Horse shunting - not common even at grouping?

[ColHut]

G'day,

 

I had been looking for information on stables, and was intrigued by the many references to horses being used for shunting.

 

I was a bit surprised to see how few horses were retained for that purpose.

 

According to an article on the LMS Society web page, the number of shunting horse held by the Big 4 were as follows:

 

1923 - 1,130

1930 - 671

1946 - 238

 

This does not seem a great many for the number of goods yards and passenger stations at the time.

 

It is also dwarfed by the number of horses directly owned by the companies for cartage and delivery which totalled some 18,000 road horses and some 32,000 wagons. in 1923.

 

That article here:

 

http://www.lmssociety.org.uk/topics/horseTransport.shtml

 

Certainly shunting horses are not rare, but nearly as common as I expected.

 

regards

[IWCR]

The railways of course had locomotives available.  You may well find shunting horses were more common in industrial private sidings by this time.  Also I have seen references (pre-grouping) to railways hiring in horses on an occasional basis from local farmers, this may have been preferred in locations were traffic didnt warrant the railway keeping a horse full time itself, a coal merchant would likely use his own horses to move wagons.

World War 1 requisitioned a huge number of horses (and fodder) for the military, this would have resulted in a reduction in the reliance on horse power at this time with only essential animals retained. 

 

Pete

[Steven B]

Are those numbers just for full time shunting horses? Could the cartage horses be used for shunting if needed?

 

Steven B

[Re6/6]

As an aside, Totnes Quay line was horse operated from 'The Plains' down to Reeves' timber yard until maybe the late 50s when a Ferguson T20 tractor (I think) took over until closure of the line in the 60s.

 

I knew the horse shunter and subsequently the tractor shunter back in the 70s.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Re6/6

[ejstubbs]

2 hours ago, Steven B said:

Are those numbers just for full time shunting horses? Could the cartage horses be used for shunting if needed?

 

I'm sure I've read other folks on here describing how one horse would be used for both duties.  It would seem to make sense at a small station or goods yard where a horse would only be kept busy doing either job for half the time it was available to work.

[ColHut]

I would guess that the numbers are based on what account they were charged to.  I would also think that different harness was used for the different roles.  But it may well be that one horse might do both duties, although if there was not enough work to keep a road horse in full time use, the company might well have used an agent for the cartage.

 

regards

[F-UnitMad]

In the  Black Country & Birmingham there were Railway horses at some rail/canal interchanges into the 1950's at least, but they didn't shunt the wagons, which was done with capstans. They were for moving the narrowboats in & out of the basins. Many more horses were on cartage.

[TheQ]

Charlie  the last shunting horse,  retired 1967, appropriately enough from Newmarket 

[90rob]

...and there is a film of him here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ9DrerydpM&ab_channel=BritishPathé

 

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

There was another horse use on the northern stub of the Cromford and High Peak which was winding the rope on the Whaley Bridge incline. Horses were also used for haulage between the incline and Shallcross Goods. This lasted until 1952 when the line closed.

[Reorte]

20 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

There was another horse use on the northern stub of the Cromford and High Peak which was winding the rope on the Whaley Bridge incline. Horses were also used for haulage between the incline and Shallcross Goods. This lasted until 1952 when the line closed.

Clutching at straws for relevance, but the closest current rail-related thing to that is the new bridge being assembled in the car park next to the bottom of the incline (it might've been moved out and in to place by now, the old one had been taken out when I went past on Saturday).

[JeremyC]

I believe that shunting horses were, at least in Scotland, sometimes referred to as the 'hairy pilot'.

[TheSignalEngineer]

10 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Clutching at straws for relevance, but the closest current rail-related thing to that is the new bridge being assembled in the car park next to the bottom of the incline (it might've been moved out and in to place by now, the old one had been taken out when I went past on Saturday).

Was due to be put in over the weekend. I believe trains were running again today.

[micknich2003]

Hull & Barnsley Rly Shunting horse at Hull Sculcoates.

[F-UnitMad]

I like the designation - "0-2-2-0"