1950's operations at Banff

[aardvark]

I have begun construction of a model of Banff Scotland in the 1950’s. I don’t know much about trains, and I know less about train operations, so I’d like to stick with something resembling prototypical rather than invent some unrealistic fiction.  The following is my guess:  there are a few things that I do not understand, and bound to be a few things that I’ve misunderstood.  My terminology is most likely wrong in places too.

 

Please post any corrections, and I will correct what I’ve written lest anybody else stumble over this at a later date and assume that I know what I'm talking about.  Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this.

 

The trackplan:

 

 

The turnout shown lower left, in front of the goods shed, did not exist after about 1910 or 1920, and as such, Banff had neither passenger nor goods run-around loops.

Pretty much everything is a siding.  From top to bottom, there was (my terminology):

• Engine Shed siding: a short siding extended beyond the engine shed..
• Water Tower siding: space for  1 or 2 plank or mineral wagons.  I think that this was used as a coaling station for the resident branch loco.
• South Platform: the passenger platform. Passenger services arrived and departed from here.
• North Platform: not really a platform, but more the remanent of the original line to the harbour.  Seemed to have been used as a storage siding.
• Dead End siding: a long siding which would have held a number of wagons.
• Loading Bank siding: a long siding which would have held wagons for loading and unloading.
• End-loading siding: a single-wagon siding.
•  

Operations relied on gravity shunting, with the track falling from right to left (west to east).  Down-hill “up” services from Tillynaught ran tender-first, while down services ran chimney-first.  As far as I can tell, there were no freight services, with all scheduled passenger services possibly being mixed.  I doubt that Banff would have been exempt from the standard formation of loco, fitted wagons, passenger carriages, unfitted wagons and brake van.  The passenger carriages were typically just a non-corridor composite and a non-corridor brake third.  Sometimes, the brake compartment was immediately behind the loco rather than at the back of the formation.

 

There are 2 videos on Youtube showing gravity shunting on passenger –only services:

1. Easter 1959 in Scotland 3 The line to Banff courtesy of Unseen Steam
2. Scottish Branch lines- Banff with Steam Loco Cab ride (1964) courtesy of 52761b

 

The 1959 video shows a loco propelling carriages out of the South Platform, the loco running back into the engine shed siding, the carriages running back into the platform under gravity, and the loco return to connect to the front of the carriages in preparation for the next down service.  The 1964 video is a variation on this, but was captured after the signalbox had been removed, and so may represent an operation that was convenient to the remaining staff.

 

Excepting the dead end siding, in-coming wagons would have been shunted into a siding by gravity in a similar manner to that shown in the videos, possibly with a push from the loco in service. Empty wagons could have been later drawn out and left in the north platform siding for subsequent inclusion into a down service.

 

I would expect that in-coming wagons would have been propelled into the dead end siding after being drawn into the goods siding, waiting there until it was their turn in the goods shed or loading bank siding.  Unfortunately, I have one photo of the dead end siding holding a number of empty wagons, which has me mightily confused.  Typographically, I can’t see how wagons that had already run around the service loco could have gotten into the dead end siding without some other form of motive power.

 

For down services, perhaps the service loco would have assembled fitted wagons to the head of the passenger carriages in the south platform prior to passengers being boarded.  There are photos of such formations at the platform.

 

Less clear to me is what would have been done with unfitted wagons since the south platform was of limited length.  Could a down service have been propelled back into the north platform to pick up unfitted wagons and a brake van whilst carrying passengers?

 

 

[Graham R]

Hi Aardvark,

 

The GNSR company's Appendix to the Working Timetables of 1898 says this:

 

""Double Shunts", whereby two lots of Waggons uncoupled from the Engine propelling them, are run on two different lines of rails by one throw of the Engine ("lots" meaning one Waggon, or any number of Waggons coupled together); and "Fly Shunts" whereby an Engine drawing wagons attached to it towards a set of facing points, the Waggons are uncoupled from the Engine and the Engine is run on to one line of rails, and the Waggons are run past the Engine, but onto another line of rails, are Strictly Prohibited."

 

However, it gives detailed instructions for tail-roping, where a wire rope from the loco coupling hook was used to move wagons. The LNER and BR Sectional Appendices of 1947 and 1960 respectively continued to list Banff as a location where tail-roping was permitted. The GNSR Association Review, Vol 8 No 31 p544, has a personal memory of tail-roping taking place at Ladysbridge on the Banff branch (the appendices also mention that as a permitted location).

 

It was also possible to move wagons by shunting horse, although I haven't come across any reference to that at Banff. Pre-grouping wagons had horse hooks on their solebars so the horse could walk alongside the wagon rather than on the track. And if the gradient was helpful, as at Banff, wagons could be moved with a pinch-bar (a long steel bar with an angled wedge-shaped end placed between wheel and rail, then one or more men would use their body weight on the other end of the bar to start the wagon rolling, and the shunter would control it with the hand brake).

 

Regarding train formations, in earlier days at least, there were separate goods workings, and up to the 1950s only some of the passenger services ran as mixed trains. Here is the 1911 working timetable:

 

and here for comparison is the June-September 1952 timetable: the Class B trains are passenger (mixed where marked), the K is a branch freight, the G is a light engine.

 

 

It's interesting that the mixed trains were permitted to have up to 10 or 12 wagons attached. The 1960 BR General Appendix sets out the rules for allowing unfitted wagons in mixed trains: basically, up to 30 wagons with one brake van for every ten wagons, and the guard(s) to ride in the brake vans rather than in the passenger portion. It also states that on lines with speeds not exceeding 25mph, all trains could be mixed; but if speeds were up to 35mph, only half the trains could be mixed. The BR Scottish Region North sectional appendix supplement 1, in 1962, has a new instruction which is too long to list fully, but in summary states that up to 5 vehicles with automatic brake, including a calculated proportion of piped-only vehicles as long as the final vehicle has the automatic brake, could be attached behind the brake van in which the guard is riding of a passenger or empty coaching stock train. (On certain main lines the number permitted was increased to 20).

 

There is a 1960s colour photo in the GNSRA Review Vol 43 No 168 (Feb 2006) p 20, of BR standard Class 2 loco 78045 at Ordens with a mixed train from Banff to Tillynaught. It is made up of two non-corridor coaches as you have said (an ex-LMS 9-compartment composite and an ex-LNE 5-compartment brake third), followed by five mineral wagons and a 4 or 6 wheel passenger brake van. Four of the wagons are in grey (which I believe means they had hand brakes only but may have been but through-piped) and one in red oxide (with automatic brake).

 

You will see from the timetable that the mixed trains were allowed 25 minute instead of the 15 minutes allowed for passenger trains, presumably to give time for shunting and brake tests where required. I would imagine that, when starting a mixed train from Banff, it would have been formed up in the North platform before passengers were allowed to board and the brake test made there, rather than starting the passenger portion from the South platform as usual then setting back onto the freight portion in the North platform, since the time required for shunting and brake test would have been inconvenient. The train would not have shunted into the goods sidings with passengers on board since this would have involved passing over the unlocked facing point into the dead-end siding when leaving, which was prohibited.

 

Sorry that this is all so detailed and heavily-referenced, but it saves time in explaining where I got my facts from (and also makes clear the limits of what I am able to tell you - I have no professional knowledge to contribute and others are very welcome to criticize or add to what I've said. Working practice did not always follow the letter of the regulations, but I believe most railwaymen of that era were very well aware of what these regulations were and when any departures might impinge on safety, through decades of hard-won experience).

 

Hope that is of some interest anyway,

regards

Graham

 

[Graham R]

Two other things I meant to add:

- the sectional appendix mentions that propulsion of empty coaching stock is permitted in both directions between Banff and Tillynaught. The guard had to ride in the leading vehicle and controlled the train with his brake valve. This was not a random de-restriction, there must have been an operational reason for it - perhaps if there was a problem with the signal box, or later the ground frame, at Banff, meaning that it was not possible for the loco to get to the other end of the train; it would then have had to propel its stock empty to Tillynaught, run round, propel back to Banff, all so it could then leave loaded but with the loco at the correct, safe end. Crazy, but I cannot think of any other reason for this instruction. Suggestions welcome though!

- I was interested to discover from the GNSRA Review that Banff was a popular destination for racing pigeon specials in the 1950s, bringing long trains (I think it said 11 bogies) of birds from England to be released at Banff. There were apparently several specials every year. What a fabulous excuse for a train of special luggage vans !
 

Graham

[aardvark]

Two sensational posts Graham – I am indebted

• I boggle at the prospect of double shunts and fly shunts.  Clearly, someone at sometime thought these would be a good idea.
• I’d not heard of tail-roping, but I see this might have been used to get the empty wagons into the dead end siding.  A description of tail-roping in 1827 at Dundee was one of the few references I could find - I could not locate the article in The Review.  And some think gravity shunting is hard to model
• Horse- and human-shunting are possible alternatives.  Like you, I’ve seen no reference to their use at Banff.
• I am especially grateful for the WTTs – previously I only had passenger timetables from 1948 and 1960 to work from.  A not overly-hectic schedule for the single loco but a long day for what I presume to have been a single driver and fireman.  Nevertheless, no shortage of interesting movements to replicate - I would not have expected light engine movements.
• I also would not have expected an ECS movement all the way back to Tillynaught.  Your explanation seems plausible if unlikely, yet something like this must have happened for it to be explicitly mentioned in the regulations.
• I had heard about pigeon racing at Banff - possibly in The Review - and only recently had a pigeon van identified for me in a colour image of Banff.  I must order a couple of pigeon van kits.

I had previously seen the Ordens photo, but it does raise another question.  Do you think that the whole formation would have made its way into the platform for disembarkation, then reversed back out for gravity shunting?  I suppose with up to two up mixed and one up freight per weekday, none of them would have been hugely long.