Briquetteries Du Nord, Templeuve

[Ruston]

In 1999 I visited several narrow gauge industrial and preservation sites in France. One was the Briquettieries Du Nord brick works at Templeuve. There were 5 locos on site, One Ruston 40DL working, on 40DL spare, one 40DL in the workshops, a Plymouth working in the clay pit and a Ruston 13DL dumped OOU. All the 40DLs had replacement Deutz air-cooled engines and replacement bodywork. None of the 40DLs were identifiable, having lost their works plates, and original engines.

 

Ruston No.20.

 

 

 

 

Ruston No.25

 

 

Ruston No.21

 

 

There were two sets of skips in use. The Ruston did the main haul whilst the Plymouth moved the skips under the excavator. They would exchange trains at a loop.

 

 

13DL Ruston w/n 242875

 

 

I wonder if the works and its railway are still going?

[Stevelewis]

Nice  memories!

 

When  I  was  a  boy,  me  and  my  friends used  to  spend  a lot  of  ime 'playing'  on  our   local   Jackson's Brickworks  in  Levenshulme Manchester,

 

The Tubs  which  transported  the  clay to  the  works  were  powered  by  a continuous  chain  ( double  track  system,  )  there  was     a constant  flow of  single  tubs  around 20 yards apart, which  were  filled  in groups of  4  by an excavator  at  the   extraction of the  clay  point

 

Sad  to  say  some  of  the lads   were always sabotaging  the  line  by putting  stones on  them and  causing  derailments,  which caused  chaos  as  parts  of  the  line  were not visible  to  the  workers, so  inevitably  quite  a pile  of  empty & full tubs would  pile  up  !

 

Sadly no camera  in  those  long  gone  days!!

[decauville1126]

 

 

 

"I wonder if the works and its railway are still going?"

 

All three BdN sites - Lomme, Leers, and Templeuve - lost their railways some years ago. (Somewhere) I still have my formal written access for all BdN sites. This helped as many of the migrant workers could be a trifle camera-shy but having been introduced by the manager they were very helpful.

 

What would be useful is if someone could give an an up-to-date list of working sites in France/Belgium. 

[Fat Controller]

 

 

 

"I wonder if the works and its railway are still going?"

 

All three BdN sites - Lomme, Leers, and Templeuve - lost their railways some years ago. (Somewhere) I still have my formal written access for all BdN sites. This helped as many of the migrant workers could be a trifle camera-shy but having been introduced by the manager they were very helpful.

 

What would be useful is if someone could give an an up-to-date list of working sites in France/Belgium. 

 

I had a look on Google Earth. The clay pit is still active, but is now served by road vehicles.

[Ruston]

Perhaps at least some of the locos were saved for preservation?