Pushing wagons on non-passenger branch lines

[rab]

There was an ochre mine off the Rutherford Bridge branch on the Bodmin and weybridge. Ochre is technically hydrated iron oxide and geologically called Lemonite. It's why mine water run off is stained orange/yellow.

It's formed by acidic ground water leaching iron from rocks. It's very common where the iron content of the underlying geology has a higher than normal iron content. As some copper ore contains high iron content it occurred in some copper mines.

Marc

Pedant mode on:

 

Ruthernbridge on the Bodmin & Wadebridge

 

Pedant mode off.

[MarcD]

Pedant mode on:

 

Ruthernbridge on the Bodmin & Wadebridge

 

Pedant mode off.

 

Never could spell

[TheSignalEngineer]

There was also a Colour Works shown on the old OS maps at Indian Queens. The big bend bypassing the old tunnel went round it.

[Nearholmer]

It's also just struck me that something I've never seen represented on a U.K. Layout is a tin smelting works. It could be a few buildings and chimneys in part-relief and backscene-painting.

 

Having googled, it seems that the last one in Cornwall (Seleggan) closed in 1931/2, but if the layout is set before then, it makes an excuse for wagons of ore, and of high quality anthracite coal, to be delivered. Whether the tin ingots went away by rail, and, if so, in what sort of wagon, I know not.

 

Another option might be a heavy engineering works, a foundry, that supplies the mining industry. Again, a bit date dependant, though.

 

K

[Stubby47]

The line to Treamble was lifted in 1929, the line between Chacewater and Newquay in 1963.

 

I'm running everything from GWR to Class 25 in blue, so what ever the industry, it's still there

[Pacific231G]

Never could spell

Pity, the Bodmin and Weybridge would have been a very interesting railway. I wonder if it would have been more in competition with the GWR or the LSWR? 

[Nearholmer]

It would have provided a convenient way of getting Beattie well tanks from their early working sites to their later ones.

 

K

[Sheffield]

Another line where wagos were propelled was the Enderby branch in Leicestershire. This joint LNWR/MR line was just over two miles long, and served the granite quarries at Enderby. It commenced in the goods yard at Narborough on the South Leicestershire Railway which lies in an east-west direction. The branch curved away from the main line through some 90 degress on a rising gradient, mostly on an embankment but the last section in a cutting, and then ran straight in a northerly direction to the quarries. Because of the cutting drivers could not see the front of the train that they were propelling up the gradient. At the time I got to know the line late 40s early 50s, the one train a day usually comprised some twenty wagons. There used to be a brake van at the leading end, but this complicated the exchange of empty and full wagons at Enderby and seems to have been abandoned in the mid fifties. For while after the shunter would ride in the leading wagon, where he could not do much if there was a problem, and in later years he rode on the loco.

The locos involved used to be Midland 0-6-0s, 3Fs and then 4Fs, but towards the end of steam all sorts would appears, including Royal Scots,Jubilees and 9Fs, and at the finish Type 2 Diesels.

[Pacific231G]

For some unaccountable reason I'd forgotten two of my favourite examples.

 

Holywell Town (LNWR) was a BLT at the end of a short (1m 1078yds) steeply graded (1in 27) branch off the Chester-Holyhead line. It was the subject of a very nice model by Martyn (Signaller69) of this parish  http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119708-holywell-town-oo-scale-blt/ and was described in some detail in British Railway Journal no 40 (winter 1992)

It wasn't goods only but all trains had to run with the loco at the lower end and propel them from the junction to the terminus. Passenger trains were push-pull but, because the topography of the site required the two goods yard sidings to face the buffer end, there had to be a run-round for goods trains which were also required to have a brakevan at either end and not more than three loaded or five empty wagons. The loco propelled an incoming goods train into the loop, the brakes were all pinned down and the loco then ran round using the running line before performing what was effectively an Inglenook sidings operation to exchange its wagons with some of those already in the yard. The upper brakevan simply added to the fun. The loco then ran around the outbound train before leading it back down to the junction. No wagons were allowed to be left on the running line- a trap point on the loop protected the running line- but in any case the headshunt was only long enough for the loco beyond the loop points and left only room for the loco and three or four wagons between the buffers and the points giving access to the goods yard.

 

The other example was the isolated S.G. line that ran from a fan of three sidings out along the 3/4 mile pier that protected the mouth of the Tyne at South Shields. the loco must have been at the seaward end to take out its train of stone blocks and rocks used to repair and reinforce the pier but would have propelled it back. I knew this line in 1969-1970 when it had AFAIK fallen out of use but the wagons were still stored in the locked stone yard. This was the pier railway's final disposition but in earlier years the track layout had been rather more complex and the line had run down the coast to the south for about a mile to the quarries at Trow point that provided the stone  with a branch runnng north for about half a mile to theTyne Commiissioners' Staiths on the Tyne from where stone would have been shipped to other places it was needed. There had been a similar railway for the North Pier at Tynemouth but the track in the yard at the foot of the pier  had been lifted by then. AFAIK the inset track on both piers still survives. 

[Stubby47]

Thanks David.

 

The Holywell branch (as Martyn also mentioned in post #30) is probably of most interest to me - I was born in Carmel, just outside Holywell.  I really ought to find out more about it...

[Signaller69]

Thanks David.

 

The Holywell branch (as Martyn also mentioned in post #30) is probably of most interest to me - I was born in Carmel, just outside Holywell. I really ought to find out more about it...

Couple of books that may interest you Stu, your Dad may well have a copy of the Holywell one (ISBN 0 9525697 0 1), contains a huge amount of historical info, including the schemes proposed to extend the line to Halkyn and the Mold to Denbigh line.

The Buckley Railway Album (published locally by the Buckley Railway Society (hardback, no ISBN number) I found a real eye opener regarding the sheer number of Brick and Tile works, collieries, sidings and even a self contained "branch off a branch" off the Buckley Railway Co's (later Wrexham, Mold and Connahs Quay Railway) line from Buckley Jct to Connahs Quay, as well as various narrow gauge feeder lines.

Operation was so complex with many sidings both facing and trailing that the loco was often in the centre of the train. Narrow gauge brick wagons (noted as various gauges from 22" to 26"!) were loaded direct onto the Railways own standard gauge transhipment wagons for transport to Connahs Quay Docks (even into the 60s the bricks were still moved this way, albeit loaded into standard BR open wagons; not a Palbrick wagon in sight) and the book illustrates this well. Originally worked by its own locos, the line was later run bizarrely by the GCR then LNER (yes, a LNER branch in Wales. . .) towards the end GWR pannier tanks were used when the line came under Western control. A fascinating and obscure railway for sure!

[russ p]

Unofficially wagons were propelled along the last few mile of the former seal sands branch with exception of the HCN tanks

[Zomboid]

Long shoves are not uncommon on modern American railroads, they retain some cabooses for the conductor to ride on at the front of the train in such circumstances.

[Pacific231G]

Thanks David.

 

The Holywell branch (as Martyn also mentioned in post #30) is probably of most interest to me - I was born in Carmel, just outside Holywell.  I really ought to find out more about it...

Oops! I missed Martyn's post while going through the topic so apologies for the repetition. The BRJ article (#40) by Mike Christensen is very interesting with some excellent photos.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Another example is the ex-Midland branch to Huddersfield New Town which in later years had trains pushed up the branch from the junction created with the ex-LNW route. I have a couple of photos of such trains somewhere, one a WD, one a Class 40, and will have to take a look to see if a brake van was used.

[br2975]

The subject was started, many moons ago at:-

.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/40276-push-pull-freight-trains/

.

But this thread has superseded the original

.

Brian R

[MarcD]

I have found two more branches that used propelling wagons. 1 GWR in Cornwall and 1 Furness.

The Newham branch (GWR) which gave rail access to the quays at Truro and there are some good photos on the Cornwall Railway Society web site, http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/newham-branch.html . The 12inch map on the NLS website show a run round in 1906 and 1935 but it looks quite short, so any larger loco would probably not fit. According the CRS web page most trains were pushed in and pulled out. This continued unto the closure of the branch in 1971 by which time class 22 locos were being used on the branch.

The Furness branch in question is the goods branch from Dalton’s Crooklands Jnct to Stainton. The train of empties would be pulled up from Dalton station to the junction on the down goods line (wrong line working). Having passed the junction the train then reversed pushing the wagons, brake van first, up the 1:40 incline to the goods station. On the return the loco pull the train back down the branch until just above the junction. It then stopped screwed down the brakes on the brake van and pinned just enough of the brakes on the full wagons to hold the train. The loco was then detached, it ran off the branch and reversed onto the down goods. Once the loco was clear the brakes on the van were lifted and the full wagons and the brake then rolled into one of the sidings. The loco then shunted the brake van onto the right end of the train and the whole lot set off towards Dalton station using the down goods. There was run round facilities at both the junction and at the goods station but they didn’t get used much. This practice was still in use up to the end of the branch in the late 1960’s.

Marc