Lossiemouth-1960s freight traffic?

[SHerr]

Hi there, I’m hoping someone can help with some info.

 

I’m starting to plan a Small 00 gauge layout loosely based around Lossiemouth in the mid 60s.

 

There are few photos on line of freight, I am assuming Fish, Coal and usual general merchandise but there are some Presflo’s lurking near the goods shed in a couple of shots of a 105 in the Station - any idea what the traffic was and if it was a regular flow?

 

Also any info on other traffic flows from either the harbour or RNAD traffic to the nearby airbase?

 

Many Thanks in advance 

[GlenPudzeoch]

The traffic you mention sounds quite reasonable, perhaps cattle as well. Presflos - I'm not sure about Lossiemouth, but a lot of stations saw presflo for ccement traffic in Scotland in the 1960s.  The Kyle line, West Kilbride station on the G&SWR all featured presflos in photos.

 

Dont forget the deliveries to and from HMS Fulmar - the base was RN until the early seventies, so no need for lots of long leave trains unless you are running it under RAF control!

(ex-matlot)

[SHerr]

Many Thanks,

 

hopefully it works - link attached to the photo I am referring to on GNSRA website. There’s another shot from a different angle as well.

 

Do you know how were they unloaded at small locations? Was it pipes straight out of the bottom directly into a tanker or into a local silo?

 

http://gnsra.org.uk/gnsra_gallery20stations.htm

 

Many Thanks

[Fat Controller]

11 minutes ago, SHerr said:

Many Thanks,

 

hopefully it works - link attached to the photo I am referring to on GNSRA website. There’s another shot from a different angle as well.

 

Do you know how were they unloaded at small locations? Was it pipes straight out of the bottom directly into a tanker or into a local silo?

 

http://gnsra.org.uk/gnsra_gallery20stations.htm

 

Many Thanks

They'd have a portable air-compressor to aerate the cement powder and make it flow; it could be directly into a road tanker, or into a silo; much depends how close the railhead was to the mixing plant. Such flows were often  short-term , for the construction of new roads, reservoirs, airfied runways etc. Later, they'd serve facilities building oil platforms.

Traffic for the RNAS would be a mixture of the old-fashioned containers (often loaded in high-sided opens) and large wooden crates; the Grey Funnel Line was very partial to these.

[SHerr]

1 hour ago, Fat Controller said:

They'd have a portable air-compressor to aerate the cement powder and make it flow; it could be directly into a road tanker, or into a silo; much depends how close the railhead was to the mixing plant. Such flows were often  short-term , for the construction of new roads, reservoirs, airfied runways etc. Later, they'd serve facilities building oil platforms.

Traffic for the RNAS would be a mixture of the old-fashioned containers (often loaded in high-sided opens) and large wooden crates; the Grey Funnel Line was very partial to these.

Many Thanks, much appreciated.

 

Definately looks like some added interest.

[AngusDe]

The working at Lossiemouth that always made me smile was it had a through sleeper to/from London, which was actually the longest sleeper run in the country.

 

Between that and rule 1, you could get away with running anything to the "Scottish Riviera", as the railway tried to market it once upon a time!

 

Angus

 

[Corrour]

Gents, some info on this topic from a friend very knowledgeable on the interface between Scottish railways and industry:

 

With reference to Lossiemouth and freight traffic, the harbour also saw deliveries of fuel oil onto the quayside and the post-WWII redevelopment of the military bases at Kinloss and Lossiemouth required huge volumes of cement to be delivered to a reliable timetable. Across Scotland, cement was transported to site either pre-bagged or in bulk (powder) loads. Transport was by a mix of ships (coasters into ports such as Grangemouth from Kent), road vehicles (flatbeds and bulk tankers) and by rail (vans and bulk tanks such as Presflo's). Blue Circle had two sites in Scotland that saw a lot of deliveries using Presflo rail wagons - Cambuslang and Irvine. It appears that many construction sites received their loads using a mixed journey of shipping, road and rail - depending on site location, volume of cement required and the supplier. After WWII, there were some colossal infrastructure projects in the Highlands driven by public-sector investment, with cement companies such as Blue Circle and Tunnel competing with each other.

 

For those with an interest in period road vehicles to complement their railway interests, the cement companies were using Commer trucks fitted with a 2-stroke diesel engine and complete with a supercharger. Other period trucks on this traffic were Foden S21, Scammels, Leyland Super Comet, Leyland Comet and Leyland Bison. The earlier trucks would each take 8 tonnes of cement and by the 1960's the loads had increased to 15 tonnes - worth thinking about if the rail siding was full of Presflos and departure time was imminent!

 

During the 1950's and 1960's there was still a lot of manual labour involved, with 'hand-balling' 50kg paper sacks of cement out of 12T Box vans onto Flatbed lorries - from the nearest railhead to the construction site. Alternatively, a trainload of bulk rail tankers (e.g. 'Presflo's) could be used - but only if a supply of compressed air was available to 'blow' the cement out of the rail wagons and into a road tanker for the final stage of the journey. Blue Circle appeared to have an advantage over some other cement producers at remote railheads, in that their road tankers were fitted with an integrated 'Roots' type blower - allowing them to discharge (blow) from the rail tanker straight into the road tanker and drive the 'final mile' to site. At site, the truck driver could then simply 'blow' his cement into a storage silo - ready to be used as required. Even today you will see 'blowers' fitted to bulk grain and cement lorries - attached to chassis rails with a drive-shaft off the gearbox. Pressure wise, the earlier cement conveying systems were operating at low pressure 1 to 1.5 barg (15 - 22 psig), then it evolved to 2 to 2.3 barg (29 - 33 psig) The same type of blower technology was also fitted to vintage Bentley cars as a form of supercharging to boost their racetrack performance - often seen located beneath the front headlights, being driven off the engine crankshaft.

 

At railheads with permanent cement handling infrastructure (silo, weighing facilities etc) - a large blower with drive motor would be located in an adjacent shed, with pipework from the siding to the silo. Discharge from the silo to the road tanker was usually by gravity. There were also blower units mounted onto four wheel trailers - these were more commonly used by the military for starting what are now classic jet aircraft.

 

Usually the pneumatic conveying of cement is referred to as 'blowing' - you are talking about high volumes of air at low pressure to 'fluidise' the material - not using high pressure compressors.

[Guest Jack Benson]

On 01/05/2020 at 20:33, AngusDe said:

The working at Lossiemouth that always made me smile was it had a through sleeper to/from London, which was actually the longest sleeper run in the country.

 

Between that and rule 1, you could get away with running anything to the "Scottish Riviera", as the railway tried to market it once upon a time!

 

Angus

 

Troop trains to/from Fulmar were not uncommon whilst rails were still laid to Lossiemouth. I suffered the dubious pleasure of returning to Fulmar from Guz via a most circuitous route involving Birmingham and York. The entire squadron move took two days in stock that must have been waiting to be called back into service, unfortunately the lavatories were unserviceable and ‘comfort’ breaks were required at every stop. Naturally there was no catering, just packed sandwiches of corned dog which were out of date. 
 

The only steam encountered on the journey was laid aside, a couple of years later we narrowly avoided being on the train that ran into cement wagons at Thirsk, two WRNS were not so lucky. 
 

Cheers

[MartinWales]

Some nice photos in George O 'Hara's books, well worth sourcing

[SHerr]

Many Thanks for the above replies particularly Currour - really good info. I’d realised myself that fuel oil for the fishing fleet would be pretty certainly a regular flow. 

The bagged cement will also add some more verity.
 

I have a copy of George O’Hara’s book and the photo of the class 21 is one of the things that got me interested in this as a location - short loco hauled trains still running - there is a similar picture of a single class 20 running nose first also on a passenger train.

for those interested I’ve now managed to add the link to the layout topic in the signature.