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Coal at High Wycombe


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In the grouping period there were two yards for receiving coal...  one was at the station (on the upside at the London end), the other was about a mile towards the west of the town (close by High Wycombe North signal box).  When local coal merchants had coal delivered by rail one presumes that the wagons were placed in whichever yard was used by an individual coal company.  For example:- Baines, and Rutty, had coal offices at the station whilst Charles Atkins used the north yard.

 

Does anyone know which coal merchants used which yard?

 

thank you, Graham

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I cannot help you on the coal merchants, but I am interested in the trains used to deliver coal/take away empties to High Wycombe and through High Wycombe to wards Maidenhead and Slough via the branch.

 

My period of interest is 1958-1963.

I believe the operations were that coal trains arrived at Princes Risborough and High Wycombe from the midlands collieries via the GC.

The coal was then moved on by the freight trains running from Oxford to Taplow or Slough,

I am not clear if the same trains also cleared empty coal wagons south, that were then bought north by later trains form Slough/Taplow to Oxford.

Alternatively, the coal/empties could have been moved by the Taplow to High Wycombe and return local freight train?

Do you have any information on any of this?

Thanks

Best regards

Paul

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The latest Kelly's I can find for free access is 1911 so rather too for your purposes. Of the 7 coal merchants and 2 dealers listed only one gave his address as the railway station though another was in Totteridge Road just to the north of the station. Not much help.

 

But, then, I suspect you've answered your own question in that merchants would generally use the yard where their office was located...

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On 17/09/2020 at 19:23, Tallpaul69 said:

I cannot help you on the coal merchants, but I am interested in the trains used to deliver coal/take away empties to High Wycombe and through High Wycombe to wards Maidenhead and Slough via the branch.

 

I have heard that the coal trains on the Wycombe branch were unusual in that they were pretty much the only regularly scheduled trains to be hauled by a tender loco (normally a Hall but occasionally Granges were seen). Almost all other services on the line were hauled by tank engines (apart from the regatta specials). I had a somewhat fuzzy shot of a Hall on a coal train at Loudwater in 1965 but I can't find where it has gone.

 

This suggests that there was enough demand for coal to merit dedicate trains and it was not simply incorporated in the Loudwater goods.

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On 17/09/2020 at 19:23, Tallpaul69 said:

... I am interested in the trains used to deliver coal/take away empties to High Wycombe and through High Wycombe to wards Maidenhead and Slough via the branch.

 

I believe the operations were that coal trains arrived at Princes Risborough and High Wycombe from the midlands collieries via the GC.

The coal was then moved on by the freight trains running from Oxford to Taplow or Slough,

I am not clear if the same trains also cleared empty coal wagons south, that were then bought north by later trains form Slough/Taplow to Oxford.

Alternatively, the coal/empties could have been moved by the Taplow to High Wycombe and return local freight train?

Do you have any information on any of this?

I have also pondered on this question for there are some industries on the branch, eg. Thomas Green,  which are known to have bought coal from the midlands...  so was that coal sent via Bordesley / Oxford / Reading towards London...  or Bordesley / Oxford / Thame branch / PR / HW / Maidenhead branch.

 

Taplow Goods?  yes a possibility although that service did not stop at all stations - up service called at Wooburn Green only for cattle and that implies that coal for Wooburn Green did not travel on the up service.

 

Graham

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I've been watching this thread hoping that it sheds some light on my backyard - my local station being Bourne End. I remember Chris Turner saying that when he and Paul Karau were researching the Marlow Branch for their definitive tome it was particularly difficult to trace any details of private owner wagons for merchants in the area apart from those operated by Toomers of Reading and Websters of Maidenhead who both had branch offices along the Wycombe and Marlow Railways. 

 

Chris has published a number of articles in GWJ covering the area which shed some light on operations at High Wycombe and along the branch:

High Wycombe Operations In The Late 1940s   GWJ 51  Summer 2004

Taplow And The Loudwater Goods  GWJ 32  Autumn 1999

Maidenhead And The Maidenhead Pilot  GWJ 36  Autumn 2000

 

In addition, there was a further article on High Wycombe The Post War Traffic Scene by Harold N James and John Copsey in BRJ 36  Spring 1991.

 

Chris notes that "most coal traffic for the branch appears to have been collected from Princes Risborough by 10.50 pm Oxford to Taplow, which delivered it to each station and cleared the empties as required". Traffic for Thomas & Green's was handled from Bourne End with the wagons being propelled from Bourne End. Whilst T&G was the only mill in the Wye Valley with a direct rail connection there were several others that generated a considerable amount of coal traffic at Loudwater and Bourne End, deliveries being trucked from the rail yards to the mills. Because apart from Soho Mill (T&G) there were no mills close to Wooburn Green station coal traffic there was largely domestic in nature. Wooburn's other big mill, Glory Mill, was as far as I'm aware, served by Loudwater - it was roughly halfway between the two stations. Paper making was second only to the furniture trade as the area's main industry.

 

I was fortunate to spend the first three years of my secondary education at the old Wycombe Tech in Easton Street which backed onto the neck of the South Yard so we spent every lunchtime (unless it was raining) watching the passing traffic and shunting of the yard - performed for some months by an immaculate 6106 just after it had been overhauled at Swindon - the last of its type to be dealt with, I believe. Sadly, and I kick myself now, I didn't take copious notes!

 

There is a picture accompanying the article in GWJ 51 showing a string of PO wagons in South Yard, sadly the only ones that can be identified are two lettered Shipley Collieries plus a William Cory wagon.

 

I do hope more comes to light on local operations here - not from a modelling perspective, I'm doing deepest Kernow - but to simply piece together what used to happen when I was too young to pay the attention it required.

 

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On ‎21‎/‎09‎/‎2020 at 15:00, Mike_Walker said:

I've been watching this thread hoping that it sheds some light on my backyard - my local station being Bourne End. I remember Chris Turner saying that when he and Paul Karau were researching the Marlow Branch for their definitive tome it was particularly difficult to trace any details of private owner wagons for merchants in the area apart from those operated by Toomers of Reading and Websters of Maidenhead who both had branch offices along the Wycombe and Marlow Railways. 

 

Chris has published a number of articles in GWJ covering the area which shed some light on operations at High Wycombe and along the branch:

High Wycombe Operations In The Late 1940s   GWJ 51  Summer 2004

Taplow And The Loudwater Goods  GWJ 32  Autumn 1999

Maidenhead And The Maidenhead Pilot  GWJ 36  Autumn 2000

 

In addition, there was a further article on High Wycombe The Post War Traffic Scene by Harold N James and John Copsey in BRJ 36  Spring 1991.

 

Chris notes that "most coal traffic for the branch appears to have been collected from Princes Risborough by 10.50 pm Oxford to Taplow, which delivered it to each station and cleared the empties as required". Traffic for Thomas & Green's was handled from Bourne End with the wagons being propelled from Bourne End. Whilst T&G was the only mill in the Wye Valley with a direct rail connection there were several others that generated a considerable amount of coal traffic at Loudwater and Bourne End, deliveries being trucked from the rail yards to the mills. Because apart from Soho Mill (T&G) there were no mills close to Wooburn Green station coal traffic there was largely domestic in nature. Wooburn's other big mill, Glory Mill, was as far as I'm aware, served by Loudwater - it was roughly halfway between the two stations. Paper making was second only to the furniture trade as the area's main industry.

 

I was fortunate to spend the first three years of my secondary education at the old Wycombe Tech in Easton Street which backed onto the neck of the South Yard so we spent every lunchtime (unless it was raining) watching the passing traffic and shunting of the yard - performed for some months by an immaculate 6106 just after it had been overhauled at Swindon - the last of its type to be dealt with, I believe. Sadly, and I kick myself now, I didn't take copious notes!

 

There is a picture accompanying the article in GWJ 51 showing a string of PO wagons in South Yard, sadly the only ones that can be identified are two lettered Shipley Collieries plus a William Cory wagon.

 

I do hope more comes to light on local operations here - not from a modelling perspective, I'm doing deepest Kernow - but to simply piece together what used to happen when I was too young to pay the attention it required.

 

I have managed to identify one more wagon in the above photo:-

It is the one nearest the camera and is lettered:-

T Hunter Ltd. Rugby.

I will haver a go at enlarging the photo and see if I can identify the wagon next beyond the two Shipley wagons.

 

Regards

Paul

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