Remember the Merry Hill monorail? Check out these anniversary pictures
The only mechanical engineer for the short-lived but well remembered Merry Hill monorail has told how a cheeky set of customers once blew him away with a magnificent musical performance.
Trying to cadge a free ride on the monorail, the Welsh chaps bet Reg Malpas they could wow him with their music, before belting out a sensational rendition. The lads just so happened to be a Welsh Male Voice Choir.
Today marks the 25th anniversary since the opening of the monorail, and Mr Malpas, 65, shared his tales of working on it throughout its operation from 1991 to 1996.
He said on his musical encounter: "One day this bunch of Welsh lads wanted a free ride. They said can we pay with a song. I thought they were having me on so I said go on then lets hear it. Then they sang this beautiful song, it blew me away, it was amazing. It turned out they were only the Welsh Male Voice Choir. I couldn't believe it."
Construction of the £22 million elevated monorail took place alongside the final phase of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in 1988-89, but due to safety concerns, didn't open until over a year and a half after the completion of the centre.
Four stations were built, named Waterfront East, Grand Central, Times Square (for the bus station) and Boulevard. Mr Malpas believes it was a wonderful piece of machinery, and a great attraction for Dudley.
He said: "The monorail really was a fantastic piece of equipment. I think the only other one in the UK at the time was at Alton Towers. It was so smooth, not like transport nowadays. Everyone's trying to just build things in a cost effective way, they're not interested in comfort or enjoyment any more.
"It was very safe. I hadn't worked on anything like it before, but even though I was the only mechanical engineer, it was very safe. If anything went wrong it would just pull up the brakes would go straight on.
"A lot of older people used to like coming on and enjoying the view looking down on the area, and children used to enjoy riding on it as well."
Mr Malpas couldn't believe he was trusted with the responsibility on his own for the maintenance of the monorail, but enjoyed his five years.
He said: ""I was qualified as an engineer, but was working at the Merry Hill centre as a security guard. I saw the advert for the job posted up, applied for it never thinking I'd get it, but I did. Then I was trained up and worked for the whole time it was running.
"It was different, I had a really good time, very happy memories. I used to work 6am until 2pm or 2pm until 10pm.
"I would arrive at work and I'd have a carriage in the shed. I'd have to make checks all the way through it, from front to back, making sure everything was working properly, the brakes and what have you. "Then I'd sort out anything that needed mending or replacing. Then when I'd finish one carriage, I'd have another in the shed and it just went on like that in a cycle. I'd always have one in the shed to work on."
The monorail was temporarily closed in 1992, but ran sporadically until 1996, when it was closed and put up for sale. The trains and track were bought by Oasis Shopping Centre, in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia, to enable expansion of its own system.
Mr Malpas added: "It's still in use today which goes to show how advanced it must have been for us to have it all those years ago.
"We had about 20 drivers, most of them were female. The girls were really good. There was a good community spirit around it.
"The company used to let us hold discos and barbecues at the site as well, it was good fun working there.
"I only really see one of my colleagues now. Everyone moves on and life takes you in different paths."
