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Cornish clay


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  • 1 month later...

An update to the freight scene in Cornwall. 08907 was taken away by low  loader shortly after my pictures were taken. This has combined with a consolidation of turns at St Blazey depot, which I wont go into details.

 

The upshot is a change to the CDA weekly programme. No more than 2 x Rocks trips are now possible each day, or one Parkandillack turn. This is due to the clay loco doing the shunting at Fowey Carne Point. These trips have been subject to alteration with IMERYS lately, so no firm plan can be set out.

 

On the mainline traffic (NACCO), this is slightly improved with 3 out of county workings on Wed / Thurs / Fri. Wed 7 Thursday are little changed (Parkandillack Wed / Par Harbour Thu), but the Penzance fuel now runs on a Friday 08.45 / 09.15 at Long Rock. The tanks then combine with any Henry Orchard scrap and head eastbound earlier in the afternoon.

 

The situation at St Blazey is delicate obviously with posts and many friends and colleagues involved, and is not completed yet.

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Great pictures which brought back happy memories of family holidays and also a 3 day rail rover last year. One afternoon I had an hour to spare at Par and ended up being invited into the box by the local signalling supervisor and we worked the down starter several times so that I could work out the 'bounce' on a lower quadrant for when I programme the signals on my new layout.

 

Jamie

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Noticed there were only around 28 CDA's on this mornings run. Is that the norm now or subject to variation?

No, the maximum authorised load (outside of Autumnal 'red' or 'black' slipping days is 38 CDAs. It must have been more lightly loaded for some other reason.

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And other one - a possible coversion to road use perhaps?

 

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A sequence of pictures showing the cutting up of one of the long-stored CDAs in St Blazey Yard. The contractor is Henry Orchard, which paradoxically may result in the scrap being taken away by rail later this week!

 

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Albeit not in such large quantities as it has been and with fewer rail-served locations involved.

 

Two 38-wagon rakes of CDAs suffice where once you could have seen several rakes of "hoods" at Lostwithiel alone and with a typical train being 40 of them.

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Whilst it is very sad to see the reduction in activity at St Blazey and the smaller number of movements taking place, fewer loading points etc., we do need to bear in mind (as I'm sure most of us already do) that we are in difficult economic climes, and this includes Imerys and other clay producers. Yes, we are still extracting clay in mid-Cornwall and moving it by rail, but both Imerys and DBS need to make this operation as slick and economic as possible.

 

Where tonnages are relatively static, there is generally a trend to move the same amount of traffic on fewer, but longer, freight trains, and the Cornish clay operation is no exception, hence the agreement from a few years ago to increase the maximum permitted load to 38 CDAs (except on Autumn days when poor adhesion is forecast, when the load is reduced somewhat).

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Thats correct. Other operators were involved in bids, and obviously, DBS needed a competitive one. There was even talk of the CDA / Mainline traffic being split between companies at one point.

 

 

 

Do DBS still own the CDA's thus making it difficult for another operator to take over that part of the operation?

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