Shunting With Horses

[Dave Stapleton]

Purely out of interest, does anyone know if horses were ever used for shunting in the Welsh Valleys region?

 

Dave

[Hal Nail]

22 hours ago, Dave Stapleton said:

Purely out of interest, does anyone know if horses were ever used for shunting in the Welsh Valleys region?

 

Dave

There is a book on GWR horses but I cant for the life of me think where my copy is. I don't recall that area featuring in it but that's not to say it definitely doesn't.

 

Edit: found it - The Long Haul. It actually covers all railways horses but only two shots of them shunting as opposed to railway related carts/barges etc. Although there is a section on the slate mines, nothing about the Valleys.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Hal Nail

[Dave Stapleton]

Hi Hal,

 

Many thanks for that.

 

Dave

[2750Papyrus]

There is also "Great Western Horse Power" by Janet Russell, but it doesn't help a great deal.  

 

The main focus of the book is on the use of horses for the collection and delivery of goods; in 1950-51 there were still more than 100 owned horses at Cardiff and 200 belonging to contractors but there is no reference to their use for shunting work.

 

The section on shunting horses covers two pages only.  Here, the only Welsh reference is Newport, where the GW and Monmouth Railway shared two shunt horses with a driver and divided the cost of 82sh (£4.10) per week between them.  However, the section on stables suggests that these were hired in when additional help was required, as there was apparently stabling there for more than 36 horses - but no breakdown as to what they were used for.

 

 

[Wickham Green too]

Let's face it ..... there were LOTS of heavy horses everywhere ( railway owned and otherwise ) so if a spot of shunting needed doing when there was no convenient loco, there was probably a convenient hoss ! 

[Michael Hodgson]

When I was a sixth former in Northumberland the careers master arranged with a local Coal Board office for us to visit a worked-out colliery used for training.   So I don't know about the Valleys, but they still had pit ponies in Ashington although I didn't see any shunting.  The trainees were learning to lay track underground whilst the next lot came and learnt how to lift it again.   Every so during our visit men would appear from behind some building and tell us "Whatever ye dee lad, divvent gan doon the pits".  That visit certainly didn't achieve the NCB's objective in getting grammar school boys to join them and become Pit Deputies.

[eastglosmog]

Horses were certainly used for shunting as well as haulage of trains on the Penydarren line, before and after a certain Mr Trevithick tried out his mechanical horse and broke most of the rails!