Grindleford to Tinsley freight service 1970

[lather]

Reading through my now rather large collection of Midland Region 1970 WTTs, I've come across a service that's got me puzzled. The freight WTT lists the 8E27 1129 Grindleford to Tinsley, and I'm struggling to figure out the reason for that service as Grindleford isn't the first place you'd think of as the origin for a freight service.

 

Looking on the old maps, they all show the goods yard, but the post-WW2 mapping also shows some lines curving away from the goods yard and around to the south, set up on individual embankments. Unfortunately, there's no label to say why they are there. Now, those lines are long gone, but you can still see some evidence in the air photographs, although there's still no clue as to the reason for their existence. With the lines up on individual embankments above the surrounding ground, it doesn't look like a conventional quarry site, there's no evidence of it being a mine of any type, and no significant buildings either.

 

So can anyone enlighten me as to what those lines were, and what the 8E27 was for.

[BR traction instructor]

Have a read re the need for sidings at Grindleford. I would be wondering how late locally quarried stone (possibly as ballast) was railed out of Grindleford sdgs.

 

8E27 must have been one of the shortest inter-regional workings.

 

BeRTIe

Edited February 27, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

I can only vouch for late 60's early 70's, but at that time Grindleford had a coal yard, was used as storage sidings for engineers stock (which was tripped up from Beighton ready for weekend work on the Hope Valley, Bamford also being a staging point), and was a place where the Earles Sidings cement wagon cripples used to congregate, so whilst not being able to definitively answer the query about 8E27, that might give some ideas.

Just as a matter of interest, was there a Tinsley - Grindleford balancing working?, I have a feeling that some Hope Valley freights ran on an as required basis.

 

Mike.

[Fat Controller]

The curved sidings couldn't be a spoil tip, perhaps? I remember Stoke Gifford tip in the mid-1970s had some curved sidings on 'embankments'.

[Rivercider]

The 1977 TOPS Code Guide shows:-

34021 GRINDLEFORD

Customer UNSPECIFIED   

Terminal type N (BR freight terminal without cartage or cranage) C (BR terminal handling coal coke or patent fuel)

Reporting TRA 34100  PEAK  FOREST

Area Manager  BUXTON.

 

cheers

[65179]

 

Not much use for the present query, but some info on the reason for some of the layout at Grindleford is in the linked thread above. 

 

Simon

[lather]

On 27/02/2022 at 08:01, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I can only vouch for late 60's early 70's, but at that time Grindleford had a coal yard, was used as storage sidings for engineers stock (which was tripped up from Beighton ready for weekend work on the Hope Valley, Bamford also being a staging point), and was a place where the Earles Sidings cement wagon cripples used to congregate, so whilst not being able to definitively answer the query about 8E27, that might give some ideas.

Just as a matter of interest, was there a Tinsley - Grindleford balancing working?, I have a feeling that some Hope Valley freights ran on an as required basis.

 

Mike.

 

I can't find a Tinsley to Grindleford working, but the 9M48 0635 from Tinsley to Earle's Sidings is listed as stopping at Grindleford at 0900 to detach wagons, leaving Grindleford at 0929. So I guess that would count as a balancing working.

 

The loco from the 9M48 is then listed as running light engine as the 0E27 from Grindleford to Totley Tunnel East, ready for the 8E27. Strangely, there's no mention of the movement from Earle's Sidings to Grindleford, just that it's the loco from the 0635 from Tinsley and due to work the 1129 to Tinsley. There's also no mention of the movement from Totley Tunnel East back to Grindleford to join the train. I guess both the Earle's Sidings to Grindleford and Totley Tunnel East to Grindleford movements must have been at the signalman's discretion in-between other services.