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China Clay traffic through Crewe in 1979


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Hi,

 

Just found a photo of 40032 passing south through the Crewe avoiding lines in 1979 from the Liverpool direction. The first 5 wagons are china clay empties with the sheets thrown into one wagon. Now I knew china clay went to Stoke but I was not aware the traffic passed further north. Does anyone know where the traffic went to and any other details of frequency/routing and when the traffic ceased?

 

Cheers Tony

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Hi,

 

Just found a photo of 40032 passing south through the Crewe avoiding lines in 1979 from the Liverpool direction. The first 5 wagons are china clay empties with the sheets thrown into one wagon. Now I knew china clay went to Stoke but I was not aware the traffic passed further north. Does anyone know where the traffic went to and any other details of frequency/routing and when the traffic ceased?

 

Cheers Tony

This was china clay for use as a filler for coated papers (some was also used by detergent plants around Warrington for certain well-known cleaning products)- for many years, this has probably been the biggest market for kaolin.

It went to paper mills in the North-West (Blackburn area) and also various locations in Scotland- routeing was via the Settle and Carlisle, I believe. It didn't cease, so much as go over to air-braked stock working in Speedlink trains; look out for the Tullis-Russell hoppers going to Markinch and the high-sided opens (Standard Railcar/RLS) working to Corpach. Other clay was latterly conveyed as slurry in tank wagons. When Speedlink stopped, Tiger Railcar, who leased wagons to some of the customers, stepped in and ran a block train themselves. More recently, wagons have been conveyed by Enterprise services- I believe there is still traffic to PD Stirling at Mossend, and possibly other locations, whilst there are still block trains of slurry from Antwerp to Irvine. These replaced block trains from Cornwall a few years ago.

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loads of CC went north of Stoke as it has a variety of uses other than for making pots. In fact most of the CC produced approximately on 10% was ever used in the pottery industry.

 

As stated paper, cleaning products to name but a few. Most likely destinations were paper mills at various locations through out the north west and scotland

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Abenbury Siding, on the then remaining section of the Wrexham Central to Ellesmere line received china clay in sheeted open wagons until 1981/2. The line closed in 1982.

There is a photo of 25 293 propelling 4 empty wagons through Hightown Halt on 23rd April1980 on p131 of the book "Marcher Railways" published 2008.

Edited by flyingsignalman
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Abenbury Siding, on the then remaining section of the Wrexham Central to Ellesmere line received china clay in sheeted open wagons until 1981/2. The line closed in 1982.

There is a photo of 25 293 propelling 4 empty wagons through Hightown Halt on 23rd April1980 on p131 of the book "Marcher Railways" published 2008.

Any idea of what industry used it there?

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Hi,

 

Thanks everybody, I never realised it was so widely used. On a slightly different subject I just wonder now if my model 1920s Private Owner CC wagons could possibly have got around as much as wagons in the 1970/80s. I always assumed that they were of limited use outside Cornwall. I have NEVER seen photos outside the area. I guess in the pre BR period there was far more use of Coastal trampers and this would be more cost effective than "one way" PO movement.

 

Thanks everyone for their input.#

 

Cheers Tony

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Hi,

 

Thanks everybody, I never realised it was so widely used. On a slightly different subject I just wonder now if my model 1920s Private Owner CC wagons could possibly have got around as much as wagons in the 1970/80s. I always assumed that they were of limited use outside Cornwall. I have NEVER seen photos outside the area. I guess in the pre BR period there was far more use of Coastal trampers and this would be more cost effective than "one way" PO movement.

 

Thanks everyone for their input.#

 

Cheers Tony

 

It's almost certain that china clay would have been taken by coastal shipping to the Mersey, and thence onward by narrow-boat via the Trent and Mersey canal. I can't think, offhand, of any older pot-banks that had rail connections (Wedgewoods at Barlaston did have a private siding, but that was fairly modern), but many of the bigger ones were situated near either the Trent and Mersey or Caldon canals, and had wharfs on them. Uses for paper filler and scouring creams are fairly recent, whilst most non-bone-china would have used local clay (even now, the ceramic industry probably uses more kaolin for glazes than for ware-making, I believe), so exports of kaolin outside Cornwall would not have been on the scale of more recent times.

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Not all the pot banks in the potteries made bone china, most made other forms of clay based products. Most (if not all )of the china clay that came to Stoke actually went to a yard not far from the current Emrys (Englsih China Clay) site at Trent Vale (Cockshute) and was unloaded there for onward transport via road to the various pot banks.

 

the sidings at the potbanks were usually used for loading wares and unloading coal

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Any idea of what industry used it there?

 

 

I'm not sure; the site was originally a brickworks.

Here are some views taken 6/6/1981 at Abenbury. I think the line had officially been taken out of use by that date which would make the date I said earlier incorrect; I may well be wrong but the line hadn't seen use for a while going by the colour of the rails.

post-6748-128051857618.jpg

Coming from Wrexham looking towards Ellesmere, the unloading shed is on the left.

post-6748-12805186621.jpg

Looking back towards Wrexham.

post-6748-128051863874.jpg

Looking south to Ellesmere. Note the trap point secured out of use and its replacement on the right rail of the siding. I think it was lockable but it wasn't locked tho'.

post-6748-128051870399.jpg

Looking north from the point in the main line.

post-6748-128051887937.jpg

The stop block at the end of the line.

Edited by flyingsignalman
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Any idea of what industry used it there?

 

Brian

 

The ball clay traffic to Abenbury went to Molar Products which, as the name suggests, produced dental porcelain. They also had a rail connected factory at Colchester which received similar loads.

 

A chapter devoted to inter-regional china clay traffic may well appear in my next effort for Ian Allan, which is due to be a look at freight train formations drawing on my very large collection of train lists.

 

David R

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Brian

 

The ball clay traffic to Abenbury went to Molar Products which, as the name suggests, produced dental porcelain. They also had a rail connected factory at Colchester which received similar loads.

 

A chapter devoted to inter-regional china clay traffic may well appear in my next effort for Ian Allan, which is due to be a look at freight train formations drawing on my very large collection of train lists.

 

David R

Thanks for that, Dave- who'd have thought it? A rail-connected false teeth factory- it sounds like something from the Goon Show. I'm suprised they got through enough to justify wagon-load delivery, though.

Look forward to that book; if it's to the same standards as your previous works, it should be a good 'un.

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Thanks for that, Dave- who'd have thought it? A rail-connected false teeth factory- it sounds like something from the Goon Show. I'm suprised they got through enough to justify wagon-load delivery, though.

Look forward to that book; if it's to the same standards as your previous works, it should be a good 'un.

 

As you say Brian, one of the more unexpected destinations. My records show deliveries of three or four sheeted Highfits at a time, although I do not have enough material to be able to determine the frequency, so they might have been a months supply. Look out for the formations book in about twelve months.

 

David R

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  • 3 years later...

Brian

 

The ball clay traffic to Abenbury went to Molar Products which, as the name suggests, produced dental porcelain. They also had a rail connected factory at Colchester which received similar loads.

 

A chapter devoted to inter-regional china clay traffic may well appear in my next effort for Ian Allan, which is due to be a look at freight train formations drawing on my very large collection of train lists.

 

David R

Hi Dave

 

Any idea of the location of the siding at Colchester and of the types of wagon used in this service?

 

Regards,

 

Robert.

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  • 7 years later...
On 31/07/2010 at 15:53, davefreight said:

 

As you say Brian, one of the more unexpected destinations. My records show deliveries of three or four sheeted Highfits at a time, although I do not have enough material to be able to determine the frequency, so they might have been a months supply. Look out for the formations book in about twelve months.

 

David R

Bringing a thread back from the dead.....

When I was in Bristol TOPS I remember the ball clay going to Abenbury, it normally passed on the 09.05 Exeter Riverside to Warrington/Bescot which called at Bridgwater to attach the nuclear flask traffic. I took a few photos of that train over the years and clayfits appear in a couple of them, so I suspect there may have been 3 or 4 loaded clayfits perhaps weekly, certainly more often than monthly.

 

cheers  

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