Bescot Yard is a railway yard in

Bescot Bescot is an area of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is served by Bescot Stadium railway station, adjacent to which is Bescot depot where locomotives are maintained. The Banks's Stadium was built in 1990 for Walsall F.C. The area i ...

, a suburb of

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

in the West Midlands, operated by

DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...

. The yard is the major freight yard of the region, handling all of the rail freight movements and most of the railfreight traffic around the West Midlands.

History

Bescot is on the

Chase Line The Chase Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from its southern terminus, , to , and then in Staffordshire, where it joins the Trent Valley line. The name of the line refers to Cannock Chase which ...

between

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti ...

and

, part of the former

Grand Junction Railway The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company, which opened in 1837, linked the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Birmingham via Warri ...

, opened in 1837. It was built to handle the coal and industrial traffic associated with the West Midlands. In April 1966, a remodelled Bescot Yard was opened which was capable of handling over 4,000 wagons daily. Traffic from the West Midlands Domestic Coal network was diverted away from Bescot to

Washwood Heath Washwood Heath is a ward in Birmingham, within the formal district of Hodge Hill, roughly two miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, England. Washwood Heath covers the areas of Birmingham that lie between Nechells, Bordesley Green, Stec ...

sidings in July 1987. This allowed for extra capacity at Bescot.

Bescot TMD Bescot TMD is a locomotive traction maintenance depot in Bescot, an area of Walsall in the West Midlands, England. Situated adjacent to Bescot Stadium railway station, the depot with code BS is currently operated by DB Schenker Rail (UK). Besc ...

is to the north-west of the yard. This entire complex of track is clearly visible from the northern end of the M6 and M5 motorway junction.

Present

After closure of the 1950s-developed

hump shunting A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

yard, freight declined significantly during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, and the associated

now carries no allocation of locomotives. Washwood Heath sidings were closed to freight trains in the latter half of 2008 and all residual services were transferred back to Bescot yard. DB Schenker services workings are still the mainstay of operations in the area,

Direct Rail Services Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 19 ...

nuclear flask trains pass once or twice a week, and

Freightliner Group Freightliner Group is a rail freight and logistics company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Brookfield Corporation, Brookfield, a Canadian investment management company and GIC (sovereign wealth fund), GIC, a Singaporean sove ...

Intermodal and Automotive trains also pass through. Regular Freightliner Coal trains also ran around on the up goods on their way to Rugeley Power Station prior to the closure of the power station in 2016. The yard can be viewed in operation from

Bescot Stadium railway station Bescot Stadium railway station serves the Bescot area of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. The station is located in the borough of Sandwell, although it can only be reached from within the borough of Walsall. The station, and most tr ...

, served by

West Midlands Railway West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain, West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within t ...

Gallery

File:Bescot Yard - geograph.org.uk - 665604.jpg, British Railways Class 20 No.s 20167 and 20162 take the line to Walsall, Hednesford and Rugeley from Bescot with a short train of empty coal wagons, November 1982 File:Bescot Yard control offices - geograph.org.uk - 986965.jpg, Bescot's former hump shunting control offices ably illustrate the run-down state of the yard in September 2008

References

Sources

External links