I must have missed this video in May, but the algorithm kindly reminded me today. "Least used stations" is such a great format of yours, Geoff! And Jen seems like a very beautiful soul, I will have to check her channel out!
The most excited I have ever seen someone over toilets that wasn't on the verge of filling their shorts lmao. Glad to see you back dude, your channel is an odd one for me, in so much that I personally don't have any real interest in trains and their stations; but your enthusiasm and expertise on the subject matter overwhelms my personal disinterest on the subject and I always seem to come away from your videos having learnt something and entertained. All the best to you mate and I look forward to the next installment!
I am disproportionately HAPPY to have this series back! Great video, Geoff! And Jen seems like a very nice travel companion. Now off to have a look at her channel.
Out of all the crossover I've seen, I wasn't expecting JenOntheMove to appear on your channel. A bit weird because I knew her on another forum for several years before joining TH-cam
Fantastic to see the series back Geoff, really brightens my work commute down here in Australia. For those who also love it, make sure to also check out David Brewer's 'Britains Least Used Stations' book from a few years ago, its the perfect accompaniment to Geoff's TH-cam videos!
You’ve bought back memories for me. I used to get the train to school from Hall Green to Snow Hill every morning, and my train was the one in the morning that stopped at Bordesley. I’m unsurprised they cut the services back further though, nobody ever got on or off.
Wolverhampton had the first automatic traffic light junction in 1927 and London had manually operated red-amber-green lights the year before. The concept of using red and green lights to direct road traffic had been used in London since the 1860s (basically a railway signal - so the gas lights were only for night time with semaphores during the day). I going to give it to Wolves, as they were full on modern traffic lights as we know them today rather than someone directing traffic with the help of lights to improve their visibility.
Exactly why I have channel notification bell always turned on so I got the instant notification for this video. Glad the Least Used Station videos are back 😁
Geoff you have no idea how happy I am to see another least used station. I have missed new videos from you. Your videos got me through lockdown and I'm so happy to have these back You still have Welsh and Scottish counties and Northern Ireland. You could also do the Manchester tram network. Secrets of and least used. loads more content. Thanks again!
@@geofftech2 have you considered the least used stations I mentioned. I think they could be awesome Also have you considered history of all the different train services. And how the designs and the trains have changed. That content could be awesome. Thank you again
Lovely to see the Least Used Stations series back on track! And I learnt how to pronounce Bordesley correct and not say Bordersley but the line at Bordesley was once part of the former Great Western Railway London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill main line which carried on to Wolverhampton Low Level, Shrewsbury and then onto Birkenhead Woodside.
As a Canadian who has never been to the UK and has no plans to, and wasn’t even particularly interested in trains, naturally I have found your channel to be fascinating.
I have been through this station, but never got off here, as I am not a football fan! Thanks Geoff! We live in Stratford-upon-Avon, it was lovely to hear a station name mentioned, that I actually know where it is!
Its Geoff's fault that I look for station facilities on my rail trips now. I was at Dawlish Warren and noted the bins were in those rigid plastic sleeves so they couldn't blow in the breeze...
@@tomx641 It's a double-meaning joke/pun 😉 I do code for a living and games for fun, so computer-binary is my life, but I also identify as nonbinary gender. On the GPU front, I've been trying to get a 3070 since December... I'm not paying 3090 prices for it though 😭
@@youwot2430 its a gender identity used by those who do not consider themselves fully male or fully female. Its a catch-all term that can be used by those who do not identify with either of the binary genders (aka androgynous), those who identify with both (aka bigender, two-spirit) or those whose gender identity changes {aka genderfluid). This is a very brief description, Stonewall and Wikipedia have decent articles explaining those terms in more detail.
In the days before Snow Hill reopened, a number of trains stopped at Bordesley. There used to be a 4 aspect signal on the Moor Street bound platform with the green blanked out, because there was only one more signal before the buffer stops at Moor Street. I did get off a train at Bordesley in about 1980, when there were problems at Moor Street.
Great to see Least Used Station is back! I can't help thinking that given Bordesley is in such a built up area it wouldn't be the least used station in the West Midlands if it have more trains stopping.
I think one of the reasons given for not increasing services would that it would slow down and cause congestion to the existing services. Prior to Covid there were 8 trains an hour in each direction (6 West Midlands Rail and 2 Chiltern) operating through Bordesley. Of course, if we could reinstate the two missing tracks that would help with that......
I go from Kidderminster through Birmingham and into Warwickshire ever day and have done for years, I've never, ever, ever seen a train stop at this station in my entire life
I have been travelling around the West Midlands on Network Daytrippers since 2007 and yet had never actually been to Bordesley, until last Saturday. I took a slow walk from the city centre including a canal diversion and arrived 30 minutes before the train. The smartcard reader has disappeared and the help point has been replaced with a help point with a large screen (which had no connection and couldn't help). Otherwise it was the same desolate experience you two had. I finally went there mostly because I learnt it's likely to be closed in the next few years.
I remember when Bordesley was much busier. There were a lot of factories in the area but few houses. The platform would be busy at rush hour. The factories closed 1 by 1 and were replaced by businesses which employ few people. I can just remember the ticket hall. The bit at the bottom of the stairs there is a false wall - it was behind it. I still use the station on match days. The platforms are packed!
Good video Geoff but I'm really surprised you didn't know Tyseley, which is where Vintage Trains have their base and it is also the home of a major West Midlands Railway train care facility ! It is pronounced "ties lea" by the way.
After watching this video i did exactly as what you two did, same train etc but when i got off the train at Bordesley on Saturday 31st July there were 12 railway staff there. It seems that when Birmingham City Football club play at home the railway company use the station quite well as i found out as managed to get on a train at 14:18 to Snow Hill station. I enjpy your videos. Thanks Dave
Not sure what you're going to do for Devon - least used is Sampford Courtenay, which is now closed and currently a compound for the works restoring the Okehampton line
From what I remember having talked to colleagues about Bordesley, it supposedly is haunted? And you can see the disused platform in the wonderful "Let's Go to Birmingham" BTF film :D
I absolutely loved the Samuel Beckett toilets ....they were magnificent .....also I noticed water in the minimalist waiting room or at least I hope it was water.....what amuses me is that we in the UK like to think we are sharp end but scrape away the surface and this is what we find. Very briefly the toilets outside Henley on Thames railway station in Oxfordshire were pretty grim for many years until the great and the good decided to modernise them . On my last visit I found that as soon as you locked the main door them music would play from the overhead speakers ....Very Henley.....perhaps these beautiful toilets in Birmingham should have piped music ....any suggestions.....lovely video ....SMO
While the first manually operated traffic lights were in Piccadilly in London, the new automated traffic lights were first tested in the UK at Princes Square in Wolverhampton. So both answers could be correct depending on the definition of traffic lights you happened to be using ie the broad definition of any traffic control signal using lights or the modern Automated Traffic Signal (ATS) most people think of when they hear traffic lights.
Rain, grey clouds, desolation, desperation, zero facilities, crumbling brickwork, apocalyptic toilets. But anyway, enough about my day trip to my Aunt Maud in Plaistow. Love this video! 😜 It reminds me of that abandoned station for Vicarage Road...but this is somehow on life support 😂 I think they have pulled off the "Minimalist Gulag" effect rather well! 😉👍 To be fair to Jen, I think the first proper modern traffic light system might have been installed in Wolverhampton. But I think they are referring to a gas fuelled light thing operated by a policeman that was what was the first incarnation of coloured lights being used to control traffic. I only remember because I believe an unfortunate copper on duty (tgey had to physically pull levers to make the contraption work) died when the gas tank exploded. Not sure but I think it may have been Parliament Square or Trafalgar Square. One of the main bottle necks anyway ☺ Cheers Geoff, great fun as ever🍻🍀
Want to know something weird...I lived in bordesley for 18 months and didn’t realise it had a train station! All those old stops in brum are useless as it’s quicker to bus it!
@Simeon Walker it does look like the set for a saw movie! Birmingham has a version of a city railway (and a growing tram system) but it’s a waste. The buses are really good there, whereas they have a village service running to nowhere. For some reason none of their stations (bar maybe witton for villa park) are near anything of importance or use. Even the names are often not near that place anymore (bordesley there is closer to deritend)
@@christophersanton a faux pas to show I’m out of my depth! Happy to be corrected, although I would argue a staircase under a bridge isn’t really a railway station either ;)
9:55 The M6 was the first to be opened (Preston bypass) but the first construction works was on the Eccles bypass, M63, now M60, specifically the earthworks for Barton Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. I guess it depends how you interpret "First to be built"..
Darn! If I'd have known you were in my neck of the woods I'd have tried to pop down to say hello. Ah well, nice to see this video anyway. I'd been looking forward to seeing it!
One would think that in a time like this where services have been reduced, that the desolation which is Bordesley would’ve been among the first stations to lose its service, but glad to see it’s still got a service... to an extent. I guess the service is so limited there that it’s not worth removing :D
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That ticket machine at whitlocks end stole 6 quid from me and I’m still not over it
Go back to it and teach it a lesson!
That makes two ticket machines in the borough of Solihull, What I like to call, Robbing bastards
#TimeToSpeakUpAgainstCorruptTicketMachines
@@MaidaValeTom The railways are robbing bastards - which is why I simply refuse to use them.
@@mrman8541 Absolutely. Take a decent sized sledgehammer and an angle grinder.
I need a supercut of all the shots of conductors waving goodbye to Geoff on an abandoned platform
Like marooning a sailor on a desert island
Jen is an absolute gem and this collaboration is just amazing 👍😊
both are very informative. Geoff should visit Jen's youtube channel.
You dont understand how much I've been wanting this to return, thank you Mr Marshall
The waiting room there at Bordesley has the East German concrete look !
it was a bunker in WW2
One Man on a Lonely Platform, one Case Sitting by his Side ...
@@frappuccino68 well the line 'in the rain of an English summer' certainly fits.
"We've found a Soviet waiting room!"
@@chrisamies2141 crap, don't tell bald, he will be straight there
Traffic Lights? Manual operated ones London 1926; automatic ones Wolverhampton 1927.
"Geoff gets excited in a men's toilets"
it's called cottaging, but has nothing to do with overnight B&B arrangements.
Geoff, the return of Least Used Station just brightened up my entire life!
Brilliant video, and I thought Jen was an excellent companion!
Moseley, kings heath, and hazelwell are 3 stations reopening in birmingham for the first time in decades. I am very hyped!
The weather recently has really got me at my Whitlocks End!
I'll see myself out.
@@millomweb ah, thank you for that, probably autocorrect
I must have missed this video in May, but the algorithm kindly reminded me today. "Least used stations" is such a great format of yours, Geoff! And Jen seems like a very beautiful soul, I will have to check her channel out!
Oh how I've missed this. Despite the inexplicable lack of bin bags. Totally love Jen's channel too, you should all check it out
The most excited I have ever seen someone over toilets that wasn't on the verge of filling their shorts lmao.
Glad to see you back dude, your channel is an odd one for me, in so much that I personally don't have any real interest in trains and their stations; but your enthusiasm and expertise on the subject matter overwhelms my personal disinterest on the subject and I always seem to come away from your videos having learnt something and entertained.
All the best to you mate and I look forward to the next installment!
Geoff, you may be the only one who missed the intro music more than me. It actually brought tears to my eyes, wtf?
At 7:56 the timetable says "Departure from Bordesley" as there is just one train! Love it!
Find someone who is as excited to see you as Geoff is to see an abandoned toilet
As self-appointed unofficial chairman of Club LUS it is my unofficial duty to welcome Jen into the menagerie of Geoff's Companions on this series!
she was lovely, hope to see her more often!
I am disproportionately HAPPY to have this series back!
Great video, Geoff!
And Jen seems like a very nice travel companion. Now off to have a look at her channel.
Geoff, you did know the loos existed... but during All The Stations you thought it was an old station entrance that had been sealed off! 😂
Out of all the crossover I've seen, I wasn't expecting JenOntheMove to appear on your channel. A bit weird because I knew her on another forum for several years before joining TH-cam
Must be time for a “Worst Station Toilets” series…
Got to be a Trainspotting homage as the title graphic (worst toilet scene).
That was great Geoff. I empathize with you about the weather. In Ontario we have a saying -- if you don't like the weather just wait half and hour.
Seriously the best intro and outro music on TH-cam, so glad it's back 🙂
Great stuff. Nice to see somewhere like this in good old Brum. There's something I like about those long abandoned toilets.
Fantastic to see the series back Geoff, really brightens my work commute down here in Australia. For those who also love it, make sure to also check out David Brewer's 'Britains Least Used Stations' book from a few years ago, its the perfect accompaniment to Geoff's TH-cam videos!
I feel like a veteran. I knew Jen's channel before this Collab even happened
May 2020 when everyone is locked down: sunny and dry
May 2021 when everyone is allowed out: raaaaaaaaaaaaaain
Well, easy one. Before Brexit and after Brexit.
I dont think it was lockdown in May 2020
You’ve bought back memories for me. I used to get the train to school from Hall Green to Snow Hill every morning, and my train was the one in the morning that stopped at Bordesley. I’m unsurprised they cut the services back further though, nobody ever got on or off.
Wolverhampton had the first automatic traffic light junction in 1927 and London had manually operated red-amber-green lights the year before. The concept of using red and green lights to direct road traffic had been used in London since the 1860s (basically a railway signal - so the gas lights were only for night time with semaphores during the day). I going to give it to Wolves, as they were full on modern traffic lights as we know them today rather than someone directing traffic with the help of lights to improve their visibility.
Lovely to see this again.
When you went into the toilets, I initially thought they were in service. I was like "hmmm, the cleaning interval might need re assessment maybe"
Exactly why I have channel notification bell always turned on so I got the instant notification for this video. Glad the Least Used Station videos are back 😁
Geoff you have no idea how happy I am to see another least used station. I have missed new videos from you.
Your videos got me through lockdown and I'm so happy to have these back
You still have Welsh and Scottish counties and Northern Ireland.
You could also do the Manchester tram network. Secrets of and least used. loads more content.
Thanks again!
thank David, lovely comment. very kind.
@@geofftech2 have you considered the least used stations I mentioned. I think they could be awesome
Also have you considered history of all the different train services. And how the designs and the trains have changed. That content could be awesome.
Thank you again
Lovely to see the Least Used Stations series back on track! And I learnt how to pronounce Bordesley correct and not say Bordersley but the line at Bordesley was once part of the former Great Western Railway London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill main line which carried on to Wolverhampton Low Level, Shrewsbury and then onto Birkenhead Woodside.
As a Canadian who has never been to the UK and has no plans to, and wasn’t even particularly interested in trains, naturally I have found your channel to be fascinating.
Just had a look at Jen’s channel will subscribe to her, wish there was more of her in her vids
There's a great Caribbean cafe right by the entrance. Best goats' curry ever and good pre match grub!
I have been through this station, but never got off here, as I am not a football fan! Thanks Geoff! We live in Stratford-upon-Avon, it was lovely to hear a station name mentioned, that I actually know where it is!
Oooooo new intro graphic (very All-The-Stations-esque)
A joyous day.... for so many reasons. Thankyou.
You are the first people I have seen get off at Bordesley ! used to pass it daily on my way to and from Tyseley TMD ! Great Video !
Its Geoff's fault that I look for station facilities on my rail trips now. I was at Dawlish Warren and noted the bins were in those rigid plastic sleeves so they couldn't blow in the breeze...
Keeps the seagulls out too
That’s more to do with the seagulls than anything 😂😂
I went to school in Pontarddulais. Never once visited the station there though, so I'm excited for the one where you take us all there.
This is good, I love it. Least used stations is great. Thanks Geoff.
Considering the "it probably smells a little bit" it is brave of the two of you to sit down on the floor of the shelter 🤢
You can't be a non-binary gamer unless you are talking about board games or something. Add to the graphics card shortage, be a binary gamer.
@@tomx641 It's a double-meaning joke/pun 😉 I do code for a living and games for fun, so computer-binary is my life, but I also identify as nonbinary gender. On the GPU front, I've been trying to get a 3070 since December... I'm not paying 3090 prices for it though 😭
@@KrisRogos GPUs are daylight robbery
sorry but what is nonbinary gender
@@youwot2430 its a gender identity used by those who do not consider themselves fully male or fully female. Its a catch-all term that can be used by those who do not identify with either of the binary genders (aka androgynous), those who identify with both (aka bigender, two-spirit) or those whose gender identity changes {aka genderfluid).
This is a very brief description, Stonewall and Wikipedia have decent articles explaining those terms in more detail.
In the days before Snow Hill reopened, a number of trains stopped at Bordesley. There used to be a 4 aspect signal on the Moor Street bound platform with the green blanked out, because there was only one more signal before the buffer stops at Moor Street. I did get off a train at Bordesley in about 1980, when there were problems at Moor Street.
Geoff you always do the best videos
Once known as Bordesley Junction until lines branching off closed. 86s used to slam on the brakes on the drop to New St.
Every other week for years and years I've walked past the glamorous entrance on my way to St Andrews.
Yay another least used station video. Just amazing.
i really missed these during the lockdowns you werent really able to do them....thank you for returning to them again :)
Technically he probably could have done them, as travelling for work was allowed, no this I his job.
Great to see Least Used Station is back! I can't help thinking that given Bordesley is in such a built up area it wouldn't be the least used station in the West Midlands if it have more trains stopping.
I think one of the reasons given for not increasing services would that it would slow down and cause congestion to the existing services. Prior to Covid there were 8 trains an hour in each direction (6 West Midlands Rail and 2 Chiltern) operating through Bordesley. Of course, if we could reinstate the two missing tracks that would help with that......
Coming soon, Geoff's new channel: "Least used public toilets"
I go from Kidderminster through Birmingham and into Warwickshire ever day and have done for years, I've never, ever, ever seen a train stop at this station in my entire life
Take a drink when Geoff struggles with Tyseley :-) Tie's Leeeeeee
I like how the timetable just says "Departure from Bordesley" (singular!)
If you had gone right when you came out of the station about 50 yards down is the canal with a reasonably nice walk/cycle into Birmingham.
I was really starting to miss least used stations, excited to see another one
Very good to see you back on the rails.
Marvellous to have these back
I have been travelling around the West Midlands on Network Daytrippers since 2007 and yet had never actually been to Bordesley, until last Saturday. I took a slow walk from the city centre including a canal diversion and arrived 30 minutes before the train. The smartcard reader has disappeared and the help point has been replaced with a help point with a large screen (which had no connection and couldn't help). Otherwise it was the same desolate experience you two had. I finally went there mostly because I learnt it's likely to be closed in the next few years.
I remember when Bordesley was much busier. There were a lot of factories in the area but few houses. The platform would be busy at rush hour. The factories closed 1 by 1 and were replaced by businesses which employ few people. I can just remember the ticket hall. The bit at the bottom of the stairs there is a false wall - it was behind it.
I still use the station on match days. The platforms are packed!
Great to finally see you back !
Great video Geoff. Good to see a least used station video again
So pumped this series is back, I've missed it!
Great to have the LUS series back 👍👍
Good video Geoff but I'm really surprised you didn't know Tyseley, which is where Vintage Trains have their base and it is also the home of a major West Midlands Railway train care facility ! It is pronounced "ties lea" by the way.
I missed this series! glad its back
I was expecting ’Lost Railways’ but I like the ‘Least Used Station’ Series too.
maybe the last episode is gonna be really good so thats why he didnt post it today
Loved, that the poster said "Departure from Boardsley." A departure, not departures.
Passed this every day when I drove for National Express on the way into Digbeth. Had no idea it was so rarely used!
“It probably smells a little bit....from memory.” - Jen, Special Guest, 2021.
Great to see least used stations back on the channel!
After watching this video i did exactly as what you two did, same train etc but when i got off the train at Bordesley on Saturday 31st July there were 12 railway staff there. It seems that when Birmingham City Football club play at home the railway company use the station quite well as i found out as managed to get on a train at 14:18 to Snow Hill station.
I enjpy your videos. Thanks
Dave
That moment when a least used episode becomes an urbex.
Not sure what you're going to do for Devon - least used is Sampford Courtenay, which is now closed and currently a compound for the works restoring the Okehampton line
These videos are back! About time! Anyone would think lockdown was on or something....
You should do a least used station for each of the London boroughs
there was one per TfL line
From what I remember having talked to colleagues about Bordesley, it supposedly is haunted? And you can see the disused platform in the wonderful "Let's Go to Birmingham" BTF film :D
Is that the one with Telly Savalas?
I absolutely loved the Samuel Beckett toilets ....they were magnificent .....also I noticed water in the minimalist waiting room or at least I hope it was water.....what amuses me is that we in the UK like to think we are sharp end but scrape away the surface and this is what we find. Very briefly the toilets outside Henley on Thames railway station in Oxfordshire were pretty grim for many years until the great and the good decided to modernise them . On my last visit I found that as soon as you locked the main door them music would play from the overhead speakers ....Very Henley.....perhaps these beautiful toilets in Birmingham should have piped music ....any suggestions.....lovely video ....SMO
As some one who loves very old urinals that are absurdly large and ornate... My reaction was just as excited as Geoff's!
If it wasn't for Covid we would be on most used stations by now. Good work catching up Geoff.
While the first manually operated traffic lights were in Piccadilly in London, the new automated traffic lights were first tested in the UK at Princes Square in Wolverhampton. So both answers could be correct depending on the definition of traffic lights you happened to be using ie the broad definition of any traffic control signal using lights or the modern Automated Traffic Signal (ATS) most people think of when they hear traffic lights.
The mad thing is I literally googled this three hours ago
Lots of fun very enjoyable
Rain, grey clouds, desolation, desperation, zero facilities, crumbling brickwork, apocalyptic toilets.
But anyway, enough about my day trip to my Aunt Maud in Plaistow. Love this video! 😜
It reminds me of that abandoned station for Vicarage Road...but this is somehow on life support 😂 I think they have pulled off the "Minimalist Gulag" effect rather well! 😉👍
To be fair to Jen, I think the first proper modern traffic light system might have been installed in Wolverhampton. But I think they are referring to a gas fuelled light thing operated by a policeman that was what was the first incarnation of coloured lights being used to control traffic. I only remember because I believe an unfortunate copper on duty (tgey had to physically pull levers to make the contraption work) died when the gas tank exploded. Not sure but I think it may have been Parliament Square or Trafalgar Square. One of the main bottle necks anyway ☺
Cheers Geoff, great fun as ever🍻🍀
The pronunciation Bordèsley comes from a mispronunciation by the Northern Irish actor in Peaky Blinders.
Want to know something weird...I lived in bordesley for 18 months and didn’t realise it had a train station! All those old stops in brum are useless as it’s quicker to bus it!
I suppose if you need to go to the city from there you are already in the city anyway. Looks like it could be one f the regeneration targets though.
There is a reason it's a least used station ...
@Simeon Walker it does look like the set for a saw movie! Birmingham has a version of a city railway (and a growing tram system) but it’s a waste. The buses are really good there, whereas they have a village service running to nowhere. For some reason none of their stations (bar maybe witton for villa park) are near anything of importance or use. Even the names are often not near that place anymore (bordesley there is closer to deritend)
It doesn't have a "train station"; it does have a railway station though.
@@christophersanton a faux pas to show I’m out of my depth! Happy to be corrected, although I would argue a staircase under a bridge isn’t really a railway station either ;)
Glad to see the least used stations series has returned. :)
9:55 The M6 was the first to be opened (Preston bypass) but the first construction works was on the Eccles bypass, M63, now M60, specifically the earthworks for Barton Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. I guess it depends how you interpret "First to be built"..
Your camera work is impeccable.
thank you! appreciated.
Get in! Least used stations again!! 😃
Great to see least used station back !
love the videos geoff
Glad this series is back, do you reckon you’ll do another series of Secrets of the Underground?
Darn! If I'd have known you were in my neck of the woods I'd have tried to pop down to say hello.
Ah well, nice to see this video anyway. I'd been looking forward to seeing it!
Noice, I saw Jen the other day when I was in Manchester.
#spotted 🤣
One would think that in a time like this where services have been reduced, that the desolation which is Bordesley would’ve been among the first stations to lose its service, but glad to see it’s still got a service... to an extent. I guess the service is so limited there that it’s not worth removing :D
The world is returning to normal!
Till this fall and winter...It will be back.