finally, I have gone back to some of the original scans and used the methods described on my 'Getting the Best From Black & White Photographs' page to improve many of the pictures.
• On the main Halesowen Railway page, I fixed a broken link to the Railway Clearing House junction diagram for the line.  Can I once again ask that you please get in touch if you find a broken link!
• The Enthusiast Pictures page now has some notes from David added to the captions.
• The Odds & Ends page has been updated re the branch to Frankley Waterworks.
• The Halesowen Railway in Colour page now has a modern view of the remains of the bridge over Illey Lane and some caption updates.

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