89. A brief stop at Bescot-19.08.20

THE ARCHIVE FILES > Archive-2020 > 89. A brief stop at Bescot-19.08.20

A work-related trip to Wolverhampton found me passing Bescot with half an hour to spare so I dived off the M6 to see what was about. The short answer was very little and, in common with my other visits to this once mighty powerhouse of the railways, it was dull and raining!

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66849, stabled, Bescot yard
I had to walk down from Bescot Stadium station to get my only photograph of a Class 66, the rest being much further down out of sight at the southern end. 66849 'Wylam Dilly' awaits its next job in the Colas stabling area. I have only one other photograph of this Class 66 and that was also a poor one taken at Westbury some years ago. Wylam Dilly is now accepted to be the second oldest surviving railway locomotive in the world dating from 1815. It was designed and built by William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth for use in Wylam Colliery and is currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Keywords: 66849 Bescot yard Wylam Dilly Colas Rail Freight

Bescot depot (Closed)
Bescot TMD, seen here, used to be absolutely packed with locomotives undergoing fueling and maintenance - how things have changed! It is now empty and disused with freight operators looking after their own locomotives at various allocated areas elsewhere in the vast expanse of the yard to the south. Plans have recently been thrown out to construct a plant to manufacture sleepers for Network Rail on this site following a huge local backlash. Just days after the rejection of this plan, a new one was submitted by West Midlands Trains to build a large new depot for the maintenance of their electric fleet. Following the planning submission at the end of January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic may well have altered and slowed the plan as I have heard little more information about it since.
Keywords: Bescot depot

Bescot Yard from station footbridge
With the rain beginning to fall I turned the camera south from Bescot Stadium's station footbridge towards the yard. It is clear that this northern end of the yard does not see much use now with just some stored wagons in view. Further south there are huge amounts of stone and ballast where Network Rail operate their infrastructure work that spans out all over the network. The derelict land and rails to the far right of this photograph are where West Midlands Trains want to build their new electric maintenance depot following the rejection of Network Rail's sleeper manufacturing plans at the end of 2019.
Keywords: Bescot yard station footbridge

Images 1-3 of 3 displayed.