Industrial locomotives in the late 80s to mid 90s

[DrT]

What a wonderful thread. I just stumbled across this and it takes me back with some fond memories. I worked as a shunter at United Engineering Steels at Aldwarke in Rotherham, from 1982 to 1990, sadly before the digital camera revolution. I've worked on some of the locos in these pictures, and some that aren't pictured here:

Yorkshires, 92,93,94,95,96,97,98, 31, 32, 33, 34 (last four are Janus)

Hunslets, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42

Can't remember the make but there was No. 88 a small tandem, capable of navigating the tight curves at the 11" Mill.

The Hunslets were used in the Casting Bay for pulling the ingot bogies off the casting stands. Had a big heat shield on the front and an empty bogie at the back, to protect from the heat of the stripped ingots, and we had fireproof clothing that smelled of dog food when it got wet :-)

I lost the end of my finger between the handrail on one of the Janus locos, and the top of a damaged scrap wagon. As we slowed down and the wagons buffered up, the top of the first wagon hit the handrail where my hand was. I took voluntary redundancy shortly afterwards due to being unable to handle the shunting pole, but now, 24 years later, I'd go back in an instant if I had the chance.

[Ruston]

Interesting first post ^^ I think the tandem unit was built by Thomas Hill.

[class37418stag]

I've found a few more.

 

AB478BoothsJuly88.jpg

Hello am I right by ore tipper wagon are scrap by behind then shunter?

AB 478, an 0-4-0DH was another of C.F. Booth's resident shunters in 1988 and is seen here near the rail entrance to the yard, off the Brightside to Masborough line, with the embankment just visible carrying the line to Treeton North Junction.

 

YESheltonJul96.jpg

An unidentified YE Janus loco at work on the BSC Shelton site in 1996.

 

RH375713TioxideMay96.jpg

RH 375713 seen working during another visit to the Pyewipe works in May 96.The old tippler wagons had been replaced by a more modern fleet of flat wagons with open-topped containers.

 

HE5308CibaGeigyMay96.jpg

Next door to the Pyewipe works was Ciba Geigy's works, which used this rare Hunslet 'Yardmaster' loco. Unfortunately I never saw it work but this rare beast has been preserved, along with some of the Tioxide Rustons at Ludborough. Here's a short video that I found on youtube -

[class37418stag]

Hello am I right by ore tipper wagon are scrap by behind then shunter?

[ped]

I found your site by accident looking for some of the old loco,s I worked on and alas on this very page  ..I was a shunter then driver at Gedling colliery

in the 70,s and early 80s. having started as a wagonlowerer .

We had King George an old steamer , a Ruston,  2 Vanguards ( seen on this page) and a large Sentinal. ( Susan , Gillian, and Julian )

Train buffs would always come and photograph when our spare loco was pulled on a haulage rope up the steep hill to Mapperley Wharf.

I would be glad to answer any questions regarding these Locos from a drivers perspective...." Oh happy memories "

 

Heres a pic of me in the empty sidings

 

 

[ped]

Note the front window is square...it was replaced when we were shunting at the back of the washery and slid into an overhanging pipe

[Ruston]

I may be stretching the time frame here because these shots are undated. They're certainly late 90s if not maybe 2000.

 

Thomas Hill V333 at M.O.D B.A.D. Kineton.

 

Thomas Hill 307v, 272v and one other, unidentified TH in the loco shed at Kineton.

 

AB663 at Kineton. IIRC, this had recently arrived from Germany where it operated with the BAOR and was built to continental loading gauge.

 

Unidentified TH at R.O.F. Eastriggs. Note the standard/2ft. gauge level crossing and 2ft. gauge Andrew Barclay loco.

 

TH 309v at Eastriggs.

[Ruston]

I have found some more photos. They are undated but I think they are from 1999, or 2000.

 

Wilmott Bros was mentioned on page 3. They hired out locomotives and provided servicing to other users fleets. On a visit to British Steel Shotton works I found one of Wilmott's Rolls Royce diesel-hydraulics being serviced. I didn't write the identity on the back of the photo at the time, so I can't identify it now.

 

Also on site and providing the shunting power was this Hunslet that appears to have had a rebuild. It looks heftier than your normal Hunslet and it may be the one pictured on page 3 at the Rover works. I'm not sure but it could have had a rebuild by Pete Briddon's Yorkshire Engine Company. Again I didn't note the identity on the back of the photo.

 

 

And there's this Thomas Hill, seen on the jacks at Wilmott's yard in Ilkeston. I think this may be w/n 261v.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Ruston

[PhilJ W]

The previous photographs posted in July 2016 are no longer visible.

[Ruston]

Round Oak Rail 22/4/99. The site of the former Round Oak steel works. IIRC it was a rolling mill or something by this time. It certainly no longer produced iron or steel.

 

RR 10202 of 1964.

 

The on other loco on site was this huge Brush Traction 0-6-0DE that originally worked on the Tyne & Wear Metro. BT 803 of 1978.

 

[Ruston]

These six photos are all I took of a huge collection of standard gauge industrial locomotives that were neither working or preserved. They were all up for auction and were owned, IIRC, by one individual, who had collected them from various industrial concerns, scrap yards and preservation groups. They were all on sidings laid in a salvage yard, somewhere near Telford in the year 2000.

 

I have no idea what happened to them all, whether they were preserved, went back into industry, or were scrapped but there were more than a dozen of them!

 

Nearest camera is JF 421011, with a Hunslet, a Thomas Hill and an English Electric Stephenson visible.

 

TH 175v with a small JF 0-4-0DM, a Ruston 165, a Barclay and some electric thing visible.

 

An unidentified RR 0-6-0DH with a Hunslet and a pair of Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0DHs in the background.

 

Another unidentified RR from the Nottinghamshire coalfield.

 

Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0DHs D1388 and D1345 but I don't know which is which.

 

Baguley 3027 with a Barclay crane tank and a Peckett saddle tank visible.

 

 

 

 

[Sir Hadyn]

That was "Dealers Ltd" in Shropshire, all sold in a job lot to the Somerset & Dorset Loco Company but then separated out, some preserved, some went to industry, others scrapped. The Peckett is 1722 "Rocket" now at Telford Steam Railway. We had Brush/Bagnall 3097 (?) at Snibston for a time. The sale brochure which allowed viewing was something crazy like £50, which registered you to bid for the locos. I may have a photocopy somewhere, but not seen it for years. Fascinating. I think there were something like 54 locos there in total - amazing.

[Michael Edge]

The Brush 0-6-0DE at Round Oak might look big but they only weigh about 36T, not exactly beefy for a steelworks.

[Mark Saunders]

7 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

The Brush 0-6-0DE at Round Oak might look big but they only weigh about 36T, not exactly beefy for a steelworks.

 

Weren’t they a cancelled order from a sugar Works in Kenya? 

 

I would like like to see these as a kit in 4 mm!

[Fat Controller]

14 hours ago, Ruston said:

Round Oak Rail 22/4/99. The site of the former Round Oak steel works. IIRC it was a rolling mill or something by this time. It certainly no longer produced iron or steel.

 

RR 10202 of 1964.

 

The on other loco on site was this huge Brush Traction 0-6-0DE that originally worked on the Tyne & Wear Metro. BT 803 of 1978.

 

Round Oak has been a steel terminal and stockholder for about two decades.  There are several trains per day from South Wales, and the terminal used to have four locos to deal with them.

[Michael Edge]

4 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

Weren’t they a cancelled order from a sugar Works in Kenya? 

 

I would like like to see these as a kit in 4 mm!

The exact origin is a bit obscure, they were certainly based on a light axle loading loco for somewhere in Africa but I'm not sure about them being a cancelled order. What is more bizarre is why on earth did Tyne & Wear Metro think they needed so many locos - they manage with one now. Two of them survive but I do't thnk either is in working order, Andrew Briddon's has serious electrical problems and will take a lot of work to rebuild. We might eventually get round to releasing a kit for this but it's waiting on the build of a second test etch.

[rope runner]

Ex-Round Oak Sentinel type RR 10202/64 (above photograph) is ex-Oxfordshire Ironstone Company BARABEL and now happily preserved on the Nene Valley Railway as yard shunter at Wansford. There's three more from the OIC fleet up the road at Cottesmore in Rutland: RR10201/64 BETTY ,10204/65 JEAN and 10207/65 GRAHAM  - they are frequently in operation on open days.  Also preserved and overhauled is 10165/63 JOAN on the East Somerset.

 

That's five industrial locos preserved out of an operational fleet of thirteen, which is quite remarkable in itself...

 

Paul A. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

The exact origin is a bit obscure, they were certainly based on a light axle loading loco for somewhere in Africa but I'm not sure about them being a cancelled order. What is more bizarre is why on earth did Tyne & Wear Metro think they needed so many locos - they manage with one now. Two of them survive but I do't thnk either is in working order, Andrew Briddon's has serious electrical problems and will take a lot of work to rebuild. We might eventually get round to releasing a kit for this but it's waiting on the build of a second test etch.

They have a few battery-electrics though.

[Fat Controller]

3 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

The exact origin is a bit obscure, they were certainly based on a light axle loading loco for somewhere in Africa but I'm not sure about them being a cancelled order. What is more bizarre is why on earth did Tyne & Wear Metro think they needed so many locos - they manage with one now. Two of them survive but I do't thnk either is in working order, Andrew Briddon's has serious electrical problems and will take a lot of work to rebuild. We might eventually get round to releasing a kit for this but it's waiting on the build of a second test etch.

I think they may have been used during the construction and got bought by TWPTE; the only time I saw them in action, they were top'n'tailing a PW train.

[Mark Saunders]

42 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

I think they may have been used during the construction and got bought by TWPTE; the only time I saw them in action, they were top'n'tailing a PW train.

 

They were used in the late 1970's when the conversion of the BR Tyneside Suburban lines were undertaken and were equipped with equipment for tunnel work and to a loading gauge that made them suitable for the Metro system!

[Ruston]

21 hours ago, Sir Hadyn said:

That was "Dealers Ltd" in Shropshire, all sold in a job lot to the Somerset & Dorset Loco Company but then separated out, some preserved, some went to industry, others scrapped. The Peckett is 1722 "Rocket" now at Telford Steam Railway. We had Brush/Bagnall 3097 (?) at Snibston for a time. The sale brochure which allowed viewing was something crazy like £50, which registered you to bid for the locos. I may have a photocopy somewhere, but not seen it for years. Fascinating. I think there were something like 54 locos there in total - amazing.

I went along on the pretence of assisting someone who was bidding but I never knew that it cost that much. Knowing the chap I went with, he must have got us in some other way as there's no way on this earth he would have paid that!

 

A few more...

 

No date on the back of this one but it's a 6-wheel Thomas Hill, w.n 180v of 1967, belonging to the Trafford Park Company. It was parked up well away from where the usual rail traffic ran and wasn't in use but was the only time I ever saw it out of the shed.

 

Again, nothing on the back and all I can say is that it's a Thomas Hill. I know I took it at a cement works, possibly somewhere in Wales, but I can't remember where. ISTR there was a class 08 working there and the TH was out of use.

 

This one was found at Neath, South Wales, and belonged to Briton Ferry Shipping Services and although it looked to be in good external condition is was clearly out of use by the fact that it had been driven into a large pile of rubble that was tipped across the tracks. North British w/n 28038 of 1961.

 

 

Baguely w/n 3090 at a salvage yard in the West Midllands. Somewhere near Tyseley, I think. Taken on the same day as the Round Oak visit. The BR Type 4 was just a cab on the back of an artic trailer.

 

 

 

[Ben B]

Am I right in thinking that the shunting at Round Oak nowadays is just carried out by the train loco, the Sheds and 60's?

 

I remember reading in one of the books by Ned Williams ("The Railways of Dudley" I think) that a few of the old YEC DE2 shunters from the larger steelworks/Pensnett Railway were used in the early years on the site when it downscaled just to the smaller operation.  I'm guessing they must have given up the ghost fairly quickly to be replaced by the Brush and the Sentinel.  Always thought it was a shame the Black Country Museum didn't pick one up for display, though I gather they've tended to be a bit anti-railway at the museum in the past.

[Ruston]

British Steel Appleby Frodingham works, June 1992.

 

Hunslet Bo-Bo 72, w/n 7283 of 1972.

 

Yorkshire Janus 44, w/n 2768 of 1960.

 

[drjcontroller]

15 hours ago, Ruston said:

 

 

Again, nothing on the back and all I can say is that it's a Thomas Hill. I know I took it at a cement works, possibly somewhere in Wales, but I can't remember where. ISTR there was a class 08 working there and the TH was out of use.

 

This could be TH213v of 1969, there's mention of it at Aberthaw Cement Works up to 2008, no reports since so presumed scrapped.

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by drjcontroller

[009 micro modeller]

On 27/02/2020 at 21:45, Sir Hadyn said:

That was "Dealers Ltd" in Shropshire, all sold in a job lot to the Somerset & Dorset Loco Company but then separated out, some preserved, some went to industry, others scrapped. The Peckett is 1722 "Rocket" now at Telford Steam Railway. We had Brush/Bagnall 3097 (?) at Snibston for a time. The sale brochure which allowed viewing was something crazy like £50, which registered you to bid for the locos. I may have a photocopy somewhere, but not seen it for years. Fascinating. I think there were something like 54 locos there in total - amazing.

Do we know what happened to the crane tank and the Baguley diesel in the last photo?

 

Edit: Baguley 3027 seems to have been at Chasewater more recently but prior to that?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dc-7c/6997057139

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by 009 micro modeller