Stanway sidings (Colchester)

[dr tim]

Until relatively recently there were some sidings on the Up side of the Great Eastern mainline at Stanway (about 2 miles west of Colchester North station), now built on. In the eighties they were used for storing redundant Class 306 units prior to scrapping, but what were they originally for? The 25 inch map also shows a siding going off the Up side of the line into some woods?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

[Trainshed Terry]

It was a goods depot from what I can remember but when I worked on BR in the late 1980, it had been closed. as the ground frame that was on the down side of the line was taken out of use. and the cross overs where locked for main line use only.

 

Terry

[Patrick SPF]

Tim are you thinking of the sidings off the Halstead Road, that they have just built on?
 

[Baby Deltic]

I remember it being full of class 306 bogies long after the units were scrapped.

[dr tim]

On 06/03/2020 at 21:25, Patrick SPF said:

Tim are you thinking of the sidings off the Halstead Road, that they have just built on?
 

Yes. The road names are all butterflies for some reason...

[Patrick SPF]

Colchester Council's road naming policy is wierd...,
If I remember correctly the sidings were put in as part of the electrification works and were used as PW depot (If I remember correctly from reading the regional railway history many years ago)...

[dr tim]

On 09/03/2020 at 19:59, Patrick SPF said:

Colchester Council's road naming policy is wierd...,
If I remember correctly the sidings were put in as part of the electrification works and were used as PW depot (If I remember correctly from reading the regional railway history many years ago)...

A little more research (i.e. checking my copy of the regional history) confirms that the sidings were built as a depot as part of the electrification in the late 1950s. Not clear if this was EMU sidings or PW - possibly initially EMU before space became available at North Station after (I assume) the goods yard was eliminated sometime in the 60s? The large scale maps of the time show the depot clearly labelled "Stanway Depot".

 

However, earlier maps show some sidings on this site back to at least 1923 and it looks as though the railway excavated quite a large area on both sides of the line. It has to be the railway as there is no sign of any road access. This is the bit which has me stumped as I can't see what they would be excavating.

 

Tim

[Fat Controller]

2 hours ago, dr tim said:

A little more research (i.e. checking my copy of the regional history) confirms that the sidings were built as a depot as part of the electrification in the late 1950s. Not clear if this was EMU sidings or PW - possibly initially EMU before space became available at North Station after (I assume) the goods yard was eliminated sometime in the 60s? The large scale maps of the time show the depot clearly labelled "Stanway Depot".

 

However, earlier maps show some sidings on this site back to at least 1923 and it looks as though the railway excavated quite a large area on both sides of the line. It has to be the railway as there is no sign of any road access. This is the bit which has me stumped as I can't see what they would be excavating.

 

Tim

Weren't there sand quarries around this area?

 

[Trainshed Terry]

11 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Weren't there sand quarries around this area?

 

 

 There where 2 about 4 miles away but they have been turned into land fill sites. But most of the sand went to Marks Tey for sand trains to Acton in london.

 

I am not sure if that traffic is still running.

[Patrick SPF]

Tim,
Sand or gravel for ballast is the only thing I can think of, it does seem strange but the track plan suggests some sort of quarry.

[Trainshed Terry]

1 hour ago, Patrick SPF said:

Tim,
Sand or gravel for ballast is the only thing I can think of, it does seem strange but the track plan suggests some sort of quarry.

 

I agree with an early post that it was all to do the electrification of the line.

 

Any chance that you could post a link to the track plain.

 

Terry.

[dr tim]

5 hours ago, Patrick SPF said:

Tim,
Sand or gravel for ballast is the only thing I can think of, it does seem strange but the track plan suggests some sort of quarry.

I think sand and gravel is the origin of the site. Tarmac are still busy digging up what was originally Stanway Heath not very far away and the various maps suggest other smaller pits even closer. One site I looked at suggested sand and gravel extraction dating well back before the railway albeit on a very small scale.

 

I suspect that what happened is that when the railway was built where it runs in a cutting the sand/gravel deposits were exposed and the railway decided to use them. When the need for a depot arose with electrification the site was already there probably still with the rail access in place even if it hadn't been in use for a while.

 

For anyone wishing to look at some maps:

The 1923 1:2500 is here: https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/599500/225500/12/101068; this shows the old (presumably quarry) sidings

The 1969 1:2500 is here: https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/599500/225500/12/100955; this shows the depot layout

The site is easier to see on Old-Maps as it lies very close to the original sheet boundary - Old-Maps stitches the sheets together - but there are some maps (but not all of them) on the National Library of Scotland site without any watermarks...

 

Tim