40 years of 'Rocks by Rail' and Updates

[ManofKent]

Great thread on a railway I knew nothing about - thank you.

[Ian Smeeton]

In advance of the re-opening on 1st August, here is a quick peek at the 'Corby Ironstone 40 + 1' Anniversary Exhibition

 

ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION OF THE END OF IRONSTONE MINING IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

 

Forty one years ago nearly 100 years of opencast mining for ironstone came to an end when the pits that served the giant steelworks at Corby ceased extraction. The last working day was 3rd January 1980 when three pits at Shotley, Harringworth Lodge and Great Oakley loaded and dispatched their final loads to the steelworks.

 

On that day Driver S Spencer and roperunner C Crane took diesel loco No.52 to Shotley to collect 20 loaded wagons conveying some 504 tons of ironstone bound for the steelworks. 

 

With their work done the giant quarry draglines at the ironstone quarries seemed to dip their heads as their long booms were lowered onto a platform of heaped overburden to take the weight off the supporting wire ropes and the access doors and windows were boarded up.

 

An exhibition to mark the history of the ironstone quarries in the Corby area will open on 1st August 2021 at Rocks by Rail – the Living Ironstone Museum based near Cottesmore, Rutland and run until the end of October 2021. Further details about the volunteer run museum and its 2021 events can be found on www.rocks-by-rail.org

 

 

In happier times BSC loco 52 brings in a load of ironstone from the ironstone quarries

Class 14 No 9537, now preserved on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

 

 

 Ruston Bucyrus 100RB loading rail wagons at Earlstrees Ironstone Quarry

 

 

Upon quarry closure a W1400 walking dragline with its jib lowered is put into store near Corby to await an uncertain future.

 

Big bu66ers, arent they?

 

Regards

Ian

 

Edited July 23, 2021 by Ian Smeeton
Loco info

[Ian Smeeton]

The Curator has been at it again!

 

August 15th is VJ Day, the 76th anniversary of the final end of the Second World War.

 

While there are other major Remembrance Ceremonies going on, we have chosen to remember the huge effort which went into satisfying the demands of a country at war.

 

RUTLAND’s IRONSTONE QUARRIES AT WAR REMEMBERED 

Sunday August 15th sees the anniversary of the end of the Second World War Two. The sparsely populated pleasant rolling agricultural countryside of Rutland did however play host to a number of ironstone quarries which made a vital contribution to the war effort in increasing production of ironstone – a vital raw material with which to make iron and steel and much needed munitions and armaments.

Prior to the outbreak of war in 1939 Rutland had four operational ironstone quarries located at Pilton (Staveley Coal and Iron Co), Cottesmore (Appleby Frodingham), Burley (Dorman Long & Co)  and Market Overton (Stanton Ironworks Co) producing a total of 609,000 tons of ironstone for the distant ironworks at Chesterfield, Scunthorpe, Middlesborough and Stanton -by- Dale near Nottingham operated by their respective owners . At that time these workings provided some 171 local jobs in a predominantly rural agricultural economy.

The outbreak of war provided an immediate incentive to increase output throughout the East Midlands ironstone field as imports of iron ore declined sharply due to shipping losses as a result of German U boat attacks and the occupation by Germany of some sources of foreign ore. Consequently during World War Two the UK steel making industry was largely dependent on home ironstone production and significant investment was made to increase production capacity to meet wartime needs.

Investments in quarry expansion saw ironstone production rise and in just two years ironstone production in the County effectively doubled in support of the war effort. In 1942 new ironstone workings commenced on a relatively small scale at Barrowden with lorries conveying the output to Seaton Station where it was loaded onto trains for the journey to the iron and steel works elsewhere.  Elsewhere new quarry faces were opened up at Cottesmore South and Wing.

 Wing , together with Ancaster and Scotts Pit quarries, provided three active quarry faces at Pilton – an arrangement that lasted during the war years.

Increased ironstone production meant an increase in quarry train movements and to enable this to be accomplished a number of additional steam locomotives were drafted into the County. Pilton Quarries received a brand new locomotive from makers W.G. Bagnal named STAVELEY in 1941, which was provided through the government’s Ministry of Supply. Second hand locomotives also arrived to increase and maintain production capacity and September 1940 saw the arrival of steam loco JUPITER at Burley Ironstone quarry having been transferred from the Company’s Cleveland plant.

Additional quarry working areas also required additional quarry machines to augment the work of the steam powered excavators widely used at the time. Both Pilton and  Cottesmore Mines received  new Ruston Bucyrus draglines and face shovels to remove overburden and dig ironstone to load the trains. 

During the period 1939 to 1945 Rutland’s ironstone quarries produced some 6.4 million tons of ironstone in support of the war industries of Great Britain.

To mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War and recognise Rutland’s quarries contribution to victory the Museum is to stage a display alongside a renamed Bagnal wartime built saddletank during the museum’s steam open day on Sunday 15th August. Normal admission prices apply.

 

 

Photo 1.  The manufacturer’s photograph of Bagnall built saddletank STAVELEY supplied to Pilton Ironstone Quarry in February 1941.

 

 

Photo 2  Photo of Hawthorn Leslie built JUPITER taken at Burley Quarry. Courtesy          I Peters

 

 

Photo 3 Diesel dragline stripping overburden at an ironstone quarry

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

[Ian Smeeton]

STAMFORD TO STAY IN RUTLAND

Fifty years of ironstone quarrying at Pilton in rural Rutland finally came to an end on 7th June 1969 when quarry steam locomotive STAMFORD worked its last train-load of ironstone at Pilton Ironstone Quarry.

 

 

Loco STAMFORD at work in the ironstone quarry in Rutland  

 

Upon closure, STAMFORD assisted with track lifting on the quarry railway as required until October of that year when it was secured for preservation and taken to the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex.

 

In 2010 the locomotive returned to Rutland on loan to Rocks by Rail – the Living Ironstone Museum situated near Cottesmore. 

 

Last year the Bluebell Railway agreed to sell this historic locomotive and the Museum launched a campaign to raise funds to retain STAMFORD within Rutland and to conserve it as a museum exhibit on public display.

 

Built by the Avonside Engine Company in Bristol in 1927 and delivered direct to Pilton,  STAMFORD is one of only a very few steam locomotives which worked in Rutland’s ironstone quarries to survive into preservation.

 

The museum is now delighted to announce that fund raising to acquire the locomotive has been successful and that STAMFORD will now be staying in Rutland, where it spent all its working life. 

 

The Museum Trustees would like to thank Cottesmore Parish Council, Museum Members and the public for making donations to secure the loco’s purchase.

 

 

Museum Trustee David Atkinson hands the final installment to Paul Russell, Locomotive Engineering Director of the Bluebell Railway, to secure the loco’s purchase on 27th November 2021 at Sheffield Park Station, Bluebell Railway  

 

Whilst the purchase price has been raised, the Appeal Fund will remain open and the museum would be pleased to receive any other donations, large or small, which would enable us to ensure that this historic 94-year-old steam locomotive can be repaired and conserved.

 

The Museum would welcome any offers of help and donations in the furtherance of this project. Any donations by way of cheques should marked on rear “Stamford Loco Appeal” and be made out to Rutland Railway Museum and sent to:

Mr A Salmon, RbR Treasurer, 4 Main Street, Stanford on Soar, Loughborough  LE12 5PY

 

  Tel: 01572 868415  

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Ian Smeeton]

IRONSTONE QUARRY RAILWAY MEMORIES

 

Recently a railway enthusiast contacted the Museum and made arrangements to donate some books and some negatives and prints to be placed in our archive.

 

We are also very grateful to him for transferring  copyright of his photographs , taken in 1967, to the museum so we may share the images with others.

 

A selection of images are reproduced below showing the rural nature of these long gone scenes in the East Midlands orefield. 

 

 

Bagnal 0-6-0st LODDINGTON No.2 and train seen at Cranford

 

 

Andrew Barclay BUCKMINSTER traverses a farm crossing

 

 

 

Iron ore tippler wagons and combine harvester at Storefield

 

 

STAMFORD and loaded train at Pilton, Rutland

 

 

Andrew Barclay No.11 and train en route to the exchange sidings  at Storefield

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Bucoops]

5 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

IRONSTONE QUARRY RAILWAY MEMORIES

 

Recently a railway enthusiast contacted the Museum and made arrangements to donate some books and some negatives and prints to be placed in our archive.

 

We are also very grateful to him for transferring  copyright of his photographs , taken in 1967, to the museum so we may share the images with others.

 

A selection of images are reproduced below showing the rural nature of these long gone scenes in the East Midlands orefield. 

 

 

Bagnal 0-6-0st LODDINGTON No.2 and train seen at Cranford

 

 

Andrew Barclay BUCKMINSTER traverses a farm crossing

 

 

 

Iron ore tippler wagons and combine harvester at Storefield

 

 

STAMFORD and loaded train at Pilton, Rutland

 

 

Andrew Barclay No.11 and train en route to the exchange sidings  at Storefield

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

Wonderful!

 

[Ian Smeeton]

BURLEY IRONSTONE QUARRY, RUTLAND REMEMBERED 

1919 – 1962

In July sixty years ago the quarrying of ironstone by opencast methods came to an end at Burley Ironstone Quarry situated in rural Rutland.

Construction work for the new ironstone quarry at Burley was commenced in 1919 by Bell Brothers Ltd who were the owners of an ironworks at Port Clarence on Teeside. They sought to secure further supplies of ironstone from the Midlands as their local supply showed signs of running out. Construction work started with a tramway railway system using two different gauges. The Ironstone deposits lay at the top of the escarpment and a standard gauge line was first built along the foot of the hill. 

On top of the hill 3ft gauge narrow gauge lines were laid to the quarry and the narrow gauge wagons of ironstone were lowered down the escarpment on a rope worked incline (the last to be built in the ironstone industry) to a tipping dock in a similar way to that adopted at Cottesmore Mines, located a short distance away to the north.  

The quarrying of ironstone began in 1920. The ironstone was under very shallow cover (4-5ft) whilst the ironstone seam measured approximately 6ft in depth. Three small narrow gauge steam locos were employed to move the V shaped side tipping wagons between the quarry face and the top of the incline. 

On the standard gauge one loco was used to transfer the full standard gauge wagons to Cottesmore Gorse Exchange Sidings (adjacent to the RbR Museum Site). 

In 1923 Bell Brothers Ltd operations they were taken over by Dorman Long & Co Ltd who decided in 1926 to replace the narrow gauge quarry railway with an extended standard gauge line. The narrow gauge incline was replaced by a rising curved standard gauge line. The narrow gauge bridge under the Cottesmore – Oakham road was replaced by a larger structure whilst a new substantial brick built two road loco shed to maintain four locomotives was built near wagon sidings serving the extensive calcine clamps. In 1930 an extension to the shed was built with the rear part of the enlarged building used for steam loco repair work. An earlier narrow gauge loco shed was used for wagon repairs in maintaining the fleet of wooden bodied side tipping wagons then in use. 

During WW2 the wooden quarry side tipping wagons were replaced by a fleet of 3 skip steel wagons for transferring the ironstone to the three calcine clamps where it was off loaded by crane. Once the ironstone had been “burnt” or calcined it was re-loaded into steel hopper wagons for the trip to the distant ironworks over the mainline railway. 

In 1930 the thin overburden was removed by hand with a steam powered face shovel to load the rail wagons with ironstone. The first diesel powered quarry machine arrived in 1920 with a larger diesel powered 43RB machine arriving new in 1954. To deal with the increasing depth of overburden an electrically powered Ruston Bucyrus 5W walking dragline was transferred from the adjacent Exton Park Ironstone Quarry in 1956.  From 1957 only raw ironstone was dispatched from the quarry.

Burley was Dorman Long Ltd’s only Midlands ironstone quarry and most of the small steam locomotives used at the quarry were transferred from the Companies other works. One exception however was steam locomotive PATRICK which was supplied new to the quarry in 1926 from the builders Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. Ltd of Kilmarnock, Scotland. 

The advent of WW2 saw a surge in demand for ironstone for the steel and munitions industries and another steam locomotive JUPITER was transferred to the quarry to join PATRICK, BERYL, EUNICE and ANGELA in helping to move the increase in wartime ironstone production. Two more Andrew Barclay saddletanks were transferred to the quarry in the early 1950s from the company’s other works. From the 1950’s four small steam locomotives were required in service each day running on various sections of the quarry railway system. From 1957 locomotive usage was reduced to 3 per day.

In 1957 the Burley quarries came under the control of the United Steel Companies Ore Mining Branch who operated the adjacent large Exton Park Ironstone Quarry. In 1959 the Burley quarries railway was joined to the Exton Park mineral railway but mineral movements continued much as before.  Exton Park made available one of its larger and more powerful YEC Type 1 steam locos to take the wagons from Burley Quarry to the exchange sidings. Further integration of the two quarry systems followed and in 1961 the remaining Burley locomotives were re-numbered by USC. Any locos requiring heavy overhaul were treated at Exton Park whilst light repairs were still undertaken in Burley shed.

The production of ironstone at Burley ceased in July 1962 and the small locos were cut up for scrap either on-site or at USC Colsterworth workshops. Burley loco shed was then used to repaint the USC Exton Park locos in their new maroon livery until the building was sold into agricultural use in 1963. 

The former quarry area was restored to agricultural use and the mineral railway tracks lifted and also restored to agriculture.

To mark the anniversary of quarry closure a small exhibition on Burley Ironstone Quarry will added to information on display at the Museum from the public Open Day to be held on Sunday 31st July 2022.

RbR

 

 

Steam loco PATRICK was purchased new in 1926 to work the ironstone quarry railway at Burley  

 

 

Steam loco PATRICK repositions JUPITER on the track adjacent to Andrew Barclay built No.33 at Burley loco shed. Photo courtesy I Peters

 

 

Worksplate from the Ruston Bucyrus 5W walking dragline used at both Burley and Exton Park Ironstone Quarries

 

Regards

 

Ian 

[Ian Smeeton]

IRONSTONE QUARRY RAILWAY MEMORIES

 

Thanks to the generosity of a railway enthusiast who donated a quantity of photographic negatives taken in 1967 and their copyright to the volunteer run museum we are able to share some further images of ironstone quarry railways from the past.

 

 

Hunslet 50550 class 0-6-0st shunting at Harlaxton Ironstone quarry, near Grantham

 

 

Quarry loco BUCKMINSTER brings a train of empty wagons out of the sidings at Stainby Glebe on the Buckminster Ironstone quarry system

 

 

Avonside 0-6-0st CRANFORD seen crossing the bridge at Cranford Ironstone quarry 

 

 

A Yorkshire Engine Co Janus class diesel loco pictured hauling its empty wagon train on the Exton Park Ironstone Quarry system in Rutland

 

 

 

S&L 50 Kitson built CARMARTHEN seen on a permanent way works train at Glendon Ironstone quarry

 

OPen day tomorrow.

Nothing running, but should be a nice day for a good look round.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Ian Smeeton]

MORE IRONSTONE QUARRY RAILWAY MEMORIES

 

Thanks to the generosity of a railway enthusiast who donated a quantity of photographic negatives taken in 1967 and their copyright to the volunteer run museum we are able to share four more further images of ironstone quarry railways from the past. The fifth image of the narrow gauge electric loco comes from the Harold King Collection.

 

Image 1.

Andrew Barclay 0-6-0st loco No.6 at Irchester Ironstone Quarry

 

Image2.

Andrew Barclay loco No.19 in the loop at Storefield Ironstone Quarry

 

Image 3.

Andrew Barclay loco BLISWORTH No.1 at Blisworth Ironstone Quarry loco shed 

 

Image 4.

Avonside built loco CRANFORD brings in a train of loaded wagons from the quarry at Cranford Ironstone Quarry

 

Image 5.

A narrow gauge electric loco leaves the tunnel to the underground workings at Thistleton ironstone Mine in South Lincolnshire. 

 

Regards

 

Ian

[tractionman]

Thanks for these, very evocative images--#3 in particular looks very modellable :-)

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[Ian Smeeton]

IRONSTONE QUARRY RAILWAY MEMORIES: QUARRY LOCOMOTIVE SHEDS

Privately owned ironstone  quarry railway systems needed to provide suitable accommodation to provide both shelter and maintenance facilities for the locomotives in daily use on the quarry railway system. Whilst some quarry owners provided modern brick-built structures the temporary nature of ironstone quarrying led some owners to favour pre-fabricated buildings (usually corrugated sheet sheets secured on a stout timber frame) which could be removed easily and moved elsewhere as needs required.

Earlier this year a railway enthusiast contacted the Museum to donate some negatives and prints to be placed in our archive. We are also very grateful to him for transferring copyright of his photographs, taken in 1967, to the museum so we may share the images with others. 

 

 

Image 1 

Single track brick steam locomotive shed built by James Pain Ltd to serve the early years of the ironstone quarries around Market Overton in Rutland.  The building was the operational base for four small Peckett built saddletank locomotives used in the quarries.

 

 

Image 2 

In 1955 Stewarts and Lloyds Ltd constructed a two-road loco shed at Market Overton Ironstone Quarry to provide facilities for larger steam locomotives then in use. It had two tracks beneath a pillarless roof of prestressed concrete and was known as Coopers shed after the name of the then manager.

 

Image 3

During the early years of World War Two the Stanton Ironworks Company opened up a new ironstone quarry at Harlaxton near Grantham. As part of the development a new brick built locomotive shed was constructed to service both the locos working on the quarry lines but also the steel line down from the shed sidings to the exchange sidings at Casthorpe on the Denton branchline. In this photo Hunslet built 50550 class loco GUNBY awaits its next turn of duty in front of the loco shed.

 

 

Image 4

The single track loco shed at Pilton Ironstone Quarry in Rutland. This building could accommodate three steam locomotives.

 

Image 5

The single track loco shed at Cranford Ironstone quarry in Northamptonshire. Both Pilton and Cranford were operated by the Staveley Coal and Iron Co Ltd.

[Ian Smeeton]

Rocks by Rail is situated on the site of the Exchange sidings between Exton Park and Burley Park quarries and the Br (ex Midland Railway) Cottesmore Iron Ore branch

 

RUTLANDS LAST IRONSTONE QUARRY REMEMBERED 

 

Fifty years ago this month the extraction of ironstone within Rutland passed into local industrial history when the last ironstone quarry at Exton Park, operated by the United Steel Companies Ore Mining Branch, ceased extraction. The first ironstone quarry workings in the county were opened up near the village of Cottesmore in 1882 when excavation was done by hand and horses pulled the small tubs carrying the iron ore along a narrow gauge quarry railway.

 

Further ironstone workings followed at Uppingham, Barrowden, Market Overton, Burley, Pilton and Luffenham. In 1950 the United Steel Company started work on a huge 1000 acre ironstone quarry at Exton Park. This large project was not universally welcomed locally but following a public hearing the government approved the scheme citing the importance in providing ironstone for the manufacture of iron and steel in the national interest. The ironstone reserves were sufficient for 80-90 years production with a production target of 10,000 tons per week.  

 

Exton Park Quarry was one of the largest ironstone quarries in the East Midlands and involved earth moving on a grand scale to reach the ironstone seam up to 100 feet below the surface. In order to move this volume of overburden a giant W1400 walking dragline named SUNDEW was introduced in 1957. Built by Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich it was, at that time, the largest excavator in the world.

 

 

 

To provide the quarry transport system to the nearest link with British Railways a long private railway was constructed from near Cottesmore forming a large circle around the workings. Steam and latterly diesel locomotives, built by the Yorkshire Engine Company,  hauled the empty wagons around the quarry lines to be filled up at the quarry face. The locomotives then returned the full wagons to the sidings near Cottesmore to be collected by a British Railways locomotive for the journey to Scunthorpe Steelworks in North Lincolnshire.

A Yorkshire Engine Company built Type 1 saddletank waits for its wagons to be loaded with ironstone by the Ruston Bucyrus 100RB face shovel at the quarry face.

 

 

The workings are likely to have still been active today had not modernisation plans at Scunthorpe be implemented which were based on the use of higher grade imported iron ore in the steelworks furnaces . The fate of home won ironstone production was thus sealed and the last train of ironstone left Exton Park Quarry in Rutland at 3pm on 29th May 1973 leaving the quarry workings to be restored to agricultural use.

 

 

A Yorkshire Engine Company built Austerity design saddletank heads its train of loaded wagons on the Exton Park quarry railway through rural Rutland.

 

 

The anniversary of the closure of Exton Park Quarry is being marked at Rocks by Rail – the Living Ironstone Museum near Cottesmore by a new exhibition which opened at Easter and lasts until mid-October 2023. The volunteer run museum Rocks by Rail based near Cottesmore specialises in the industrial heritage associated with ironstone quarries and their associated quarry railways. In addition to visitor train trips the museum is to display the only surviving diesel locomotive DE5 from Exton Park Ironstone Quarry together with a photograph display and scale model quarry diorama based on the quarry at Exton Park. A use of a scale model quarry diorama helps to convey the sheer scale of quarrying operations at Exton Park to museum visitors.

 

 

A Yorkshire Engine Company  Janus class diesel electric locomotive seen at work on the Exton Park quarry railway. 

 

 

The sole survivor of Exton Park’s quarry locomotives, YEC  Janus type diesel loco number DE5, under preparation for a repaint in the museum building at Cottesmore. 

 

During the scrapping of dragline SUNDEW in the mid 1980’s the museum was able to save one of the driving cabs. After a number of years of conservation work, originally supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, museum visitors now have the chance to sit in the drivers seat of this 1675 ton machine. The Sundew cab overlooks the museums re-created ironstone quarry where machine demonstration and wagon shunting takes place during specific quarry working open days during the year. 

 

The museum is open to the public from Easter to Mid-October on advertised opening days, 10am to 4pm and admission charges apply. For further information on where to find the museum see the museums website www.rocks-by-rail.org Tel 07974 171068 or 01572 868415.

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Ian Smeeton
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