The view from the canal towpath at Dudley Port, looking south-west towards Dudley. This shot was taken on Tuesday 17th September
2024, with work underway on the South Staffs railway alignment to take the Midland Metro to Dudley. Apart from trackwork laid in the
roadway in Dudley Town Centre this was my first sighting of dedicated railway infrastructure, i.e. ballast, sleepers and rail, on the
Dudley extension. Ballast had been laid down the hill from Dudley, but stopped short of the canal aqueduct, just out of frame to the
bottom. The digger with a forklift attachment had just moved three piles of sleepers onto the trackbed, and was moving others from the
right (down) side of the alignment to the left (up) side. That's rail piled up in the bottom right of the shot.
This is the view from the same spot six months earlier.
