RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 6, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2014 I'm extremely pleased to say that the first train of 16 loaded bogie timber wagons left Exeter Riverside Yard at 1404 hrs today. We were approached by Kronospan and Colas Rail approx 10 days ago, who were keen to move some of the 1000 tons of timber that has been accumulating at Teignbridge since the Heathfield line was flooded and then Dawlish washed out. A couple of site visits to Riverside Yard indicated an area where timber could be brought in by lorry and stockpiled for a weekly train to Chirk. With kind cooperation from internal and external parties, a quantity of stockpiled ballast was moved to the London-end of the yard and a good space cleared to allow timber to be stockpiled and loaded by lorry crane onto a train. The first timber arrived in the Yard on Monday afternoon this week, and the train arrived yesterday afternoon, when loading commenced. Loading was completed by lunchtime today and the train departed in good order, with 56302 on the front. Images will follow a bit later. This is really good news. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 more can do attitude, i like Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I heard that a load of that stockpiled timber went missing and the prime suspect was a Captain 'Kernow'. Its been widely thought that the timber was smuggled down to Plymouth by the Captain, who was keen to lay a new keel 'on the cheap'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 The Captain will be surprised, the old keel was oak, the stuff he "nicked" was a softwood! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Horse Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 56302 did the Baglan Logs on Tuesday, it thrashed through Willaston (South of Crewe) and put a massive smile on my face. That's a nice change for Riverside then :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 The Captain will be surprised, the old keel was oak, the stuff he "nicked" was a softwood! Maybe he wants a nice bookcase in the Captain's quarters. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted March 6, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2014 Thanks for the information CK - I had a rare trip on the train north from Exeter today & it was a pleasant surprise to see the activity in Riverside. The view was slightly spoil by a 66 on a rake of 'monsterboxes' though - so any pictures you can provide will be welcome Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Now all that's needed is to build a line from Exeter to Heathfield to cut out the lorry stage.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 6, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2014 OK, here are some photos of the timber train today. The train was berthed yesterday (16 bogie wagons), with the west-end of the train right down on the stop blocks of Nos10/9/8 roads. This was to give as much room as possible, allowing half the train to be loaded before it needed to be shunted, to allow the 8 wagons at the other end to be loaded. Although the sidings are long enough to allow the whole train to be loaded without a shunt, this wasn't possible due to the presence of the ballast stock pile at the London-end of the yard. When I arrived this morning, the empty half of the train was being shunted onto the stop blocks: The timber stock pile that had been deposited since Monday afternoon this week: The DBS trip to the Alphington scrap terminal had also arrived, and was waiting to go on down to Alphington: The empty timber wagons approach the buffer stops at sub-walking pace, the shunter being in constant radio communication with the driver: Another timber lorry arriving, with a load that he had picked up at Teignbridge: We felt that this was a good news story, so we had an opportunity to invite the Channel 5 film crew along, who are making a second series of 'The Railway' down here (and elsewhere) at the moment: John the driver is about to check how the loading is going: Strapping the load down: More timber arriving: At this point, the DBS loco came back light from Alphington, having berthed the first half of it's train, and ran back into the yard to collect the second portion: Driver John was getting a bit worried earlier on, as the road fuel tanker that had been booked for earlier in the morning hadn't turned up. After a while, the decision was taken to take fuel on the FGW unit depot in West Yard, so the 56 was detached and ran light via the station. By this time, we had gone back to the panel to warm up and have a cup of coffee... Back to the yard in time to see the last logs being loaded. Those left on the ground will go on next weeks train: The 56 returns from having been fuelled and re-attaches to the train: And so, after a brake test and final check of the load, the train is ready to depart: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted March 6, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2014 Whilst I would not want to see the end of the logs at Heathfield nor end of the clays to Cornwall it's great to see freight once again being loaded at Exeter. Great photos. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted March 6, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2014 Marvellous! I did wonder if the 66 + monsterboxes were the Alphington scrap train as several wagons had 'EMR' roughly painted on them. It's good to see all the fettling work done last year to renovate the sidings is being put to good use. I presume the "Imerys" wagons are the ones which would normally take clay from Cornwall to Stoke - I hope that traffic hasn't been completely lost to roads by the time Dawlish reopens... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Thanks for all the info and pics Captain. Great to see the rail industry adapting to circumstances to keep the traffic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Harvey Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Thanks for posting the Pictures Captain. Will you be appearing on the Channel 5 program? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 Great to see the rail industry adapting to circumstances to keep the traffic. thats why we have a "bob the builder" hat on the side of the loco can we fix it.....yes we can!! its amazing to think that all those logs that have taken a few days to load with the hiab's will be unloaded upon arrival into chirk in under an hour by a couple of big machines Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I had an mental image of a raft of logs being floated down the Exe, with a number of people in Hi-Vis and check shirts astride them singing the Lumberjack song. Afterwards, it would be tea and buttered scones all round. What's been happening about the china-clay traffic whilst all this has been going on? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 7, 2014 Bet that 56 sounded good going off the yard with that lot. Pity it wasn't Big Jim on the loco .Great pics KK. All the best from up here in sunny North Notts. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 7, 2014 I had an mental image of a raft of logs being floated down the Exe, with a number of people in Hi-Vis and check shirts astride them singing the Lumberjack song. Afterwards, it would be tea and buttered scones all round. Buttered scones , it's Devon you're talking about, so clotted cream would be the order of the day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
treggyman Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Hi A brilliant set of pictures......Thanks Captain indeed for taking the time to post them..... Timber has been shipped to/from Riverside before..... We moved to Cornwall in '87 but on a return trip to Devon in '93 I took these pics at probably a similar spot...... Because when we left Devon timber was being shipped in to Lapford for the(I think Kronospan) works at South Molton, I had assumed that the wagons were also being offloaded due to the Lapford yard being closed/unavailable.....But timber could have been loaded there instead..... Judging from the bark on the ground this had been going on for a while. It is good to see that in these days of individual companies on our modern railway 3 companies have got together to overcome a major problem..... Hope the pictures are of interest Cheers Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Dan Randall Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 Thanks for the information CK - I had a rare trip on the train north from Exeter today & it was a pleasant surprise to see the activity in Riverside. The view was slightly spoil by a 66 on a rake of 'monsterboxes' though - so any pictures you can provide will be welcome I worked that train (6C49), down from Patchway. Consisting of seventeen wagons, on arrival at Riverside, the third wagon was knocked out for some reason and the train re-formed. It was then split into two sets of eight and having brake tested the loco/leading eight wagons, the shunter asked me to pull the (now shorter), train down to the exit signal and leave it there for the next driver. Sorry about that, but I was just following instructions! Regards Dan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I worked that train (6C49), down from Patchway. Consisting of seventeen wagons, on arrival at Riverside, the third wagon was knocked out for some reason and the train re-formed. It was then split into two sets of eight and having brake tested the loco/leading eight wagons, the shunter asked me to pull the (now shorter), train down to the exit signal and leave it there for the next driver. Sorry about that, but I was just following instructions! Regards Dan why apologize as no need as the only thing that matters was all companies came together to help the road & rail work together to keep British industry going in times of need. cheers for info and pics everyone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Buttered scones , it's Devon you're talking about, so clotted cream would be the order of the day Not in the song... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 I worked that train (6C49), down from Patchway. Consisting of seventeen wagons, on arrival at Riverside, the third wagon was knocked out for some reason and the train re-formed. It was then split into two sets of eight and having brake tested the loco/leading eight wagons, the shunter asked me to pull the (now shorter), train down to the exit signal and leave it there for the next driver. Sorry about that, but I was just following instructions! Regards Dan No apology needed, it was good to see activity in Riverside for once! Anyway, those Imerys NACCO wagons were also blocking the view...! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 Hi A brilliant set of pictures......Thanks Captain indeed for taking the time to post them..... Timber has been shipped to/from Riverside before..... We moved to Cornwall in '87 but on a return trip to Devon in '93 I took these pics at probably a similar spot...... Because when we left Devon timber was being shipped in to Lapford for the(I think Kronospan) works at South Molton, I had assumed that the wagons were also being offloaded due to the Lapford yard being closed/unavailable.....But timber could have been loaded there instead..... Judging from the bark on the ground this had been going on for a while. It is good to see that in these days of individual companies on our modern railway 3 companies have got together to overcome a major problem..... Hope the pictures are of interest Cheers Bill Bill,this is interesting to me as I thought the timber was being loaded onto wagons at Lapford in the 1980s, not delivered. If that's the case then I've read it all wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Bill,this is interesting to me as I thought the timber was being loaded onto wagons at Lapford in the 1980s, not delivered. If that's the case then I've read it all wrong.Rich, I'm pretty certain you're correct about Lapford being used to load timber for elsewhere; I think the plant at Hexham was one destination. There was rail traffic for the Norbord 'Contiboard' mill at South Molton- CIBA-Geigy at Duxford used to send resin to Barnstaple. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Probably the most freight Exeter has seen in a while ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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