Hayes (Kent) goods traffic?

[roythebus]

When I was a driver at Addiscombe we used to prep and run the set that stabled overnight at Hayes. ISTR a Charing Cross man put the set away at about 1900 the previous night.

[roythebus]

Can anyone tell me what "miss old Jack" would mean to a South Eastern driver?  There was a clue in a post above.

[Nearholmer]

Deliberately departing With a first train without the gaurd, so as to pick him up at his home station?

[Oldddudders]

Can anyone tell me what "miss old Jack" would mean to a South Eastern driver?  There was a clue in a post above.

Not calling at St Johns, which Mid-Kent trains traditionally patronised?

[Wickham Green]

Which is why I raised the possibility that the goods service might have run from Bricklayers Arms ...... would be interesting to know.

 

K

Barely a year since the last post on here - but here goes : The June 1947 timetable shows the normal Hayes freight departing BA at 4.07 ( that's AM ) shunts at Catford Bridge 4.40 to 5.12 then Elmers End 5.28 to 5.40 - arriving at Hayes 5.53. The return starts at 9.10, shunts at West Wickham 9.15 to 10.12 ( SO ) or 11.40 ( SX ) and returns to BA calling at Catford Bridge & St.Johns only ( SX ) or Elmers End, Addiscombe, Elmers End ( again ), Council Sidings, Clock House, Lower Sydenham ( station AND Gas Siding ) and Catford Bridge ( SX ). While the freight seems to have been at Hayes from 5.53 to 9.10 and there would appear to have had ample time for shunting at West Wickham, the UP timetable shows a working back to WW at 6.36 - unfortunately, WW doesn't appear in the DOWN TT so there's no return time nor any indication of what this manoeuvre was for !

 

Yes, there were plans to 'extend' the line beyond Hayes both before and after it was actually built ( details in Trevor Woodman's history - if you can find a copy ) - you'll note that the map in post #14 shows the northern boundary of the Hayes station site heading east north east while the tracks swing almost due east : this puts the station at ground level whereas the 'boundary alignment' is aiming at Hayes itself and would have required significant earthworks to clear Pickhurst Lane and reach the village - or to head on towards Bromley to the north.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Wickham Green

[Tom Burnham]

Sorry, only just seen this.

There's a booklet called "The Railways to Hayes" by Trevor Woodman, published by the Hayes (Kent) Village Association in 1982.  It's fair to say that it focuses on the preliminaries and construction of the line, with probably less about 20th century operation than you might like. 

Also, I've recently posted a couple of photos of Hayes I took in 1969 (in November, in the rain...) on Flickr - see below.

 

 

[keefer]

Lovely transition-era pic with green and blue units together (also SR and BR-designed in the same train) - presumably the green unit has a yellow panel

[Tom Burnham]

On 23/04/2021 at 20:49, keefer said:

Lovely transition-era pic with green and blue units together (also SR and BR-designed in the same train) - presumably the green unit has a yellow panel

The different EPB units were used completely indiscriminately, so not at all unusual to have both types together. In the transition era blue units first had yellow panels before all-yellow ends were the rule, and some green units got full yellow ends. 

[Pandora]

On 06/02/2017 at 15:43, Joseph_Pestell said:

I suspect that the answer is...both. From Hither Green but with a reversal at Bricklayers Arms.

I raised the query with a senior HG Driver,  he said  in he recalled traffic setting off from Hither Green would use Bricklayers Arms "Old Rusty" for running around, but had no recollection of freight working to Hayes

Edited May 2, 2021 by Pandora

[Joseph_Pestell]

Just a bit of nostalgia. I sometimes got my hair done in the hairdressers' in the arcade leading down to the concourse: Railway Cuttings.

[Platform10]

I have only just seen this thread and it brings back happy childhood memories.  Between 1957 and 1978, I lived alongside the railway between Elmers End and Eden Park.  It was always a thrill to watch steam hauled goods going by.  From Wickham Green's post above showing the timings from 1947, by the late 50s, the up train usually passed at about 09.30 but was sometimes anything up to 11.00.  Maybe this depended on whether there was traffic to shunt at West Wickham?  The times shown for the down service would explain why I never saw it.

 

However there was also an evening run.  I can't be sure this was daily, but the down service passed us at around 19.30 and returned about 21.30.  Quite often this service was light engine one in one direction or the other.  Stock was invariably opens and vans, and rarely more than 8 or 9 wagons.  Locos were almost always C class, on very rare occasions a Q1 coffee pot and on one memorable day we had a T9.  Steam gave way to the ubiquitous BRCW Type 3 but sometimes an 0-6-0 diesel shunter would burble along.

 

It had all fizzled out by the mid 70s. 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Platform10
Eden Park not West Wickham