The point about information generally is that you need to use more than one source if possible, evaluate the reliability of each type of source, and see whether the answers make sense. You have uncovered two half-lives, which do not overlap, and therefore do not contradict each other. These individuals found in different places must have existed before and after the events that have been found. You have not found parallel lives e.g. an Albert and an Albert Sydney at the same time in different places.
Your thread has been running in the Common Room, which a lot of people will look at, but not everyone. The subject matter has changed from Railways and London. There may be other RootsChatterers out there who know something. Now that we seem to have placed the critical period in Birmingham with a surname Spiers, is it worth placing a post on the Warwickshire board, referring back to this original post? "Albert Spiers missing 1930" or something like that.