The Midland Railway Study Centre Assemblage Trails

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY ASSEMBLAGE TRAILS
"The Enthusiast's Trail"
Stop Sixteen: Red Moira Colliery enamel sign

Round the corner on the end of the aisle...

A bright red enamel sign in exceptionally good condition which reads WHEN EMPTY RETURN TO MORA COLLIERY WOODVILLE JUNCTION MID. RY. and in very small letters CHROMO WOLVERHAMPTON

Stop 16

Where: C21 blue (end)

What: Moira Colliery plaque

Material: Red enamel.

Why: As you will readily appreciate as you look around The Assemblage, the examples of enamel signs on display are all predominantly blue in colour — all except this one. This is because the chemical process used to create these signs used cobalt which exclusively produced that ubiquitous blue colour. As the process evolved between the 1880s and the turn of the twentieth century, other colours could be added by secondary firing. The reason for this bright red sign (which is in remarkably good and seemingly un-restored condition) is unknown to us. Nor are we entirely sure what the purpose of a plaque of this size was, either. It seems unnecessarily large to have been used as a simple wagon label. The maze of sidings served by Woodville Junction for the collection of pits operated by the Moira Colliery Company is illustrated below.

Ref: RFB32308

An extract from the Midland Railway distance diagrams showing many small sidings and a maze of railway lines in the Moira area