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farm tractors as shunters


adanapress
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have you got, or do you know of any pics of this one?

 

Nigel

Hi Nigel, I was a nipper at the time so none of my own, sorry. From memory the tractor had large chequer-plate steel boxes (filled with concrete probably) for "buffers".

If you can get in touch with the Ipswich Transport Society or the Ipswich Transport Museum, they might be able to help.

I would hazard a guess that the tractor dealt only with the wagons in the immediate vicinity of Pauls, the lower yard pilot would've brought them down from the upper yard.

 

HTH, C6T.

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Hi Nigel, I was a nipper at the time so none of my own, sorry. From memory the tractor had large chequer-plate steel boxes (filled with concrete probably) for "buffers".

If you can get in touch with the Ipswich Transport Society or the Ipswich Transport Museum, they might be able to help.

I would hazard a guess that the tractor dealt only with the wagons in the immediate vicinity of Pauls, the lower yard pilot would've brought them down from the upper yard.

 

HTH, C6T.

thanks for that C6T, I'd only ever seen pictures of the lower yard pilots, skirted 04's, the 0-4-0 Hunslets, 05's later the 03's, I'm only in yarmouth so as you suggest I'll contact ITS & the transport museum for any possible info, what was the approx date of your recollections ?

 

regards Nigel

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thanks for that C6T, I'd only ever seen pictures of the lower yard pilots, skirted 04's, the 0-4-0 Hunslets, 05's later the 03's, I'm only in yarmouth so as you suggest I'll contact ITS & the transport museum for any possible info, what was the approx date of your recollections ?

 

regards Nigel

Crickey, now yer askin'!

Best part of thirty year ago I reckon. I never saw a rail shunter down there but Dad had to take me into work on a Saturday occasionally and those huge (to me at the time) "buffers" have stuck in my mind!

PM me if you dig out some choice research would you mate?

 

Happy hunting, C6T.

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  • 2 weeks later...

im sure i can remember seeing a photo in a book once of a tractor being used on the corris railway

 

I'm pretty sure that at the very end of the line's history - when the Corris itself was long-closed and no preservation work had started, which means the late 1960s or early 70s - the remaining quarry at Ratgoed used a farm tractor to move their few wagons around the adit. I poked around up that way once back in 1969, and the rails into the adit were certainly in place then and clearly in use, though I never saw anything moving there.

 

There may well have been something similar above Corris Uchaf, where King Arthur's Labyrinth and the Craft Centre now are, but I can't vouch for that.

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There was a few pictures in 'Railway Bylines' a few years ago of an enthusiasts special on a Welsh narrow gauge line being hauled by a Ferguson tractor. The event itself IIRC was in the early 60's.

 

That would be the Nantlle tramway where the tractor replaced the horse that had passed away. An early form of privatly owned diesel haulage on B R (long before 59s)

Both the Nantlle and Corris tractors were for haulage and not shunters.

Merf.

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  • 5 months later...

 

I remember the Lowestoft grampus well, it was in fact the works shunter for the engineers wagon repair shops, the sleeper depot being long gone, it was converted from DB988525, internal user no. 041707, painted yellow, & used to be parked by the gates on commercial rd.

 

Nigel

 

Hi Nigel, I'm interested in building on of these. Just wondered if you had any more pictures of this or the railway along commercial road by chance?

 

Cheers

 

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Hi Nigel, I'm interested in building on of these. Just wondered if you had any more pictures of this or the railway along commercial road by chance?

 

Cheers

Hi type 4, sorry I haven't, one of those cases of passing regularly & saying endlessly, " I really must take some pics" & guess what I never did

cheers Nigel

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Now, I wonder if I really can make one work ....

 

Fit a High Level Flyshunter (powered wagon chassis) mechanism into a wagon with a free running tractor closely coupled the rear of the wagon as if pushing it along...

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Thank you gentlemen, one and all, just the breadth of info I needed. Now, I wonder if I really can make one work ....

I haven't tried this or even looked at one, but been wondering myself? I wondered if a black beetle or similar, with the wheels removed from 1 axle? Use a tractor kit from the Airfix Stirling (Fordson?) to surround the motor, add dummy non-driven wheels at the front end....I wonder? Even better if an n-gauge version could be sourced.

 

Stewart

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I'm pretty sure that at the very end of the line's history - when the Corris itself was long-closed and no preservation work had started, which means the late 1960s or early 70s - the remaining quarry at Ratgoed used a farm tractor to move their few wagons around the adit. I poked around up that way once back in 1969, and the rails into the adit were certainly in place then and clearly in use, though I never saw anything moving there.

 

There may well have been something similar above Corris Uchaf, where King Arthur's Labyrinth and the Craft Centre now are, but I can't vouch for that.

 

The photo is in the Middleton Press book on the Corris and VoR, headed "Post script" it is under photo 60 at the end of the Corris section, about halfway through the book. The caption says the photo was taken in 1959 but the practice continued there until the 1980s.

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Hi type 4, sorry I haven't, one of those cases of passing regularly & saying endlessly, " I really must take some pics" & guess what I never did

cheers Nigel

 

I know what you mean! Thank you for looking and letting me know.

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Flood tipped me off about this thread: There used to be a yellow road shunter at Hayle Wharves years ago. it was used to shunt the oil tankers into the ESSO terminal at Hayle. The train would arrive and shunt the oil tankers into position, and take away the spent ones. There was no run-round facility there, and no resident railway shunter. The terminal required a back-shunt into it, so the tractor would couple to the tankers, complete with buffers from memory and perform this task. I guess a couping was required with dangerous goods. The area was flat so no hazard from a runaway, though the wharves were rails on tarmac / grit so you could "race" the shunting on our bikes! The ICI octel plant was reachable with a train loco so guess that shunted the chemical tanks, but the tractor may have done this also back in the day. I dont have pictures, and to be fair the tractor shunting only took place when there were no train movements, but my friend Roger Winnen may have a photo somewhere. I'll make some enquiries.

Edited by winterbournecm
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Tractors converted to shunters were used by the railways right back to the 1920s. Muir Hill of Trafford Park Manchester converted a succession of Fordson models into shunters and the major railway companies all used them . I published a book on Muir Hill many years ago and there were numerous designs, I suggested to Oxford Diecast that they might consider doing a version of their Fordson Major as a shunter.

 

Will post some pics when I get them digitised.

 

BR had loads of them - they replaced steam on Grangemouth Docks in the late 1950s for example.

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English China Clays have used tractors at quite a few other sites, Wenfordbridge, Ponts Mill and Par docks spring to mind.

 

'East Cornwall Mineral Railways' (Middleton Press) has a photo of the Par Dock shunting tractor, taken in 1995, used apparently because locos weren't allowed to cross the internal roadways. The tractor looks like a conversion of a wheeled loader rather than an agricultural machine, although it could be purpose built.

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BR had a converted Fordson Major (registration 982 HGD) as a shunter at Kyle of Lochalsh, with a custom made cab, large boxy mudguards, and wheel centres in track-machine yellow, front/back pusherbeams in black, and the original blue Ford bonnet underneath. I have a copy of a photo dated June 1965 culled from a website I've forgotten, so can't post it here; maybe someone else can give a link to it? or else PM me...

 

(edit) Found it! http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/photo/scaled/3287/

Edited by Graham R
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BR had a converted Fordson Major (registration 982 HGD) as a shunter at Kyle of Lochalsh, with a custom made cab, large boxy mudguards, and wheel centres in track-machine yellow, front/back pusherbeams in black, and the original blue Ford bonnet underneath. I have a copy of a photo dated June 1965 culled from a website I've forgotten, so can't post it here; maybe someone else can give a link to it? or else PM me...

 

(edit) Found it! http://www.scot-rail...to/scaled/3287/

This is one of the Muir-Hill ones. It appears that the bonnet/grill has been replaced at some time as they were usually in all over yellow. The earlier ones were in BR 'blood and custard'.
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  • 4 weeks later...

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