Isle of Wight freight

[Overner]

It can be partially seen in a photo I have (I will try to post it this evening).

 

Rather than a single 'wharf', there were a collection of covered platforms and coal bins (one of which looks like an old wagon body with the curved ends) along Jollife's Siding.

 

There was also a large brick shed with a large sign on the roof declaring 'Freshwater Coal Depot'. A small part of this shed still stands in the garden centre, and used as their 'Xmas Barn'.

 

Two coal merchants used the yard, one of which (Honnor & Jeffrey) later acquired the site and built the garden centre there.

 

Hope this helps, or is of interest.

 

I think this may be the photo you're talking about.

 

 

I believe that this shows the old coal shed which is now part of the garden centre. The openings, boarded over and certainly not windows, are at the right height to unload wagons with their drop doors down and I believe that this is the way coal was handled at Freshwater though I'm open to correction. There are also a couple of more conventional looking boarded coal bins at the end of the building.

 

As far as I know, there was no goods shed as such at Freshwater and most non coal goods would have been handled at the end loading bay opposite the platform road. Remember that the vast majority of goods traffic on the island was coal so sophisticated goods handling would have been unnecessary.

 

The wagon, no 26145, was an early SR transfer to the island and was a standard LBSC Diag 1367 5 plank. Several of these were transferred with round ends which were later cut down to match the majority of square ended 5 planks.

 

Colin

[Ian Morgan]

That is the photo I meant. By the time the line closed, that building had been reduced to half its length:

 

 

These photos show the station end of the yard (and the petrol station opposite the station):

 

 

This last is poor quality, but shows some intriguing erections. Does anyone know anything about them? It looks like a boring rig, possibly, but why?

 

Ian Morgan

Hampshire

[Overner]

Three fascinating pictures, Ian. Do you have any idea when the b & w ones were taken. As for the strange erections, I agree that one looks like some sort of boring rig but the other thing that crossed my mind was some sort of floodlighting. At this point there isn't much space between the station site and the road for whatever they were doing there!

 

Colin

[Ian Morgan]

With the grass on the platform and lack of wagons in the yard, I would say the last photo was shortly after the line closed in 1953. The other one I would say 'post war'. The loco has 36 on the buffer beam, is lined and has a nameplate low down on the tank sides, and is pointing the 'wrong way' (locos on the line normally pointed towards Freshwater).

[bike2steam]

  It looks like a boring rig, possibly, but why?

 

Ian Morgan

Hampshire

The land in that area is somewhat marshy, the (western) River Yar starts there somewhere, so it could be prospective owners just testing the land for possible redevelopment.

[47606odin]

looks to me like a lighting tower made of rail or something similar

[IWCR]

The  "Boring  Rig"  is  a  High  Voltage  power  pole,  the  objects  at the  top  are  the  insulators  for  the  cables,  the  blob  part  way  up  the  pole  is  a  transformer.  The  apparent  roof  below  this  I think  is  a  structure  beyond  the  pole,  or  could  be  a  temp  structure  using  the  power  poles  posts,  (ex  WW2  perhaps).

This  cable  route  still  exists  (see  Google  Earth  &  Streetview),  it  has  however  been  upgraded  and  the  pole  has  been  replaced  with  a  more  recent  version.

 

Pete

[Overner]

Thanks for sorting that one out, Pete.

 

The new installation is, presumably the fenced off enclosure behind the tyre warehouse. I sat in the car park of the new Co-Op supermarket looking at it at the beginning of July but never made the connection, either because it's been moved to the other side of Afton Road or my sense of distance and perspective leaves a lot to be desired. It's a salutary warning of how we can go wrong when we try to interpret old photo's.

 

Colin

[bécasse]

Covered coal bins seem to have been an Isle of Wight feature at a period when any sort of bin for domestic coal was rare elsewhere (where they tended to be WWII-built). As well as these bins at Freshwater, Orchard's (plus another merchant whose name escapes me at the moment) bins at Bembridge were covered with a corrugated-iron roof, and at Ventnor most of the merchants kept their coal in caves going back into the chalk cliffs.

[ColinH]

I think this may be the photo you're talking about.

 

Freshwater.jpg

 

I believe that this shows the old coal shed which is now part of the garden centre. The openings, boarded over and certainly not windows, are at the right height to unload wagons with their drop doors down and I believe that this is the way coal was handled at Freshwater though I'm open to correction. There are also a couple of more conventional looking boarded coal bins at the end of the building.

 

As far as I know, there was no goods shed as such at Freshwater and most non coal goods would have been handled at the end loading bay opposite the platform road. Remember that the vast majority of goods traffic on the island was coal so sophisticated goods handling would have been unnecessary.

 

The wagon, no 26145, was an early SR transfer to the island and was a standard LBSC Diag 1367 5 plank. Several of these were transferred with round ends which were later cut down to match the majority of square ended 5 planks.

 

Colin

[ColinH]

Ian

 

Thanks for the photos. It appears that what we thought was a goods shed could have been for coal store age. Will have to make some changes!

 

Colin

[bike2steam]

 bins at Bembridge were covered with a corrugated-iron roof, 

A bit like this, but with a framework under the roof (oops I never finished it).

[Ian Morgan]

I suspect the corrugated iron shed by the former cattle pens at Freshwater would have been used for general merchandise traffic

 

 

[zephyrman]

My models of the weedkilling tanks.

First the ovalish one. Made from a sectioned sweetex dispencer and a smallbrook studios chassis.

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Here is the round one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

And on the subject of tanks! a modified Royal Daylight wagon as per the three that ran on the Island .

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

The Weedkilling Brake Van. Please excuse the chassis but I could not find pics of the chassis. As it was ex MR I simply mounted it on a Hornby ex MR chassis. First IWR vehicle I modeled.

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Something to crane your neck about?

 

 

 

 

 

Something to crane your neck about?

 

 

 

 

 

Something to crane your neck about?

 

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

The Ķirkstall Forge Crane

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Road Truck

 

[zephyrman]

Rebuilt Ballast Dropside Wagons

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Storey]

These may be of some use. First is an aerial view of Bembridge, undated, but presumably 1930's. showing at least 4 covered vans and a brake I would guess. Second pic is of one of the two most famous 00 models of Bembridge, showing the covered coal staithes. Incidentally, , whilst Medina was a much bigger operation, I don't see any mention of St Helen's Quay in the histories recited above. My father worked there for Pickfords, who were the SR's agents, in the 1930's. It was very busy with rail borne, mostly coal traffic, and he told me that it was the main entry point for the Island's coal at that time. Not sure if that was true - it seems unlikely. Maybe he meant for the eastern end. It included a train ferry dock (from Langstone on Hayling Island), although this was supposed to have ceased use many decades before. I have an aerial shot of St Helens showing several rakes of open wagons in the complex of sidings there, which I will try to find.

 

 

[zephyrman]

The Ballast Wagon with heavier buffers.

 

[zephyrman]

Two LBSCR bolsters. Made from Smallbrook Studios kits. Great kit . The chassis axle boxes/W irons re very very fragile so take care fitting axles. I bought 8 pairs of these and at least 6 needed repairs after fitting axles. Great kit justbe very gentle with them.

[zephyrman]