The MHM was my childhood before starting school in 1993. I remember it so well. Everything from the little green tickets that cost 40p (expensive then), to the 'clunk' noise the trains made when starting. Even the upholstery looked just like my late Mk3 Fiesta!! There were some large satellite dishes on the hillside near the W.front along with the depot/car wash. I do remember seeing the lifeboat and even a helicopter on occasion. If you took the lift up to Central station you had to press the 'P' button (doesn't work any more). I did walk up the fire escape at Times Square (1:05) back in 2001 and had a look through the window, before demolition started. The dot matrix screen at Boulevard station was still working around 2000, until they began dismantling the track. I could go on forever! Merry Hill isn't the same these days. Thank you so much for posting these 2 films.
390h8er I am a 90s kid too born in 80s..everything had so much more value then if though things were simple..the parks and the atmosphere rich and vibrant above all peaceful
I was hoping that the extention to Dudley would have been built. But maybe at busy times it would have too too busy and unable to carry everyone on those low capacity trains. as an aside, there are monorail train designs which are every buit the equal of other types of train.
I remember going on the monorail as a young man ...looking back now, this new travel mode in the black country was a bit like The Public is now .. Years will pass before we all forget about this long lost monarail ... love the two vidios....oh for got to say that when i worked on british rail i often went into merry hill (round oak then ) in my job ;>)
Thanks for this video gosh it brings back memories of using the monorail it was fab.am so sad it went would still be very useful,shame some of the shops up the top are closed now.a great video of merry hill in better days gone by.thanks
Fantastic! Thank you so much for posting, it's wonderful to see video as oppose to just stills. I rode on it as often as I could as a child, and as an adult I remain fascinated by it, especially as at least one part of it remains. I collected a TV from the rear entrance of a shop in the older part of Merry Hill about two years ago, and there was still some track piled up out back. I guess not all of it made it down under! Anyway, sincere thanks again. :)
They should have saved this form of green transport,and expanded the stops,it was a clean way of transportation for taking people from the car park to shopping centre.
The Phileas Fogg area was near to one of the stations (Times Square, I think) and the people there did not mind me filming the monorail but said that management had told them that for reasons related to copyright and industrial espionage under no circumstances was anyone without advance permission to even photograph friends and family in the Phileas Fogg area. They watched me carefully to make sure that I did not contravene this instruction. This explains why I do not have any images of it!
Yes, I had to obtain written permission to take photographs in the shopping centre for an A Level course project (the college tutor wrote me a letter on letterheaded paper which I then had to be interviewed against in the Management Suite!). I had a security guard with me at all times and wore an official visitors pass. As soon as I had had the photos developed I had to show them my college project with the pics in situ and I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to give them the negatives, which were sadly destroyed... it would have been great historical evidence of the centre as it was (including Phileas Fogg from a distance). x
Merry HIll has definatly changed a lot since the mid 90s as you'd probably expect, its nice to see this video as I went on it once as a kid before moving back to England permanently in 1997 (after its closure in 1996) Looking at the video its nice to compare where the rail used to be. Still central station still exists above M&S
Sorry but I was only there in the hours of daylight. There were several locations where the trains switch tracks (Times Square station, Waterfront East station), and because I knew that people would be curious to see how this could be possible I made a special effort to film this - and the track itself moving.
I worked at a transport firm called W J DANIEL on Level Street Brierley Hill and we watched during breaks the building of the Merry Hill centre and the monorail, allways remember one saturday morning the monorail breaking down and the passengers had to be rescued by the fire brigade.Shame it wasnt used and funded properly.
My memory of the tram was it being mostly empty (which was nice of course), clean, but pointless and ill thought out. Often there seemed to be more staff manning the stations and tram than passengers. It didn't help that the line went nowhere and ended on a car park half a mile away. I think there were plans to extend the line to Dudley through Brierley Hill but fear that more shoppers would be drawn away from the towns, emergency exit doubts and cost combined to seal the monorails early demise.
yes, interesting film... so sad to see it deserted when it should be busy with fare-paying passengers. I've added a link to your film in the text for this film.
Since the monorail closed the only reason I ever went back to the Merry Hill shopping centre was to make this film. There are other places to go shopping as well!
citytransportinfo there is a reason the locals refer to it as Merry Hell. Will be interesting to see what they do with the Midland metro extension if they every get around to it.
I had a friend that worked as a security guard there up until 2005. I asked him about the disused station and he said it's used for storage. Anything that can go up in the lift they take up there. The turn stiles are still up there apparently. The management should incorporate it somehow. The views from up there might suit a restaurant but I think the main stairs have gone so access is difficult. It's all about that little word cost - the thing that closed the monorail down in the first place!
As a child I went on this everytime we went to Merry Hill. I'd love to know what is actually inside the disused station above Marks and Spencers now, and why they knocked all the other stations down apart from that one.
The Monorail, no matter how far a system extends, can never be anything more than a novelty joyride. The Sydney monorail, with just 7 stations on a loop, starting from, and ending at any one of those 7 stations, proves my point. A tramway, like that reintroduced in Sydney, is a legitimate transport system, but the tramway planned for Newcastle is a stupid joke, it will never be anything more than a tinker-toy as it's total distance will be from just east of Stewart Avenue, along Hunter Street, into Scott Street(just west of where Perkins Street intersects with Hunter Street) and continuing until just past Pacific Street. It will go no further, east or west. If you want to go beyond those limits, you may as well forget the tram and ride a bus instead.
Whilst the type of train used in Sydney and at Merry Hill had a very low passenger capacity, the trains used in Wuppertal, Germany, on many systems in Japan and planned for Sao Paulo Brazil all carry as many passengers as duorail trains. These are very much mainstream high capacity urban transports!
That again proves my point. The low passenger-carrying capacity of monorail cars, each car having just 6 seats, three on one side of the door, three on the other, three passengers facing forward and three facing backward. 10 cars between the driver cabs means a total of just 60 passengers per trip where 70 or more can ride in one of the two carriages of a new Sydney tram, and a great deal further, out as far as Dulwich Hill until the system is extended further.
i used to use this service regularly when merry hill first opened.seeing this film brings back many memories for me.they even had plans to extend the service to brierley hill,dudley and other nereby towns.tipical of what happens in this country.this all came to nothing due to i was reliably imformed at the time it only lasted 2 years due to the firm whow installed it dismantlled it all and took it away because the people who comissioned it to be built never paid for it! just like the shopping center itself was funded and built out of fraudilant activity.by people who i will not mention.i used to drive buses for merry hill minis just after this system closed down.this film is just how i rememder merry hill.absalute nightmare getting in and out the place.known localy as merry hell!
@KRPTV Hi there - why not write / email and ask the people who own the shopping centre. You could even tell them that you say this video! I don't know what they will say... Simon
Bit saft them tekin it dowen do ya think, caw see whyee than wud tel it dowen wen it was saw conveneyamt. Saved goin from one syed of the shops to than other on the back of an hoss
Absolutely getting rid of this was a monumental mistake. It should have been extended towards Dudley so that people could avoid the traffic delays. A larger / higher capacity monorail would also have been better - these exist in Japan, China, Brazil, etc.
@040train The Midland Metro extended? Pigs will fly. The treasury has been actively trying to stifle this tramway since even before it was built. Despite the pre-election promises I bet its funding will be cut after the election.
Well it actually is now being done and tracks going in several years late and there are apparently plans to bring back the train line from Stourbridge to brierley hill
I liked it but saw it as under-utilised... it had a potential that was not recognised ... an extension to Dudly could have seen it offer a better way to the shopping centre that was immune to traffic delays.
This is well thought out and edited together nicely bringing back memories of my childhood down at Merry Hill
The MHM was my childhood before starting school in 1993. I remember it so well. Everything from the little green tickets that cost 40p (expensive then), to the 'clunk' noise the trains made when starting. Even the upholstery looked just like my late Mk3 Fiesta!!
There were some large satellite dishes on the hillside near the W.front along with the depot/car wash. I do remember seeing the lifeboat and even a helicopter on occasion.
If you took the lift up to Central station you had to press the 'P' button (doesn't work any more). I did walk up the fire escape at Times Square (1:05) back in 2001 and had a look through the window, before demolition started. The dot matrix screen at Boulevard station was still working around 2000, until they began dismantling the track. I could go on forever!
Merry Hill isn't the same these days. Thank you so much for posting these 2 films.
390h8er I am a 90s kid too born in 80s..everything had so much more value then if though things were simple..the parks and the atmosphere rich and vibrant above all peaceful
Thanks for posting.
I just had to show this to my 7yo lad, who refused to believe the Merry Hill had a Monorail.
It was a smooth ride. I miss it. Bring it back!
I was hoping that the extention to Dudley would have been built. But maybe at busy times it would have too too busy and unable to carry everyone on those low capacity trains.
as an aside, there are monorail train designs which are every buit the equal of other types of train.
I remember going on the monorail as a young man ...looking back now, this new travel mode in the black country was a bit like The Public is now .. Years will pass before we all forget about this long lost monarail ... love the two vidios....oh for got to say that when i worked on british rail i often went into merry hill (round oak then ) in my job
;>)
Still go there regularly 😂. Such great aspirations for itself. Monorail was a short lived novelty
Thanks for this video gosh it brings back memories of using the monorail it was fab.am so sad it went would still be very useful,shame some of the shops up the top are closed now.a great video of merry hill in better days gone by.thanks
Yes but since you wrote this Sydney has also closed its monorail!
Which is a terrible shame.
Does anybody remember jolly giant?
Fantastic! Thank you so much for posting, it's wonderful to see video as oppose to just stills. I rode on it as often as I could as a child, and as an adult I remain fascinated by it, especially as at least one part of it remains. I collected a TV from the rear entrance of a shop in the older part of Merry Hill about two years ago, and there was still some track piled up out back. I guess not all of it made it down under! Anyway, sincere thanks again. :)
great video liked so sad this monorail is gone 🙂🚝😢
Good Old Merry Hill
They should have saved this form of green transport,and expanded the stops,it was a clean way of transportation for taking people from the car park to shopping centre.
@ 2:28 The Jolly Giant!!! That was toy heaven when I was a kid. Then it became Discovery Zone if I'm not mistaken.
Correct it did but was never as good
My then girlfriends mum used to work at the Jolly Giant, quite forgot about the monorail till I saw the video. Gosh, time flies
Great video
The Phileas Fogg area was near to one of the stations (Times Square, I think) and the people there did not mind me filming the monorail but said that management had told them that for reasons related to copyright and industrial espionage under no circumstances was anyone without advance permission to even photograph friends and family in the Phileas Fogg area. They watched me carefully to make sure that I did not contravene this instruction. This explains why I do not have any images of it!
Yes, I had to obtain written permission to take photographs in the shopping centre for an A Level course project (the college tutor wrote me a letter on letterheaded paper which I then had to be interviewed against in the Management Suite!). I had a security guard with me at all times and wore an official visitors pass. As soon as I had had the photos developed I had to show them my college project with the pics in situ and I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to give them the negatives, which were sadly destroyed... it would have been great historical evidence of the centre as it was (including Phileas Fogg from a distance). x
Merry HIll has definatly changed a lot since the mid 90s as you'd probably expect, its nice to see this video as I went on it once as a kid before moving back to England permanently in 1997 (after its closure in 1996) Looking at the video its nice to compare where the rail used to be. Still central station still exists above M&S
Ah, it’s more of a Shelbyville idea
Sorry but I was only there in the hours of daylight.
There were several locations where the trains switch tracks (Times Square station, Waterfront East station), and because I knew that people would be curious to see how this could be possible I made a special effort to film this - and the track itself moving.
I worked at a transport firm called W J DANIEL on Level Street Brierley Hill and we watched during breaks the building of the Merry Hill centre and the monorail, allways remember one saturday morning the monorail breaking down and the passengers had to be rescued by the fire brigade.Shame it wasnt used and funded properly.
Who’s watching this in 2020
2021 😉
My memory of the tram was it being mostly empty (which was nice of course), clean, but pointless and ill thought out. Often there seemed to be more staff manning the stations and tram than passengers. It didn't help that the line went nowhere and ended on a car park half a mile away. I think there were plans to extend the line to Dudley through Brierley Hill but fear that more shoppers would be drawn away from the towns, emergency exit doubts and cost combined to seal the monorails early demise.
yes, interesting film... so sad to see it deserted when it should be busy with fare-paying passengers.
I've added a link to your film in the text for this film.
i can not believe i missed this
I think that it may be of more use now, seeing as many more people shop there... I often struggle to find a parking place.
Since the monorail closed the only reason I ever went back to the Merry Hill shopping centre was to make this film. There are other places to go shopping as well!
citytransportinfo there is a reason the locals refer to it as Merry Hell. Will be interesting to see what they do with the Midland metro extension if they every get around to it.
I had a friend that worked as a security guard there up until 2005. I asked him about the disused station and he said it's used for storage. Anything that can go up in the lift they take up there. The turn stiles are still up there apparently. The management should incorporate it somehow. The views from up there might suit a restaurant but I think the main stairs have gone so access is difficult. It's all about that little word cost - the thing that closed the monorail down in the first place!
Fantastic video, very nostalgic, great that you shared your footage with us, don't suppose you have any photos of the fish pond or Warner Bros store?
I lived right opposite MFI and Pizza Hut. Wow. Memories
Funnily enough the midland metro is coming to Merry Hill, joining with this would have made the transport so much simpler
Yes, and because the monorail was elevated it avoided all traffic delays - even red traffic lights!
My nieces dad put the electrics in for the mono rail as worked for the MEB at the time
Shame its not there now.
I agree with you!
Note the Monorail at Oasis shopping centre on the Gold Coast has now closed and the track being removed.
another very good movie...some stations look a bit bare though it think
As a child I went on this everytime we went to Merry Hill. I'd love to know what is actually inside the disused station above Marks and Spencers now, and why they knocked all the other stations down apart from that one.
The station up by curry’s was knocked down and the golf shop is in its place I think the stations went with track and trains to Australia
Cool how doors open and close at the station around the trains. How does the monorail flex when tracks are switched??
The train is articulated, the track which moves is also flexible, exactly how however I never got to find out.
Loved when i was kid
I heard they was bringing the trains back :) would be nice :D
Laura Stanley they did I saw a black thingy near Sainsbury's
they might cause Sainsbury shop is gone
That's amazing, thanks Lisa. How did you manage to get access? Did you have to ask permission?
I miss this. But it kept breaking down, and there were health and safety issues with it apparently. Shame to see it go.
That car wash was dire
The Monorail, no matter how far a system extends, can never be anything more than a novelty joyride. The Sydney monorail, with just 7 stations on a loop, starting from, and ending at any one of those 7 stations, proves my point. A tramway, like that reintroduced in Sydney, is a legitimate transport system, but the tramway planned for Newcastle is a stupid joke, it will never be anything more than a tinker-toy as it's total distance will be from just east of Stewart Avenue, along Hunter Street, into Scott Street(just west of where Perkins Street intersects with Hunter Street) and continuing until just past Pacific Street. It will go no further, east or west. If you want to go beyond those limits, you may as well forget the tram and ride a bus instead.
Whilst the type of train used in Sydney and at Merry Hill had a very low passenger capacity, the trains used in Wuppertal, Germany, on many systems in Japan and planned for Sao Paulo Brazil all carry as many passengers as duorail trains. These are very much mainstream high capacity urban transports!
That again proves my point. The low passenger-carrying capacity of monorail cars, each car having just 6 seats, three on one side of the door, three on the other, three passengers facing forward and three facing backward. 10 cars between the driver cabs means a total of just 60 passengers per trip where 70 or more can ride in one of the two carriages of a new Sydney tram, and a great deal further, out as far as Dulwich Hill until the system is extended further.
i used to use this service regularly when merry hill first opened.seeing this film brings back many memories for me.they even had plans to extend the service to brierley hill,dudley and other nereby towns.tipical of what happens in this country.this all came to nothing due to i was reliably imformed at the time it only lasted 2 years due to the firm whow installed it dismantlled it all and took it away because the people who comissioned it to be built never paid for it! just like the shopping center itself was funded and built out of fraudilant activity.by people who i will not mention.i used to drive buses for merry hill minis just after this system closed down.this film is just how i rememder merry hill.absalute nightmare getting in and out the place.known localy as merry hell!
James Smith there trying to build it back
@KRPTV Hi there - why not write / email and ask the people who own the shopping centre.
You could even tell them that you say this video! I don't know what they will say...
Simon
I think the bus staion replaced it
When was video taken? I never seen it so empty.
I was sometimes in Birmingham on weekdays when most people were at work and the place was quiet.
I would guess about 88-89
Shame it on longer there
Bit saft them tekin it dowen do ya think, caw see whyee than wud tel it dowen wen it was saw conveneyamt. Saved goin from one syed of the shops to than other on the back of an hoss
Absolutely getting rid of this was a monumental mistake. It should have been extended towards Dudley so that people could avoid the traffic delays. A larger / higher capacity monorail would also have been better - these exist in Japan, China, Brazil, etc.
It is sad that the only people who could not go on the monorail, were people who used a wheelchair!
to many backhanders by MP and councilor's put a stop too this wonderful idear i bet
All the money it cost and it only ran for about 5 years. DISGRACE.
@040train
The Midland Metro extended? Pigs will fly. The treasury has been actively trying to stifle this tramway since even before it was built. Despite the pre-election promises I bet its funding will be cut after the election.
Well it actually is now being done and tracks going in several years late and there are apparently plans to bring back the train line from Stourbridge to brierley hill
such a shame
Vague memories of this . Completely pointless 😂
I liked it but saw it as under-utilised... it had a potential that was not recognised ... an extension to Dudly could have seen it offer a better way to the shopping centre that was immune to traffic delays.