Bescot Junction and marshalling yards.

 Bescot Junction in the West Midlands was near to my school and was the usual place to watch the trains when I was a teenager. It was also my father's place of work. The pictures I have included here are in pairs each of the pair taken from approximately the same place. The first of each pair was taken in the early/ mid 1960s and the later on in the late 1980s.

A Stanier class 8F takes an up train across Bescot Junction and through the station (then called Bescot Junction). The track work had been changed in preparation for the new yard opening after electrification and the lighting towers are obvious. The station is still to be demolished and simplified. The coaling tower is seen on the right.

The same viewpoint after electrification with 37 274 heading onto the Dudley line. 

A Stanier class 5MT stands in the station waiting to go onto the shed. The station was a standard LNWR building and the picture was taken in the severe winter of 1962.

Here a class 58 stands in the same position in the rebuilt station. This is before the platforms were widened to cope with the football crowds expected when Walsall's new stadium was built nearby. The station was then renamed "Bescot Stadium".

This rather scratched image shows a Stanier class 5 with an up train heading for the station. The loco shed and breakdown trains can be seen in the background.

In almost the same position a class 37 and a class 31 emerge from the yard onto the main line.