Freight-only branches

[MartinWales]

4 hours ago, eastglosmog said:

If you want to use 00 gauge in a more accurate setting, you could try the 4ft Redruth and Chasewater Railway.

Or the 4ft Padarn Railway!

[south_tyne]

6 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Sorry, South Tyne, I had not seen your earlier post.

 

Forcett Railway abutments and engine shed ...

 

 

 

 

 

No need to apologise at all! Great minds think alike  Thanks for posting those photos, they're very useful. 

 

I have often doodled ideas for a third freight-only branch running south from the Darlington to Barnard Castle line, in the style of those two. Similarly to my scheme for an alternative route further north running via Staindrop, Summerhouses, Ingleton etc. Highly unlikely, but it is good to dream! 

[Kris]

There was a freight only line into Truro. The harbour branch at Hayle was also interesting. There were also many many other freight only china clay branches around Cornwall.

[Mike Storey]

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The entire Canterbury and Whitstable Railway.

 

Built as a passenger and freight railway Kevin. The world's first season ticket was issued on the Crab & Winkle. Only ran as freight only for its last 20 years, and then not much at all, apart from WW2. But I like the idea. There were a few layouts I saw modelled on one end or the other in the 1960's, but I have seen none since!

[Nearholmer]

Doh!

 

I knew that, but forgot in my excitement at the idea of a layout incorporating all the salient features.

[johnarcher]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Doh!

 

I knew that, but forgot in my excitement at the idea of a layout incorporating all the salient features.

It's an attractive idea anyway, as I went to university in Canterbury a long time ago, and still have fond (if rather blurred) memories of the place.

[stivesnick]

John

 

You haven't mentioned a time period that you would want to model 

 

As noted above, there were many former passenger lines where passenger service ended before WWII but were kept open for freight until the Beeching period of the 1960s.

 

The Ian Allen Rail Atlas of "The Beeching Era" shows these lines and there are many of them. 

 

In more modern times from about 1980s, the various editions of the Baker Rail Atlas show freight only lines and associated freight terminals - the lines that would be suitable for a modest sized model based on today's railway would be those serving nuclear power plants or MOD facilities where short trains are used. 

 

Nick

[Wickham Green]

22 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

There were several on the Southern, ............

I don't think the 'twig' to Tovil has been mentioned : Intended as the start of a through line from Maidstone to Ashford that never happened - the bridge over the Medway would make a nice feature on a layout.

[south_tyne]

How about the Stanhope and Tyne route. A wonderful lonely, windswept route across the roof of the North Pennines. There were some wonderfully atmospheric locations such as Waskerley and Burnhill in the middle of nowehere but which continued to handle a wide variety of freight into the late 1960s. 

 

More to read here, and there are lots of great photos available in the website too:  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/stanhope_and_tyne/

[locoholic]

Forest of Dean had a few. Sling branch, Mineral loop, FoD Central Rly, Steam Mills, etc etc.

[doilum]

Castleford Whitwood branch. Ran about half a mile to serve the potteries, a malt kiln and large acid plant. There was also a general goods shed and possibly a coal merchant. J71 or 72 provided motive power, dictated by the constraints of the East branch which served a gas works, bottle factory, tar distillers and a chemical plant.  Both survived until at least the late 1960s by when, 04 diesels were used.

[caradoc]

The Paisley & Barrhead District Railway was built as a passenger-carrying line but apart from the odd railtour was freight only throughout its existence ! Jack Kernahan's book of the same name (Lightmoor Press, 2016) is an excellent reference.

[Nearholmer]

Wickham,

 

a model of Tovil could usefully be expanded to include the never built Headcorn & Maidstone Jct LR, thereby allowing the inclusion of the HQ of The Loose Women’s Institute, of which the mother in law of a late friend of mine was proudly a member.

 

Kevin

[Ian Kirk]

The grandly named East Fife Central Railway. Better known perhaps as the Lochty Branch was freight only throughout it's life if you exclude the short "A4" period after closure when John Cameron re laid the last bit and ran Union of South Africa on it.

The Kirkcaldy harbour branch which when proposed/built had grandiose aims of carrying passengers and connection with a Forth ferry. So steep that cable haulage was originally used I doubt if carrying passengers was ever realistic. Even in less safety conscious times. In it's adhesion worked freight only times it had two runaways that ended up in the sea.

Both of these have had threads on here in the past , photos etc.

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

[NS Peak]

On 17/04/2019 at 17:00, Classsix T said:

Kevin has mentioned East Anglia and my go-to for operational prototype has been the Hadleigh branch. Pax was binned off in 1930frozentodeath but clung on as a rural byway 'til around 1965.

 

The now Mid Norfolk Railway has a similar history, lasting as a freight branch into the Eighties. 

 

C6T 

 

In East Anglia one of the few Freight only lines would be The Snape branch.  It only carried freight through its life supplying the  Maltings  and surrounding agricultural area.  It had a regular pick up goods throughout its lifetime until closure and would have a combination of vans an mineral wagons being serving a very basic track layout which was basically a run around loop before disappearing into Snape Maltings itself.

 

otherwise the only other truly only freight lines I can think off in East Anglia would be the dock branches in Lowerstoft, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich (including an extensive goods station) and Kings Lyn.  Also Haverhill Had a separate good station at the other side of the town but this was originally built for passengers when the railway first reached the town.

 

Stephen 

 

[Nearholmer]

Some more East Anglian maybes, confining things to standard gauge, and reasonably general, rather than "one industry" traffic:

 

- Stoke Ferry Branch, which was goods only for a large part of its history;

- Wissington Railway, an entire goods only railway about thirty miles long, although it wasn't owned by a main-line company;

- Benwick Goods Railway, which fits the OP's needs perfectly, being a main-line company owned, general goods branch. It has been used as the basis for a layout previously, a good one having been featured in RM a few years back;

- Debenham Branch of MSLR, which I get confused about ........ I don't think it ever had a passenger service, and I think, but am not sure, that it did have a goods service;

- Burwell Tramway, which was mainly one industry, but I think served general traffic too;

- Scole Estates Railway, possibly a bit early, in that it closed by 1890.

Edited April 19, 2019 by Nearholmer

[south_tyne]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Wissington Railway, an entire goods only railway about thirty miles long, although it wasn't owned by a main-line company;

 

Wonderful prototype though, which survived into the 1970s. May suit the OP through a combination of industrial locos and BR rolling stock. It's such an interesting little railway. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

On 17/04/2019 at 15:19, eastglosmog said:

If you want to use 00 gauge in a more accurate setting, you could try the 4ft Redruth and Chasewater Railway.

 

On 17/04/2019 at 20:02, MartinWales said:

Or the 4ft Padarn Railway!

 

Pedantically, they are both too narrow for OO gauge.

The Saundersfoot Railway is a tad closer.

 

Mike.

[Satan's Goldfish]

A much more modern East Anglian example of a very short 'general' freight branch at Eccles Road. I believe it was originally built for loading grain (speedlink era?), more recent activities have seen it used for delivering stone, but the end location amongst big industrial warehouses could see it used for many things. Very simple compact layout too of just 2 sidings at the end, single line running through fields, and 2 sidings/loop at the junction with the breckland line (good thick backdrop of trees between the exchange loop and the mainline too!) so ideal for a micro layout as there's not much track to squeeze in. Whole self contained little freight branch there if you have an L shaped room, gradient up to the warehouses is fairly steep.

 

 

 

 

 

Less obstructive view from the inside of the curve.

 

It's not too clear on the image but the 2 sidings pass all the way through the longer part of the smaller building next to FedEx, across the hardstanding, and the buffer stops are on the grass just in front of the trees at the top left. Just the back end of those 2 sidings as they leave the building (scenic break) to the buffer stops in front of trees without any on scene point work could make a nice display model with contrasting scenic elements. 

 

Many more useful pics and info thanks to Beast here:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100425-traffic-returns-to-eccles-road-norfolk/&tab=comments#comment-1930437

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Satan's Goldfish

[keefer]

20 hours ago, Ian Kirk said:

The grandly named East Fife Central Railway. Better known perhaps as the Lochty Branch was freight only throughout it's life if you exclude the short "A4" period after closure when John Cameron re laid the last bit and ran Union of South Africa on it.

The Kirkcaldy harbour branch which when proposed/built had grandiose aims of carrying passengers and connection with a Forth ferry. So steep that cable haulage was originally used I doubt if carrying passengers was ever realistic. Even in less safety conscious times. In it's adhesion worked freight only times it had two runaways that ended up in the sea.

Both of these have had threads on here in the past , photos etc.

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

Or an even quieter branch, the Kirkcaldy District Railway between Invertiel and Cowdenbeath, 1896-1963. Only ever a goods line, intended mainly for coal trains to Burntisland docks.

https://www.railscot.co.uk/Kirkcaldy_District_Railway/index.php

 

A brief summary of the lines conception from another RMWeb thread: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61849-kirkcaldy-area/&do=findComment&comment=794095

 

 

The only station on the single-line branch was Auchtertool Goods (1914 OS 25-inch map):

https://maps.nls.uk/view/82881846#zoom=4&lat=1805&lon=10268&layers=BT

[Fat Controller]

One system that I haven't seen mentioned yet is the Nevill's Dock and Railway in Llanelly (as it was then) Carmarthen hire. The line was built by a consortium of local businesses, to run between the docks and various industrial sites. The Nevills of the title owned a copperworks, other parties owned at least one colliery, several iron and steel plants, tinplate mills,and a glassworks. The system started as the Carmarthenshire Tramroad, which ran between Cille Colliery, Furnace (next to my old primary school) to the docks. This was in 1802. When the GWR mainline to Neyland was built, in the 1840s, the tramroad crossed it on the flat at Old Castle crossing; this flat crossing survived into the 1960s. South of the main line, there was some reserved track, but most was street running. In later years, much of the system was abandoned (though track remained in situ), but it still served to transport products from the likes of Nevill Druce (copper), Salter's Spring Balances, and Batchelor Robinson (tinned scrap in, de-tinned scrap and recovered tin out. The latter were the last company to still be served by rail, via a connection east of Llanelli station with traffic lasting into the 1980s.

[doilum]

Given that its passenger service lasted such a short time, consider the East and West Yorkshire Union Railway. A well worthwhile Google exercise if you haven't heard of it. Miles of track serving quarries, tar works and coal mines in the heart of the Rhubarb Triangle. Large Manning Wardle tanks pre 1939 and J 52 & 94 post war. Oh, and a station called Robin Hood.

[Enterprisingwestern]

13 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

One system that I haven't seen mentioned yet is the Nevill's Dock and Railway in Llanelly (as it was then) Carmarthen hire. The line was built by a consortium of local businesses, to run between the docks and various industrial sites. The Nevills of the title owned a copperworks, other parties owned at least one colliery, several iron and steel plants, tinplate mills,and a glassworks. The system started as the Carmarthenshire Tramroad, which ran between Cille Colliery, Furnace (next to my old primary school) to the docks. This was in 1802. When the GWR mainline to Neyland was built, in the 1840s, the tramroad crossed it on the flat at Old Castle crossing; this flat crossing survived into the 1960s. South of the main line, there was some reserved track, but most was street running. In later years, much of the system was abandoned (though track remained in situ), but it still served to transport products from the likes of Nevill Druce (copper), Salter's Spring Balances, and Batchelor Robinson (tinned scrap in, de-tinned scrap and recovered tin out. The latter were the last company to still be served by rail, via a connection east of Llanelli station with traffic lasting into the 1980s.

 

In a similar vein, the Colwick Estates Railway on the outskirts of Nottingham.

 

Mike.

[corneliuslundie]

There is a good book on the railways of Llanelly which includes the Nevill's Dock line. In fact there are several likely branches in the area both in the docks and to the north of the main line.

Also in that neck of the woods the Gwendraeth Valleys Railway.

And in Cardiff there was a freight only line eventually owned by Cardiff Corporation down in the docks.

In the valleys quite a few lines extended beyond the last passenger station to serve mines or other industries, while there were extensive systems owned by the colliery companies such as Norths.

And at the northern rim of the coalfield there were some industrial railways to quarries etc.

Jonathan

[Mike Storey]

21 hours ago, NS Peak said:

 

In East Anglia one of the few Freight only lines would be The Snape branch.  It only carried freight through its life supplying the  Maltings  and surrounding agricultural area.  It had a regular pick up goods throughout its lifetime until closure and would have a combination of vans an mineral wagons being serving a very basic track layout which was basically a run around loop before disappearing into Snape Maltings itself.

 

otherwise the only other truly only freight lines I can think off in East Anglia would be the dock branches in Lowerstoft, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich (including an extensive goods station) and Kings Lyn.  Also Haverhill Had a separate good station at the other side of the town but this was originally built for passengers when the railway first reached the town.

 

Stephen 

 

 

But no. The Kirkley Goods branch in Lowestoft (Lowestoft South to give it its correct terminology of the time - I was born about 500 yards from it) was not exactly bucolic at its business end, but served a surprisingly wide variety of customers. It lasted as long as it did, largely due to a manufacturer of double glazing units, bizarrely. Whilst track plans are available from the GE Society, there are few photos available (and I have searched for a long time), but this gives a flavour:

 

https://www.eastanglianrailwayarchive.co.uk/Railways/Ipswich-to-Lowestoft/i-W3kLtQt

 

Once into Kirkley, it was much industrial and separated into several spurs for individual companies.