Did any narrow gauge railways carry a large variety of goods traffic?

[bigboyboris]

I like the idea of modelling a narrow gauge railway, but my perception is that most of those that existed in the UK were relatively single-purpose and carried only a single main type of freight.

 

My desired operations for such a layout, on the other hand, would incorporate a variety of goods traffic, with at least a set of sidings where wagons can be shunted and assembled into trains.

 

Did anything like that exist in the prototype?

[Nile]

Welshpool & Llanfair.

[009 micro modeller]

There were a few common carrier lines though not as many as in some countries. I think the Southwold had a pretty good range of freight and the Welshpool carried general freight and livestock originally although I believe it was mostly coal (being supplied not extracted) by the end, by which time there were no passenger trains either. Many of the Welsh lines eg Ffestiniog were originally for slate and even when they became public railways that remained the main traffic. Lynton and Barnstaple I think was pretty general. Then moving away from this there were industrial lines only carrying one commodity a short distance (Leighton Buzzard and various quarry lines) and those like the Rye and Camber which hardly carried freight. The important thing to remember is that a narrow gauge line, even if it had a variety of freight traffic, wouldn't necessarily have the same variety of extremely specialised wagons for different things as standard gauge, as the scale of and profit from the operation probably wouldn't justify this.

[AMJ]

How about the Leek and Manifold in Staffordshire?

 

End on extension to the standard gauge one of the few if not only lines in the UK to have transporter (rolltrepper in German) waggons thus enabling a full range of products to be delivered up the line.

[009 micro modeller]

How about the Leek and Manifold in Staffordshire?

 

End on extension to the standard gauge one of the few if not only lines in the UK to have transporter (rolltrepper in German) waggons thus enabling a full range of products to be delivered up the line.

That's an interesting idea and one I'd forgotten about, but at least it gets round my comment about the lack of specialised wagons. One problem which I was reminded of at NG South while looking at a layout with transporter wagons is that you will need a loading gauge larger than for standard gauge to run them, so they may look a little odd combined with more typical smaller stock.

[AMJ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek_and_Manifold_Valley_Light_Railway

 

See Wikipedia for L&MVLR

 

Coal and milk in standard gauge stock, mentioned also was a failure to get a quarry operating which would have added stone waggons.

 

Anything is possible in model form as you can say hypothetically......

[br2975]

I suspect you'd find more diverse freight carrier on the Irish narrow gauge systems

[009 micro modeller]

What scale are you going to use? Only problem with Irish lines is that 3ft gauge could be harder to model.

[MarcD]

The Ravenglass and Eskdale. Although initially built for moving iron ore from the fell to the railhead at Ravenglass within 10 years of its building the mines had all but gone and the line quickly turned to moving everything needed in Eskdale. including the post and sheep. General goods was still moving 3 years after the passenger service was axed in 1908. Also when it was converted from 3ft to 15inch the line still carried stone down to Ravenglass and coal and other goods up to Boot.

 

Marc 

[rockershovel]

Campbeltown and Macrihanish in Scotland, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbeltown_and_Machrihanish_Light_Railway

 

Carried locally mined coal to the whiskey distilleries, tourist traffic and various local general traffic

 

 

I don’t believe the Southwold had “a good range” of ANYTHING, being something of a standing joke even in its operating days

 

 

Edited April 20, 2018 by rockershovel

[eastglosmog]

Glyn Valley Tramway was a general carrier, with quarry and slate traffic as well.  (Also a Baldwin, so you can use the new Bachmann product when it finally arrives!)  It was quite successful in its heyday.

North Wales Narrow Gauge and its successor the Welsh Highland were also common carriers, though traffic was rather sparse of any kind.

Edited April 20, 2018 by eastglosmog

[009 micro modeller]

Sorry, I couldn't remember much about the Southwold. Looks as though it was more a case of stock for the traffic they hoped to have.

[Mike Storey]

Lynton & Barnstaple is probably one you should look at more closely. Their range of wagon (and carriage) types was developed to cater for a wide spectrum of traffic, which only materialised over a relatively brief period.

 

The Corris, whilst primarily a slate railway with an unusually decent passenger service, did try for a while to become a common carrier (under their longest serving, energetic GM), but too little, too late.

[Jeff Smith]

Glyn Valley Tramway was a general carrier, with quarry and slate traffic as well.  (Also a Baldwin, so you can use the new Bachmann product when it finally arrives!)  It was quite successful in its heyday.

North Wales Narrow Gauge and its successor the Welsh Highland were also common carriers, though traffic was rather sparse of any kind.

The GVT had a lot of slate and ore wagons but only two goods vans and two brake vans. Mixed trains were frequently run which can involve some interesting shunting at both the terminii. Both terminii need turntables as the tram locos were supposed to run cab first, but they were too short for the Baldwin! The GVT also had exchange sidings with the GWR at Chirk and a canal basin.

[rockershovel]

The Ashover Light Railway was primarily a mineral line, but operated a passenger service using four bogie coaches, of which three survive.

[eastglosmog]

The GVT had a lot of slate and ore wagons but only two goods vans and two brake vans. Mixed trains were frequently run which can involve some interesting shunting at both the terminii. Both terminii need turntables as the tram locos were supposed to run cab first, but they were too short for the Baldwin! The GVT also had exchange sidings with the GWR at Chirk and a canal basin.

They also had eight bolster wagons, six tar wagons, a number of 2 plank wagons for general merchandise (apparently especially beer barrels), plus 20 private owner granite wagons.  They had plenty of slate and granite wagons of their own, but don't think they had any ore wagons.  (Info from "The Glyn Valley Tramway" W.J. Milner, OPC 1984)

[Kris]

The Redruth and Camborne tramway had a good mix of passenger and mineral, but did carry some other limited freight. 

[31A]

I don't think anybody's mentioned the Isle of Man Railway, but I believe they did.

[Andy Kirkham]

The Ashover Light Railway was primarily a mineral line, but operated a passenger service using four bogie coaches, of which three survive.

The Ashover also acquired the Leek & Manifold's transporter wagons but they were found to be insufficiently stable after regauging from 2ft 6in to 2ft and never entered servce.

[brack]

Even non common carrier systems often carried a range of goods and passengers.

The ashington nightsoil tramway carried coal one way and nightsoil (and refuse) the other way.

The royal arsenal railways carried passengers, fuel, shells, bombs, munitions, raw materials for productions, metal, supplies and whatever else.

[009 micro modeller]

Even non common carrier systems often carried a range of goods and passengers.

The ashington nightsoil tramway carried coal one way and nightsoil (and refuse) the other way.

The royal arsenal railways carried passengers, fuel, shells, bombs, munitions, raw materials for productions, metal, supplies and whatever else.

Even today the Bord na Mona railways in Ireland have a very organised approach to personnel transport with railcars built in their workshops. However I'm reminded of a picture I saw in a book of a Bedford van body on skip chassis being hauled along a Cumbrian peat railway by a Simplex. Some industrial railways also served more complex industries which would have involved a more diverse range of traffic.

[Coryton]

I don't think anybody's mentioned the Isle of Man Railway, but I believe they did.

 

Indeed. 

 

Although built to narrow gauge, It (still) very much has the feel of a standard gauge railway, with "proper" station buildings, the remains of goods yards etc. Of course there is no freight any more.

 

A very different experience to - say - the Ffestiniog, though it can't compete scenery-wise.

[Andy Hayter]

The answer to the original question will depend on why the line was originally built.

 

Lines built to carry a specific (usually mineral) cargo  to a transhipment point (port or railhead with standard gauge lines, would be less likely to carry significant quantities of other cargoes except those directly related to the prime cargo - so explosives, wooden beams and props for example.

 

Lines built to provide rail access between different communities would be much more likely to carry general cargo.

 

Here in France a 1880s edit required that all sub-prefectures (any administrative town) should be rail connected so that troops could be rapidly assembled where required following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war.  Those towns of significance were already linked on the standard gauge network.  The remainder needed to be connected by secondary lines, and more often than not this would be narrow gauge to keep costs to a minimum.  General cargoes were therefore common.  The number of mineral lines was in comparison very small - but not zero, for example St. Geroges - La Mure but even this line was expected to go much further (to Gap) and provide general access between communities.

[009 micro modeller]

Even some industrial railways would have a lot of different freight types. Consider a brickworks: sand and clay would be needed to make the actual bricks, most likely carried in V-skips. Then coal would be needed for the kilns, possibly in more skips but could be wooden open wagons. Internally a brick dryer car would actually take the bricks into the kilns and then they could be packed onto pallets and taken away in flat or open wagons, assuming a longer distance to customers or a standard gauge railhead.

Edited April 22, 2018 by 009 micro modeller

[Nearholmer]

009 Micro

 

Are you sure about that?

 

BnM did have a lot of railcars, many by Wickham of Ware, and before and in parallel had a selection of weird and wonderful coaches, some wooden, some the passenger parts of CIE railbuses, some former road buses, but I’ve not seen any of that lot in use for staff transport during any of the many visits to their lines that I’ve made in the past twenty years.

 

There was/is a coach on one system that was used for tours by EU officials for a short period, and there may still be one or two kept for enthusiast visits, but that’s about it.

 

Mess and tool vans on track-laying trains are common, but that is a different case, I think.

 

Staff working in outlying bogs usually drive to work, and park at the ‘tea station’ on the relevant bog, where all the tractors from the area, the local track train and the local fuel train are usually stabled.

 

If you do know of a railcar still in use, I’d be grateful for information, because I’d like to go and have a look next time I go over.

 

Kevin

 

Photo below isn’t mine, but what I think it shows is an ex-West Clare railcar passenger portion, fitted onto a bogie, being hauled by a Deutz loco, on the Derrygreenagh system.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Nearholmer