Industrial railway passenger traffic

[cactustrain]

Hi guys,

 

I confess that I don't know much about industrial railways, so perhaps you could help me out...

 

Did any industrial railways run passenger trains? (for their workforce perhaps?).

 

If so, what type of carriages were used and what is available in 4mm scale?

 

What were passenger facilties like? I would presume that these would be pretty rudimentary.

 

 

Many thanks.

[Dava]

A number of colliery railways used cast-off main line passenger coaches, such as on Cannock Chase and the Marsden, Whitburn & South Shields Colliery Railway. 

 

A copy of 'Industrial steam album' or 'Industrial steam' from Ian Allan [s/h] show details, or look at Ruston's colliery railway. One South Wales colliery used converted vans. 4, 6 wheel or bogie compartment stock is ideal. Even beatup Triang clerestories.

 

Dava

[Alcanman]

Ashington Colliery in Northumberland ran passenger trains for miners well into the 1960s using ancient stock. Ashington had a system of several, connected collieries.

 

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36891793@N08/14259299364/

[Gibbo675]

Hi Cactustrain,

 

There are all sorts of images upon "The Transport Library" but finding the right ones is quite a trick.

 

Gibbo.

[Ruston]

Hi guys,

 

I confess that I don't know much about industrial railways, so perhaps you could help me out...

 

Did any industrial railways run passenger trains? (for their workforce perhaps?).

 

If so, what type of carriages were used and what is available in 4mm scale?

 

What were passenger facilties like? I would presume that these would be pretty rudimentary.

 

 

Many thanks.

Collieries, as mentioned already, ran passenger trains, often known as Paddy trains, but other industries may have run something similar. Military installations ran their own passenger services, as did large construction projects, such as the building of dams. Beckton gasworks had simple 4-wheel glazed coaches for the workers and a very small but very nice coach for directors and VIPs. Some industrial lines even ran public passenger services.

 

Obviously, if you're modelling a real location you'll want specific coaches to that location but if your railway is fictional then you need to consider the industry and the time period in which your railway is set.

 

Whilst some, such as at Beckton, would have  been built new for the industry, most colliery lines would have used cast-offs from the main line railways, so take whatever your railway's time period is and see what the main line railways were no longer using and would have sold off by then. Exactly how old your coaches are would depend on how well your company is doing, how they treat the workers etc.

[Metr0Land]

There's also things like the Annesley Dido - a workman's train on BR but with cast-offs

 

http://bigkris21.tripod.com/id8.html

[ian@stenochs]

The Dalmellington Iron Co ran trains for their miners consisting of very old 2nd hand coaches acquired from the North British. None of the locomotives were equipped with train braking gear and not all of the coaches had hand brakes! Some of the 6 wheelers had the centre wheels removed, seating was plain wooden benches and there was no heating or light! Better than walking to work, just!

 

Ian

[brack]

Some industrial lines even had royal trains.

 

 

In addition to a very intensive service for less distinguished guests.

Edited December 22, 2018 by brack

[doilum]

Try a Google image search for Waterloo colliery Leeds.

[Marshall5]

One example would be the County Mental Hospital Railway Whittingham which lasted until 1956.  Its purpose was to transport visitors and coal from the LYR/LNWR joint station at Grimsargh to the large Victorian mental asylum at Whittingam. Motive power and rolling stock varied over the years starting with a pair of Barclays (0-4-0ST & 0-4-2T) hauling ex LYR and NLR 4w carriages and ending up with an exLBSC D1 and a 4w 100HP Sentinel hauling converted LNWR brake vans.  Most of these are available as kits in 4mm scale. There is an excellent book about the line and a model based on it has featured on RMWeb.

Ray.

[pb_devon]

Devonport Dockyard had a half-hourly passenger service from one end to the other (it was a very long narrow site, with separate sections). Full details in the book Devonport Dockyard Railway by Paul Burkhalter, now sadly OOP but available from libraries. It was unique in having six classes of carriages, all former goods wagons.

[Nearholmer]

As mentioned already, lots of purely industrial railways that had been built without the need for legal powers operated passenger services for workers, but there were also some railways that, although 'industrial' in the sense that they served a single user for industrial purposes actually obtained powers by way of the Light Railways Act, typically to allow construction of a route across land that didn't, initially, belong to the industry concerned, and some of them operated a quasi-public passenger service. The Corringham was one, and many hospital railways (if health care is an "industry'), and I think the Davington, although I'm less sure about whether non-workers could use that.

 

Back to pure industrials ........ peat bog railways often had or have coaches for workers, because the worksites are typically exceedingly remote.

 

Although I don't think any worker's services are provided these days, Bord na Mona railways in Ireland used to have some fascinating coaches, including converted road buses, the trailer parts of public railway diesel railcars, and a variety of ramshackle locally-built wooden contraptions, as well as lots of 4W railcars. Nowadays in Ireland, workers typically drive their own cars to "tea stations" at the edges of the bogs, and 90% of their work is done from the cabs of tractors, rather than on the ground with hand tools, so the railways carry only the product, fuel for all the machinery, and constructional materials, including temporary track. There are plenty of crew vans for the guys engaged on construction work, but that is a bit different.

[Dava]

Here is the Bass Directors' Saloon in the Brewery Museum at Burton. Short wheelbase vehicle. Quite easily modelled, you could adapt a wagon chassis.

 

 

Here's 'Bauxite' in the NRM with a very old workers' train.

 

My favourite for recreating a workers' train you can travel in has to be the Tanfield Railway in Co. Durham with its collection of ex-main line 4 & 6 wheeled coaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stephenwolsten]

The Manchester Ship Canal Railway had a coach for distributing pay packets to staff.

[Pacific231G]

I think my favourite of these was the Liskeard and Caradon railway. It was built in 1844, originally as a horse and gravity line, to transport ore from tin and copper mines around Caradon Hill and stone quarries between there and the Cheesewring but it also had goods sheds for general goods.It also managed to  carry passengers (on excursion trains in goods wagons!) sort of legally by selling them tickets to convey their hats, umbrellas and packages but not themselves.

The associated Liskeard and Looe railway, acting more or less an extension of the Caradon to replace a canal (It was originally built by the canal's owners) and so get the minerals to ships at Looe, used the same legal ruse to carry passengers for a while but in 1879 it was brought up to passenger standards with proper stations and a northern terminus at Moorswater. Until the present link with the GWR (formerly Cornwall Railway) main line at Liskeard was built in 1901, these railways were isolated from the rest of the railway network. The Liskeard and Looe line is of course very much still with us but, despite having closed during WW1, most of the Liskeard and Caradon's upper route around Caradon Hill and across the moors is easy to walk with a lot of stone sleeper blocks to mark its route.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Hando]

Seeing the loco Bauxite reminded me of this line:
The Aberford Railway (it is possibly my favourite standard gauge line), was very interesting as it was an independent, private, estate railway and coal-hauling line which had a regular passenger service, with its own locos.
Here are some links:

https://www.lner.info/co/NER/aberford/aberford.php

http://www.parlington.co.uk/structures.lasso?process=3&subProcess=struct5_6

http://www.parlington.co.uk/structures.lasso?process=3&subProcess=struct5_4

http://www.parlington.co.uk/railway_h9.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberford_Railway

Edited January 3, 2019 by Narrowgaugebeginner

[Hando]

Here is also info about the Stocksbridge Railway:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksbridge_Railway

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksbridge_platform

 

http://www.stocksbridgehs.co.uk/collection/archive/railways/the-src-a-brief-history/srdo007_1816/

Edited December 28, 2018 by Narrowgaugebeginner

[Hando]

Several dam-building lines had passenger services for their navvies. For example: the Bamford and Howden Railway (Derwent Reservoirs Railway); Ewden Valley Railway

[HonestTom]

An interesting variation on the Beckton Gasworks Railway. As mentioned above, they had some 4-wheeled coaches for VIPs and Royalty (for whom the low-slung locomotives were fitted with extended chimneys to prevent smoke annoying the VIPs). But they also laid on some rather less luxurious coaches for their staff on such special occasions, which consisted of LNER open wagons with crude home-made canopies.

[Gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

I have found these photos;

 

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Miscellaneous/Industrial-railways-North/i-SmcV3Kw/A

 

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Miscellaneous/Industrial-railways-North/i-NQ7Gtbb/A

 

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Miscellaneous/Industrial-railways-North/i-nwkbgV7/A

 

Lots of interesting stuff on the slide show also

 

Gibbo.

[5050]

That last photo is very 'atmospheric' - literally!   How would you replicate that in model form?  A few jars of gloss varnish perhaps?

 

Some interesting stuff on the website although I noticed a couple of errors in the captions.

[Norton961]

I think the Manchester Ship canal loco and carriage is not quite a passenger train. I seem to remember that the carriage was for the payroll staff who would visit the various parts of the MSC system to deliver the pay packets.

 

David

[Marshall5]

The elderly MSC paycoach was replaced by a converted B.R. built (LNER design) Horsebox which is now preserved at the Ribble Steam Railway.  The MSC did actually operate a couple of carriages for the transport of stevedores around the system, both ex LMS corridor stock which lasted well into the 70's. 

Ray.

[ianblenk]

 

Hazelrigg. Not my photo, so I cannot credit it. I got it in a jumble sale pack. I think it is early  50's with two ex NER coaches, someone will know!

 

Cheers

 

IB

[Gordon A]

And a third coach behind them.

 

Gordon A