London Goods facilities on the Southern Region...

[AberdeenBill]

Thanks Coline33 for the interesting information.   There's a picture in one of David Larkin's books from the 1970s of a cupboard-door mineral wagon at Ipswich in Pointer's livery, which includes a full colour rendition of a pointer dog ;-) 

 

Bill

[coline33]

Thanks, Bill, yes I have this as well as a colour one of the wagons in the train as it left Cotteshall behind the Class 31 for Beddington Lane.   A past signaller on the WC-W commented to me in describing the operation at Beddington Lane that it was a good job there was not today's traffic on the Lane, even at that time of the morning!!!   Colin.

[The Bigbee Line]

NXEA interest in the WC-W line in the period 1967 to 1971 has caused me to reply, especially as Olddubbers refers to the 1434 Cottishall - Beddington Lane working and Fenway Park thought the APCM Cement workings had ceased. In fact, NXEA can model this interesting sand train which ran during his period. The Blue Circle facility had been redeveloped to produce their Sandtex products and to relocate Hall & Co. from East Croydon plus handle Ready-Mix Concrete's operations. Pointers got the contract for the supply of sand and purchased from BR a fleet of diagram 1/112 cupboard door minerals (renumbered into their PR series). The Blue Circle sidings were renovated to handle the 18 PR wagons plus the four highfits at the head (to help with braking an otherwise unfitted train) and being facing and in sight of the Beddington Lane SB was controlled from there.

 

Train No.7O55 arrived at Norwood Down Yard and the Class 31 detached. A Class 73 backed on and at 0545 slowly under diesel power drew the train on to the electrified track to lower the shoes. The train was electrically hauled via the Passenger Line to arrive at Beddington Lane at 0610. Depending on its length, the gates had at times to be opened throughout the operation. The Class 73 on diesel power then propelled the train into the loop from which the Blue Circle sidings had a trailing point. As soon as positioned, the Class 73 rapidly left the scene 'light engine' booked no later than 0625, for Mitcham and Streatham Junctions for its return to Stewarts Lane. This did give a contingency for any trouble to keep the first passenger train of the day (0631 from West Croydon) on time (or warn intending passengers!). The breaking down of the train, shunting the Blue Circle sidings and return of the PR empties to Norwood Up Yard was in the hands of Classes 08 and 09. The incoming Class 31 at Norwood of course returned the PR empties to Ipswich to await next orders.

 

I hope this helps NXEA with an additional operation. Good job Parkside Dundas do a diagram 1/112 kit at a reasonable price!!!

Colin,

 

Interesting stuff.  What wagons were the highfits used as the fitted head?  I presume they were loaded with sand as well?

 

Thanks for the useful information,

 

Ernie

[Smiffy2]

LBSCR not LSWR but Wallington (Epsom Downs to Victoria) had a small and odd shaped goods yard and substantial shed. It remained until the 60s when it became a car park to the newly developed (ie charm-neutered) station. There are several interesting pictures on the local history transport site

http://www.friendsofhoneywood.co.uk/Transport_History.htm

and

http://www.semgonline.com/location/wallington_01.html

 

 

I'm thinking of building it as a sort of big plank.

[roythebus]

As an aside, my late father in law (formerly station foreman at Earlsfield) used to live in a big railway house at Tooting Junction. His back garden backed on to the lifted Merton Abbey line.

[coline33]

Ernie, have a look at Richard Adderson's photo I sent you of the train leaving Cawston. The four highfits can be clearly seen behind the Class 31 but the angle does not confirm whether or not they are loaded. My thoughts are that they should be to increase braking power. Colin.

[Jon Swinfield]

.

 

Depends on the time period. Mitcham itself had quite substantial sidings until they were lifted in about 1962 (they served a paint factory and other industrial outlets. Mitcham Junction not only had a rather weird layout, but had a decent little goods yard.

 

Hampton Court (terminus) had a busy yard and carriage sidings layout and Chessington South was a large coal depot.

[Jon Swinfield]

Where can I get pictures or plans of Mitcham or Mitcham junction goods facilities

[Nick Holliday]

 

.

 

Depends on the time period. Mitcham itself had quite substantial sidings until they were lifted in about 1962 (they served a paint factory and other industrial outlets. Mitcham Junction not only had a rather weird layout, but had a decent little goods yard.

 

Hampton Court (terminus) had a busy yard and carriage sidings layout and Chessington South was a large coal depot.

Where can I get pictures or plans of Mitcham or Mitcham junction goods facilities

Sadly photos of these goods yards are rare beasts, as your average South London railwayac preferred to point his camera at more exciting subjects, and the yard at Mitcham was some distance, and an overbridge, away from the passenger facility.

There is a picture of a single wagon at Mitcham Junction in an Ian Allan album by Klaus Marx, but I am not sure about the description of a decent little yard. MJ had a short single kick-back siding on the north east side of the station, and another, longer, one on the south side of the line towards Wimbledon, and both of these seem to have disappeared by 1938, perhaps as a result of electrification. Briefly there was an interesting set of exchange sidings between Mitcham and the junction, provided for the construction of the St Helier housing estate in the thirties, which featured an extensive temporary railway system to transport construction materials around the vast site. I cannot recall seeing any photos of these sidings, which were some distance from the public gaze, although there are quite a few showing the lines around the estate.

Plans of the yards can be found on the old-maps and NLS websites showing the changes over a number of years.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Nick Holliday

[SED Freightman]

Where can I get pictures or plans of Mitcham or Mitcham junction goods facilities

 

Hope this diagram of Mitcham Goods Yard is of interest.  Unfortunately my set of old control diagrams are undated, however Olddudders has previously suggested that they date from around 1960.

 

[Rivercider]

Hope this diagram of Mitcham Goods Yard is of interest.  Unfortunately my set of old control diagrams are undated, however Olddudders has previously suggested that they date from around 1960.

 

Mitcham Goods Yard.jpg

I love old maps and diagrams like that, I could study them for hours.

 

cheers

[Jon Swinfield]

Thanks guys that’s really helpful

[Nearholmer]

The other thing to mention is milk.

 

Morden milk depot was a late survivor rail-served, and has been dissected in a ‘milk trains’ thread on here, probably chaired by the RMWeb milkman in chief, Mr Karhedron.

[roythebus]

The last bit of "freight" activity I've got photos of is at Mitcham Junction when they were building tramlink. there was an engineers diesel loco and some hopper wagons on the new tram alignment on the flyover. They've recently re-surfaced as I was scanning negatives yesterday. 

[The Bigbee Line]

Thinking about things from the past and asking the question, what went where etc. Maybe we should turn the question into; “who went where, when and with what”.

 

Pre 84:

Acton - Beckenham Junction. Coal HTVs

[The Bigbee Line]

Hither Green (RAW - relieve and work) to Chislehurst - Sand/aggregate MSVs

 

Ran round at Swanley.

Edited August 5, 2018 by The Bigbee Line