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Mallaig Pier goods traffic


Patrick
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Hi all,

 

The current restrictions on movement are giving me some time to think about layout ideas. One of the more practical* ideas is inspired by stations such as Mallaig, Stranraer Town, Oban, and (inevitably?) Kyle of Lochalsh as they were in the early-mid 1970s (although that timeline will have some elasticity!).

 

With regards to the Mallaig element, I'd like to incorporate a line running from the station to a pier. A brief investigation has resulted in the following:

"Extensions to the wharf began almost immediately, with the construction of a fish platform on the landward side of the railway pier..."
(From http://www.mallaigheritage.org.uk/exhibit/mallaig.php)

There's a decent aerial shot on the excellent Britain from Above website: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/SAW039541 

And the track plan can be made out in this six-inch OSI map from 1959: https://maps.nls.uk/view/75982706#zoom=7&lat=9837&lon=3436&layers=BT
(As an aside, is there a particular reason for the sharp curve at the end of the pier? Was it simply to maximise the space available or was its function to retard or derail runaway stock before it went careering over the end of the pier?)

The ever-reliable Ernie's Railway Archive on Flickr also has a couple of images from the 1950s:
 

v_Mallaig_quayside_1950_s

 

063 Mallaig West Highland  (John Boyes) 063


There's an interesting selection of wagons in the first image, including a 16t mineral and what appears to be a fruit van with 'Earles Cement' pasted onto the side. I haven't found any reference to it yet, but would I be correct in assuming that the pier platform was also a transfer point for goods heading onward to Skye? Or is it more likely that the vans have been pressed into use for fish traffic (although that wouldn't explain the presence of the 16-tonner)? If the former, would mail have been transferred here, too?

From reading snippets on various online resources, including some threads here on RMweb, it seems that fish was transported by rail from Mallaig up until the mid 1970s, although by this stage it was down to one or two vans at a time, presumably loaded at the station as the pier line seems to have been lifted by this point, and attached to a passenger service. I'm guessing the van(s) then went cross-country to be attached to the Aberdeen-London fish trains?

In the universe my layout plan exists in, I'll be supposing that the pier line survived into my chosen period, but nevertheless I'm curious to know more about the above (especially if it gives me an excuse to run some parcels stock ).

Finally: at first I wondered why there was no cold storage facility adjacent to the fish platform, but I'm guessing the wagons were already present and stocked with ice from a nearby plant when catches were landed? In that case, would empty vans be dropped off at the same time as loaded vans were collected? Not being overly familiar with such setups, would this have been the norm, or would similar facilities have had a cold storage building next to the transshipment platform?

 

Thanks for reading - all replies appreciated! :) 

 


 

 


(*Possibly the only one that hasn't gotten completely out of hand...:mda:)
 

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The "Earles Cement" van is, in fact a standard Standard Southern Railway van ( vac-fitted by BR ) .... nothing special I'm afraid. The sixteen tonner is unlikely to be carrying bunkering coal at this date - but there could have been outlets on Skye that didn't rely on peat for heating ??!?

Yes, fish would have been packed in ice and shifted as quickly as possible.

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If the picture is pre-1960, I wouldn't rule out the existence of coal fired vessels, probably fishing boats. Domestic coal, to the extent that it was needed could well have come up by sea as part of the general deliveries to the various Western Isles that could only be reached by boat.

 

Jim

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Thanks for taking the time to reply, Wickham and Jim. 

 

I hadn't considered bunkering coal when pondering the presence of the 16-tonner - good shout. As you say, that requirement was long gone by the 1970s.

 

So it would seem the pier line was purely for the loading of fish, then? Cheers!

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Even in the 50s Mallaig was more or less devoid of any coal fired vessels as the Fishermen had gone over to diesel power as had the MacBrayne's "steamers" which had been diesel since the 30s, with perhaps the only exception to the rule being visits by the occasional puffer and the odd lingering steam drifter in the herring season.  The puffers were generally used for all coal supplies on the west coast, both mainland and island with the bulk of it coming from Ayrshire. Quite a number of vessels did however still have coal fired galley ranges even into the 70s (prior to bottled gas becoming popular) so that is about the only maritime use I can envisage for the time and most likely any coal delivery would have therefore been for the locals.

I think the pier sidings also doubled as the de facto Mallaig goods yard due to the somewhat constricted layout, the loco shed, turntable and associated sidings lying to the west of the station.

Mallaig was a departure point for MacBrayne's services to the Small Isles, Skye (Armadale/Portree), Raasay and also to Stornoway (via Kyle) so onward traffic to those ports would have gone through Mallaig, Kyle being something of the long way round although it did in itself handle large amounts of traffic to Stornoway. The Lewis service was the main event and departed daily from Mallaig at approximately lunchtime and returned the following morning before breakfast before repeating the journey again. The volume of mail, goods and passengers using this service required MacBrayne's largest vessel of the time which was the LOCH SEAFORTH.

 

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Just in case anyone is intersted, I unearthed some more images:

The first is another 1950s shot, found on the 'Ship Nostalgia' website:
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/44476/title/mallaig-1950s/cat/522

The rest are from Flickr...

1964:

Mallaig. Mallaig. Mallaig.



1965:

Mallaig Harbour, Scotland - 31/7/65


Undated, but possibly 1970-ish? Looks like a box van on the pier at the extreme left of the photo...

Mallaig


1973 - the line appears to have been lifted or paved over at this point, presumably done prior to the introduction of the car ferry service the previous year.

73 175 250673 Mallaig

 

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2 hours ago, slow8dirty said:

Of note, in the comments on Flickr, one of the van is identified as an INSIXFISH. Not something I'm aware of in OO, pity as it adds variety. 

And very far from its original home territory as they were Great Western vehicles.

 

Jim 

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16 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Most of them made it to Scotland fairly soon after completion. Though nominally Great Western, I don't believe they were built until after Nationalisation.

You are correct. Now that I have looked them, designed 1947 but not built until 1948, hence only ever carried W numbers. The notes show them as originally being marked as Return to Fishguard. Presumably that traffic dried up, hence their relocation to Scotland.

 

Jim

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12 hours ago, jim.snowdon said:

You are correct. Now that I have looked them, designed 1947 but not built until 1948, hence only ever carried W numbers. The notes show them as originally being marked as Return to Fishguard. Presumably that traffic dried up, hence their relocation to Scotland.

 

Jim

Odd that they were allocated to Fishguard; despite its name, there was no fish traffic there, it being landed at Milford Haven and Neyland. The traffic from Fishguard would have been perishables traffic from Ireland; rabbits, eggs, butter etc. 

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4 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Odd that they were allocated to Fishguard; despite its name, there was no fish traffic there, it being landed at Milford Haven and Neyland. The traffic from Fishguard would have been perishables traffic from Ireland; rabbits, eggs, butter etc. 

They were to be seen on South Wales trains into the 1960s.  There is a 1963 George Heiron photo of one on a Pembroke dock - Paddington train passing through Badminton with the Insixfish coupled immediately behind D1012 (and with a loaded Conflat with a Type  A Insulated container between the Insixfish and the passenger vehicles).

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  • 2 years later...

Hello Patrick and everyone else,

I'm wanting to build a static model or diorama in 1:76 scale of exactly what you've been talking about, I haven't chosen my era but I'm thinking about the height of the herring fishing boom in Mallaig. With a locomotive sitting on the pier with a crane unloading fishing boxes from fishing bots etc.

Because it's just a static model I'm only thinking about a small area to model.

 

Because it's for eventual public display in the Calmac Office in Armadale Skye, I'm wanting the details as correct as I can get them so here goes.

 

What Locomotive type was used and does a kit exist of it

What type of freight wagon and haulage company was used?

Does a 1:76 scale kit or similar exist of a Herring drifter?

 

Thanks in advance for your help, I know it's a lot to ask but I do appreciate your help.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gary,

Sunny Skye.

 

 

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