Birmingham New Street 1980s | A Trainspotter's View of BR Diesel Days

Step back into the late 1980s and experience the comings and goings at Birmingham New Street from a trainspotter's point of view.

This 12-minute archive compilation brings together a fascinating selection of diesel-hauled and diesel-powered railway action at Birmingham New Street, captured by cameraman Roy Bowden. His excellent original footage has been carefully remastered and re-edited to bring these scenes from the British Rail era back to life.

Among the locomotives and trains featured are Class 47s, Class 50s, Class 31s, Class 37s, HSTs and a Mark 1 DMU, providing a great snapshot of the variety of traction that could be seen at New Street during the late 1980s.

For today's railway enthusiast, the footage offers a nostalgic glimpse of Birmingham New Street before the railway landscape changed dramatically – a time of BR blue, sector liveries, locomotive-hauled passenger trains and plenty of diesel activity beneath the streets of Birmingham.

The archive material was supplied under Creative Commons by Roy Bowden and features his original camerawork and recordings. The footage has been remastered and re-edited for this compilation.

If you remember trainspotting at Birmingham New Street during the 1980s, let us know in the comments which locomotives and workings you remember seeing.

A genuine slice of late-1980s British railway history.

This video contains extracts from the excellent Roy Bowden collection in particular these ones here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjQYQ3hHwhc&t=2744s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riGZLntNnSs&t=9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPe3uKpQdQc&t=1911s

Produced under Creative Commons Licence

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