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Large shed on down side at Hellifield


lmsforever

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Looking at a photo in the October Back Track of Hellifield in June 1966 I noticed a rail connected shed on the Carlisle it contained an assortment of goods wagons ,I could not see any rail connection in the photo.The shed appeared again in a dvd  Leeds to Carnforth  and looked derelict at the time of the filming.Anybody got any ideas? 

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Are you sure it was on the Down side?  The only large building I can think of was the the former engine shed which was on the Up side if memory serves me right.  Reportedly at one time it housed some National Collection locos & stock and at some time might possibly (although I'm not certain on this) have housed some Control Train vehicles.  It certainly didn't house any 'strategic reserve' steam engines at any time although the presence of National Collection stock might have given rise to that interpretation.

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The loco shed was on the Up side just north of the station.   I used to stand on Hellifield station when changing trains and watch locos being coaled opposite where the tea rooms are now.  The shed closed in the early 60's and then did for some years contain many preserved locos.  Through a friend of a firiend I was allowed access and remember seeing Green Arrow, I think a crab and also some sort of EMU.  there were about a dozen locos from memeory (Over 45 years ago).   I'm not sure what date it was closed and demolished but the water facilities lasted until the end of steam as on the final 'normal' weekend (4th/5th August 1968) there were several specials which all seemed to end up at Hellifield at the same time and I'd pedalled over from Giggleswick (aged 15) to see them.  Many of them were double headed by black fives from Rose grove and Lostock Hall.

 

Jamie

 

PS

 

sorry to dissapoint you about the strategic reserve, it certainly wasn't there.  I always thought it was somewhere alongside Box tunnel or that strange colliery connection off the Midland Main Line north of Ambergate that veeers sharp right and disappeers into a tunnel..

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Do you mean the one that's there now.  That was put up a few years ago by West Coast railways but there wasw a problem with planning permission/Building regulations and it never gtot used.  It was supposed to be a shed for outbasing steam locos from Carnforth for working on the S & C.  I don't remember there being a large building there in the 60's though that area was some sort of civil engineers tip.

 

I'll try and get a look at the magazine and may be able to help.  It should be in the club library tonight.

 

Jamie

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The old  engine at Hellifield, I made a visit in mid 1967,  the door to the shed was not even locked up,  just open and enter to view the spectacle,  the EMU was M28249M,  which I think is now in York Museum,  i think it was in green livery but may well be wrong.

The Crab, the Spinner 118, and a Kirtley 2-4-0 158A also spring to mind,  there must have been more, help me out with the nostalgia trip please.

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The old  engine at Hellifield, I made a visit in mid 1967,  the door to the shed was not even locked up,  just open and enter to view the spectacle,  the EMU was M28249M,  which I think is now in York Museum,  i think it was in green livery but may well be wrong.

The Crab, the Spinner 118, and a Kirtley 2-4-0 158A also spring to mind,  there must have been more, help me out with the nostalgia trip please.

I also have a vague memory of Evening Star but it's along time ago.Green Arrow was definitely there. My hair was dark in those days and my waist considerably smaller than now and I hadn't discovered beer.

 

 

Jamie

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Thanks for the replies especialy the one about West Coasst Railways that's the shed I meant.

I can't remember exactly when it was built but I think sometime in the 1990's.   West Coast also put in a water column a few years ago alongside the Up goods loop near where the old coaling stage was and also dug out the turntable pit but I don't think they went any further with that scheme.

 

Jamie

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I can't remember exactly when it was built but I think sometime in the 1990's.   West Coast also put in a water column a few years ago alongside the Up goods loop near where the old coaling stage was and also dug out the turntable pit but I don't think they went any further with that scheme.

 

Jamie

 

There is a large water tank up on the banking above the station (on the north/up side) that was put there in 2010. I believe that this now feeds the water column.

 

As Jamie says, there was a problem with the building regs withe building on the down/south side - apparently due to the foundations not being deep enough! The sidings up to the building have been used for wagon storage - ex-Blue Circle Cargowaggons and ZDA sea urchins being examples.

 

Cheers,

Mick

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There is a large water tank up on the banking above the station (on the north/up side) that was put there in 2010. I believe that this now feeds the water column.

 

As Jamie says, there was a problem with the building regs withe building on the down/south side - apparently due to the foundations not being deep enough! The sidings up to the building have been used for wagon storage - ex-Blue Circle Cargowaggons and ZDA sea urchins being examples.

 

Cheers,

Mick

The foundation problems don't surprise me as the whole area was a tip for spent ballast and other detritus.

 

Jamie

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The old  engine at Hellifield, I made a visit in mid 1967,  the door to the shed was not even locked up,  just open and enter to view the spectacle,  the EMU was M28249M,  which I think is now in York Museum,  i think it was in green livery but may well be wrong.

The Crab, the Spinner 118, and a Kirtley 2-4-0 158A also spring to mind,  there must have been more, help me out with the nostalgia trip please.

 

I can help you out a bit, but not as much as I should be able to.  I'll explain!

 

Way back as a snotty-nosed teenager in Blackpool (no longer a teenager, no longer in Blackpool, but little else has changed!) I heard on the grapevine that Hellifield shed was being used for storage and persuaded my parents to take me over there one Sunday.  It was January 31st 1965.

Nobody around and as you found, there was no security - push the door & in you go.

I remember being really surprised & excited by some of the locos stored there but really disappointed that it was all but impossible to take photographs of most of them.  These are all I managed:

 

LNWR Ramsbottom 0-4-0ST

 

post-11812-0-91078000-1380624867_thumb.jpgpost-11812-0-32824700-1380624873_thumb.jpg

 

GER J17

 

post-11812-0-83826700-1380624869_thumb.jpg

 

NER Tyneside electrics

 

post-11812-0-46723900-1380624871_thumb.jpg

 

As for the other occupants - I can't remember, except for Green Arrow (who's tender appears in a couple of the photos).  I've still got my notebooks from the time somewhere, but following a recent house move they're still packed away in one of the many boxes & I've got no idea where to even start looking.  Hence the comment that I should be able to help more - one day they'll surface again!  Also, I think that locos came & went over the period that the shed was used for storage, so the occupants in mid-67 could have been very different.

 

Hope that's of some help.

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As Mick rightly points out - it's that time of year again when once more we find ourselves,

back on the trail of the Strategic Steam Reserve and I don't care whether its British, Swedish,

or the Soviet Steam Reserve.

 

Oh - Point to note here, East German Steam engines were used throughout the Cold War period

and were very much the work horses of the DDR, moving Soviet and East German tanks & artillery

equipment around East Germany during Warsaw Pact exercises.

See article below:

http://harveyblackauthor.org/2013/07/15/berlin-the-cold-war-years-part-3-a-hot-war-in-reality/

 

Also from time to time we get the occasional former British Steam engine, liberated from one of

those long forgotten Swedish Steam Reserve Sheds. :locomotive:

 

See:

http://www.railwayforum.net/showthread.php?p=21388

 

Here's the German TV report mentioned by Nottingham Victoria, so lets cue the theme music:

 

 

As you see from the Video below the German Railway magazine program had to do

a little detective work to track down one of those long forgotten Swedish Steam Reserve Sheds.

 

The Steam engines that emerged from the Cold War - fast forward to 06:33 mins

On the trail of the Swedish Steam Reserve

 

Background on The Swedish Strategic Reserve

 

Beredskapslokparken - Swedens Strategic Steam Reserve

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I seem to remember the LT&SR 4-4-2T "Thundersley" was in there too. I had a look round, as a previous poster noted the building had no security at all, wasn't even locked. Bet they wouldn't dare do that today!

 

Edward

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I seem to remember the LT&SR 4-4-2T "Thundersley" was in there too. I had a look round, as a previous poster noted the building had no security at all, wasn't even locked. Bet they wouldn't dare do that today!

 

Edward

Thundersley was definitely one of them.  I've just remembered that i may have underlined some of the locos in the 'combine' that I had at the time.  I'll have to ahve a look for it.

 

Jamie

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As Mick rightly points out - it's that time of year again when once more we find ourselves,

back on the trail of the Strategic Steam Reserve and I don't care whether its British, Swedish,

or the Soviet Steam Reserve.

 

 

So yet again I need to repeat that it never existed because the project - barely beyond an idea - was cancelled once the full cost implications were realised; the amount of money needing to be spent on the depots was considered too much 'for steam engines' plus the impracticality of having a so-called 'national reserve' based solely on a few depots in the north-west with - by that time - non-existent servicing, coaling and more particularly watering facilities elsewhere in the country left the whole idea very dead in the water before it got past granting of financial authority although reportedly a number of locos earmarked for it received heavy general overhauls at a very late date in the history of steam on BR.

 

No secret tunnels or mysterious sheds with locked doors because the money was never spent on doing up the selected depots (which were all former/existing running sheds.  Put very simply it never happened - and no doubt, as is so often the case, any BRB files relating to it were probably sent for salvage or burnt.

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No secret tunnels or mysterious sheds with locked doors because the money was never spent on doing up the selected depots (which were all former/existing running sheds.  Put very simply it never happened - and no doubt, as is so often the case, any BRB files relating to it were probably sent for salvage or burnt.

 

Reminds me of a TV series:

 

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

 

:locomotive:

 

Cheers,

Mick

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So yet again I need to repeat that it never existed because the project - barely beyond an idea - was cancelled once the full cost implications were realised; the amount of money needing to be spent on the depots was considered too much 'for steam engines' plus the impracticality of having a so-called 'national reserve' based solely on a few depots in the north-west with - by that time - non-existent servicing, coaling and more particularly watering facilities elsewhere in the country left the whole idea very dead in the water before it got past granting of financial authority although reportedly a number of locos earmarked for it received heavy general overhauls at a very late date in the history of steam on BR.

 

No secret tunnels or mysterious sheds with locked doors because the money was never spent on doing up the selected depots (which were all former/existing running sheds.  Put very simply it never happened - and no doubt, as is so often the case, any BRB files relating to it were probably sent for salvage or burnt.

 

Quite right - I'm not disputing that the British Steam Reserve is a 'Misty eyed urban myth' Unless you believe the tales that Heritage Railways

had the nod from Government, as an inexpensive ( to the tax payer ) way of maintaing a Strategic Reserve, that could be requisitioned

in time of war.

Which would have made Heritage Railway steam train drivers a Reserved Occupation, if the Cold War ever turned hot !!

 

BUT the Swedish Steam Reserve - which I posted above was very real, with some Steam engines being released from

storage as recently as 2008. As shown in the German TV report. Nothing wrong with that and very much of

interest to all Steam Train enthusiasts.

 

Also another thing to remember about The Swedish Steam Reserve is - steam engine WD 90733  working on the

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway - hails from the Swedish Steam Reserve.

Built in January 1945 by The Vulcan Foundry Ltd Newton-le-Willows, works number 5200.

The Locomotive was shipped to the continent and sold to the Netherlands State Railways

where it became their 4300 class number 4464.

In 1953 it was sold to the Swedish State Railways - Statens Jarnvagar.

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So yet again I need to repeat that it never existed  .  .  .  .

 

No secret tunnels or mysterious sheds with locked doors  .  .  .  .

 

Oh, no !   I don't believe it.

Please tell me this isn't true.

What about those bricked-up sidings in Box Tunnel?

 

First you tell me there's no Father Christmas, now you say there's no strategic steam reserve.

I can't take much more of this!

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Oh, no !   I don't believe it.

Please tell me this isn't true.

What about those bricked-up sidings in Box Tunnel?

 

First you tell me there's no Father Christmas, now you say there's no strategic steam reserve.

I can't take much more of this!

At this rate someone will be telling me there's no tooth fairy when I'm just gettig the the age where I'm starting to lose teeth again. Aw Shucks

 

Jamie

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