Going back to No. 2 and our Michelin Mark 9,
Warwickshire Railways share the same photograph and names the locality as Widney Manor station, near Solihull on the old
GWR▸ . The bank on which the men are seen standing ties in with a cattle dock on the
National Library of Scotland map. I think the work in the foreground, including the light railway track and sleeper pile, is connected with the four-tracking of the line that occurred after the map I linked was published. Does anyone have a date for this four-tracking?
Seek - in
Warwickshire Railways - and ye shall find! A full-page article of December 1933, describing the newly-completed work "Olton to Lapworth - Quadrupling Birmingham Main Line". The Knowle and Dorridge station page suggests the work started in 1932, but if the picture shows preparatory ground clearance before February 1932 that fits.
But I think the dates of events and pictures of the various
Micheline types are misleading, even if accurate. They were churning out several new ones each year, rarely two the same, so the one pictured could as well be a type 8 or 10 - or even 11. Note the rear door which can't be used with a bogie at the rear. And when or whether they were "in service" or "on trial" is barely relevant as the whole production lasted only five years and the "atomic jelly baby" type 16s were out scaring the hoses by 1933. The best set of pictures, though short on words, is
this slide show.
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