Early 1970's South Wales freight workings

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Afternoon all,

I have recently(not before time)been adding headcodes to my Heljan Hymeks,and wanting some variety,I have been referring to "a tribute to the Hymeks",published 2003-ish.This book has workings by individual loco's in different time periods.

Making these headcodes was a pleasant exercise,and it made me think how satisfying it would be if I knew something about the workings depicted. A few examples:

8C67 STJ- East Usk Jct,8C49 STJ-Margam,8C23 Margam-Briton Ferry,8M64 Llantrisant-Kingswinford,8C20 Alexandra Dock Jct.-Cardiff,etc. Some of the ones I've used appear to be for short-distance workings.I'd like to know what commodities were involved,though it's not a stretch to guess that coal and metals-related traffic made up a big percentage.Maybe there were chemicals workings,and general freights carrying a bit of everything?

I know there are some contributors with extensive knowledge of this period who often post exceptionally interesting details...

Any info,either general or more specific,would be of great interest and would be gratefully received.

TIA,

Neil.

[BR traction instructor]

Here you go…Down direction…P34-36 at the bottom…

 

BeRTIe

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

In the Up direction…

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

P34, 35, 36 in the Down direction didn’t upload…

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Hi BeRTie,

That is fabulous,many thanks!

I'll be setting aside some time for an in-depth study of these WTT's,lots of passenger workings to digest too.

I have several more models to apply headcodes to,and that's just the info I need,and am sure it will be of use to many others too.

Thanks again,

Neil.

[The Johnster]

The Llantrisant-Kingswinford was a block coke train, originating from Beddau coke ovens and consisting of the big LMS type hoppers. The others you mention are transfer freights, yard to yard workings to be sorted into other trains or trip workings at the destination yard.  I am not sure about the Margam-Briton Ferry job, but the others would have consisted of a variety of traffic  types and wagons but almost always with a raft of minerals bringing up the rear.   
 

Class 8 trains between Severn Tunnel Jc and Cardiff Tidal/Marshalling, including East Usk and Ebbw Jc/AD yard, were allowed up to 90 standard wagon lengths (SLUs, Standard Length Units, formerly BWUs, Basic Wagon Units) or equivalent, conditional on running on the relief roads and having a clear road through Newport High Street station.  The normal length limit was 60 SLU.  Many of the trains that exploited this increased length limit were these inter-yard transfer class 8s, and 8C67 & 8C20 would be included in these. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by The Johnster

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Hi Johnster,

Thanks for your interesting and informative reply.Would the coke working be the type of wagon that Hornby released a while ago? Had a feeling that some of the short distance workings would be inter-yard transfers.

Blimey,imagine a ninety-wagon freight...!

The SW local freight scene would have been fascinating back then.

Neil

[br2975]

This is a very involved subject, and to easier understand many of these workings you would also need to know about the reorganisation of freight workings that had recently taken place in the South Wales area at the very end of the 1960s.

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This was knwon as 'Blockplan' - the initial intention being to run more block workings and cut down on marshalling, thereby using better wagon utilisation, and a reduction in motive power. It brought in the pairing and diagramming of footplate men and guards, and a bonus scheme.

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'Blockplan' was introduced in stages across South Wales over a few years.

eg

Eastern & Western Valleys  dealt with November 1968.

Cardiff Valleys from March 31st. 1969, Stage 1, whilst Stage 2, was introduced in the Cardiff Valleys from Monday, 14th. April, 1969 

Tondu Valleys & West Wales Valleys from October 1969

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Just some of the effects of 'Blockplan' were, working from east to west  

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Severn Tunnel Junction

Previous function(s):-  Wagonload marshalling, Staging trainloads, Segregation and distribution of all empties. Staging of traffic to private sidings. Staging cripples.

Proposed function(s):- Wagonload marshalling. Segregation and distribution of empties other than mineral empties from England.

 

All marshalling of steel services to English terminals undertaken at STJ

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East Usk Jct.

Previous function(s):-  Wagonload marshalling, Staging trainloads, Wagonload distribution to/from local sidings, Segregation and distribution of empties..

Proposed function(s):- Staging trainloads of empty mineral wagons.                  

Empty minerals for segregation (i.e. marshalled into 16 ton, 21 ton, fitted/unfitted, 21 ton hoppers etc.) then onward distribution to loading points; primarily Monmouthshire and Cardiff Valleys.

In order to do so, East Usk Yard ceased to deal with loaded traffic.

Pilots:-                                                                                                                            

 2x Ebbw Junction allocated shunter duties, 7 days per week.                                

 Trip as required to Uskmouth Branch.

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Alexandra Dock Jct.

Previous function(s):-  Wagonload marshalling, Staging trainloads, Wagonload distribution to/from local sidings, Segregation and distribution of empties..

Proposed function(s):- Wagonload distribution to and from local sidings

Segregation and distribution of empty steel wagons to anywhere within the Cardiff Division or for transfer as far as Scunthorpe, North Wales or the North East Coast..

Pilots;

2x Ebbw Junction allocated shunter duties, 7 days per week.

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Radyr

I've left my local yard and its' 15x or so Cl.37s, 2x Cl.35s and half a dozen or so pilots out of this post- for the moment

 

Barry Docks

Receives all empty banana vans entering South Wales.

Pilots:-                                                                                                                          

 5x Cardiff, Canton allocated shunter duties, E88, E89, E90, E91 & E92.

Excludes Aberthaw ‘shunting and banking’ duty E78

 

Llantrisant

Receives all empty coke hoppers, via Radyr Yard for loading at either                                         

(i) Cwm or                                                                                                                       

(ii) Coed Ely coke ovens.

Pilots;

1x Cardiff, Canton allocated shunter also trips to Llanharry Iron Ore mine.

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Margam

Deals with Tondu Valleys traffic

 

Briton Ferry

Shocvans – when not directed to specified terminal(s).

Pilots:-                                                                                                                           

Ix Margam allocated shunter duty 7 days per week. Trips as required to Metal Box Co. Ltd. and T.W.Ward, Giant’s Grave scrap yard. Shunts Neath in evenings ?

.

 

Cripples to Rogerstone (or Roath Line Sidings) for segregation, pending acceptance by shops

 

Jersey Marine

Previous function(s):- Wagonload marshalling, Staging trainloads, Wagonload distribution to/from local sidings, Segregation and distribution of empties..

Proposed function(s):- Staging trainloads of empty mineral wagons.                  

Trainloads of empty mineral wagons from England and East Wales direct to Jersey Marine yard

Handles traffic from/to Swansea Docks, Swansea District also reversal for traffic from Aberpergwm & Onllwyn (N&B line) to England via STJ. Local Cl.37 replaced by Cl.47 for mainline. Maintaining self-contained working for locomotives and crews on colliery services, reducing effects caused by long distance delays.

Demand for anthracite was increasing.

New quarry traffic from Craigynos N&B.

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So it is safe to assume that any train heading TO East Usk Yard would be conveying empty mineral/hopper wagons for sorting, and onward distribution.

These could come from such diverse places as Reading West, Eastleigh, Shotwick, Spring Vale, Bristol West Depot, Southall, Acton and Exeter.

Any train FROM East Usk Yard would normally be empty mineral/hopper wagons for distribution

Several such trains were timetabled every early Monday morning to Jersey Marine, for further distribution around the Neath, Swansea and Llanelli areas as required.

In addition locos having worked from places such as Radyr, Rogerstone, Aberdare, Stoermstown etc to Severn Tunnel Junction could, and would run light from STJ back to East Usk to collect a raft of empties, for distribution.

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8M64 was a block train of modified coke hoppers ( of the last BR diagram with all steel sides, not the one with wooden raves issued by Hornby - although they were used in traffic from these and other South wales ovens ) , conveying foundry coke from Llantrisant - Kingswinford on behalf of Messrs Lunt, Comley & Pitt whose distribution facility was at Pensnett.

The working was constant for many years as;

8M64 20:06       Llantrisant-Kingswinford                                                                                 

6V55 02:40 MX Kingswinford-Llantrisant  arr.08:35

Llantrisant drew coke from two batteries located at (i) NCB Coed Ely, near Tonyrefail, and (ii) NCB Cwm, Llantwit Fardre. These pits were in different valleys, about 2-3 miles apart but since 1965 were joined underground.

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8C20 ADJ - Cardiff appears to have been a variable working, as 'cardiff' would often refer to 'Cardiff Goods' which included (i) Newtown Goods Depot (ii) Long Dyke Yard (iii) Tyndall Fields yard, and (iv) Spike Sidings;  

As ADJ handled almost exclusively metals/steel traffic, it is most likely 8C20 worked steel wagons to/from Long Dyke, or even Tidal, for BSC East Moors or GKN Castle Works.

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Hope this helps ?

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Let me know if you require any more info.

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Brian R

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by br2975

[Phil Bullock]

4 hours ago, D860 VICTORIOUS said:

Would the coke working be the type of wagon that Hornby released a while ago? 

Neil

Hi Neil

 

Yes ….. and no! The Hornby ones are diagram 151 …. The Kingswinford coke train had diagram 152 wagons with Pensnett circuit markings …. Which designated extended shutes IIRC.

 

We also run this train and it’s return working which is a class 6 … no-one has ever explained to me how that can be!

 

Its a nice bit of modelling to convert a 151 to a 152…. Remove existing moulded detail on Hornby wagons and add new plasticard sides to cover the raves. John Isherwood at @cctransuk did me some excellent Pensnett branding transfers.

 

For some reason this train was a type 3 working and it certainly raised the rooves in Worcester about midnight! 

[br2975]

 

From my notes, a few random Hymek workings.

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28/5/69 – D1014 9O95 1410 - Cardiff Tidal-Barry Storage-Cadoxton-Newtown-light diesel to Canton

30/5/69 – D7086 9O95 Tidal – Storage –Barry Docks – Newtown

31/5/69 – D7053 9O95 Tidal – Pengam – Barry Dock Storage – Newtown – Marshfield – Cardiff

Three days in one week, note how the diagram changes, and that a 'Western' was used on one day.

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23/9/69 – D7089 9A95 0630 Long Dyke – ADJ – STJ & return trip

25/9/69 – D7095 8A95 0530 Long Dyke – ADJ – Tidal Siding

* Note the different start times, destinations and headcode / class  due to train braking 

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19/10/69 – D7093 8B41 0858 Jersey Marine – Bristol - Household coal

25/10/69 – D7064 8B41 0855 Jersey Marine – Taunton - Household coal

*Note the different destinations.

Hymeks were a favourite on these workings and similar trains working from both jersey Marine and Radyr to other Home Counties CCDs.

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14/11/69 – D7079 & D7075 6E69 1200 Barry Docks – Temple Mills - Geest bananas primarily

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29/4/70 – 7081 6M34 2320 Tidal – Soho - Oil

30/4/70 – 7068 6M34 2320 Tidal – Soho - Oil

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25/5/70 – 7089 6Z31 1830 Barry Dock – Norwood (ldsl off Canton) - Geest Banana special

7/6/70 – 7099 6Z30 1745 Barry Dock – Temple Mills (ldsl off Canton) - Geest Banana special

Hymeks were a long standing favourite for the Barry Docks banana trains.

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It may be worth noting that with the commencement of the 1971-1972 WTT certain WR reporting numbers / headcodes changed.

The Bristol Division formerly 'B' combined with the Plymouth Division, formerly 'C' - to become 'B'

The Cardiff Division formerly 'F' became 'C' - albeit some local workings contained within the Cardiff Valleys had been 'C' for sometime before hand.

[The Stationmaster]

Pensnett coke also originated from Nantgarw and was held at Radyr to form into block trains,  But I won't tread n BR2975's toes regarding his Radyr explanation even though it was my old yard in the early 1970s.  But I can probably adda few interesting tales to what the supposed goings on were.

 

As far as 8C20 was concerned it would inevitably have had Cardiff Tidal Sidings on its list of destinations in the early '70s

 

BTW Margm in reality dealt with a lot more than Tondu Valleys traffic as it serviced the large Port Talbot steelworks for both inwards and outwards traffic although in some cases that only meant that it staged trainloads.   But the hump was still active for marshalling purposes in the early '70s.   Plus it was also a regulating yard for returning empty oil trains to West Wales anda relief point for loaded West Wales trains.

Edited August 28, 2022 by The Stationmaster

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Morning guys (from a very windy,unseasonably cool day in C/Ford),

Firstly,Brian R-"hope this helps?"...that's a massive understatement!! The info you have supplied is just fascinating,and will need a few more read-throughs..

The "Blockplan" concept must have been quite revolutionary,as I can imagine the amount of trip workings must have been huge,given the amount of traffic then on offer.Just to highlight one yard as an example,East Usk Jct yard being given over entirely to receipt,sorting and despatch of empties is notable,I've seen many pictures of coal trains made up of different capacity wagons,but your notes explain how the various wagons were sorted into identical rakes-maybe to do with which wagons could be accepted at each colliery? And no less than five pilots at Barry Docks-wow...You note that one of many sources of incoming empties to East Usk was Southall,where I started taking numbers back in 1968.It's a long time ago now,but I can't recall any coal handling facilities there,were some trains of empties perhaps combined at Southall?

Was there a colliery at Jersey Marine,and "Giants Grave Scrapyard"-what a great name! Again,I've seen several pictures that include Newtown Goods,but I don't know about the functions of Long Dyke,Tyndall Fields or Spike Sidings.

Really interesting notes on the various Hymek workings,there must have been plenty to keep them occupied on short and long haul work.One that stands out for me is your sighting of D7093 on 8B41,that was probably hard work for a type 3 on the climb away from the Severn Tunnel.As an aside,just over fifty years ago(26th July 1972),on yet another visit to Old Oak Common,walking down the approach road towards the turntable,the first loco to be seen was D7093,which I needed for the set of Hymeks.

Fabulous stuff Brian,and an outline of activity at Radyr would be great too!

Hi Phil,

Good gen re the coke hoppers,ISTR an article accompanying the review of the Hornby ones a few years back.

Would you have expected the Kingswinford cokes to be a class 8? Must have been a spectacular sight and sound back then! A couple of weeks back I bought a few more Hornby models to do exactly that conversion,though I don't think I'll be going for the Pensnett variety.I have the plasticard sheet and section for the wagon sides ready to go,I think yours and another person's pics of this mod were lost in the recent difficulties.Won't ask why you were hanging out in Worcester around midnight...

And Mike the Stationmaster,thanks for your info,Margam yard must have been a busy place back then,not sure but I think there were a few more refineries despatching rail traffic back then?

Sincere thanks to all of you who have shared your knowledge on a subject of which I know next to nothing,we may be talking about 50-plus years ago but the railway back then will never lose  its interest for me.

Neil.

 

[Fat Controller]

I've enjoyed the discussion on this topic; though I lived west of Swansea at the time, and relatively few of the trains went that far.  If I might add a few comments..?

Regarding Margam Yard, In the first edition of Michael Rhodes' book on Margam Yard, there is a plan of the yard that shows the allocation of the sidings. Of the 50 or so sidings in the main yard, over half were allocated to traffic to and from Steel Company of Wales, Abbey Works. About a half of these were designated to coking coal of individual origins and grades, which would be forwarded to the Grange sidings within the plant for blending.

I've never seen reference to a pit at Jersey Marine; I knew it only as a set of sidings where loaded coal wagons were held until there was space at Swansea Docks. There were other yards involved in this; Briton Ferry,  Felin Fran, Llandilo Jct, Pantyffynnon and Burry Port. Almost all the coal handled was anthracite, the majority (pre 1970) destined for Ireland. 'Shipping Coal' used a Pool of hundreds of wagons, most being the 21 ton minerals (later MDO)

'Giant's Grave' was originally named for a outlying piece of rock, which allegedly marked the grave of a local giant ('Giant'being anyone over six foot..) It took on a more poignant meaning when T W Ward established a ship-breaking yard. There's another bizzare place name near-by- Port Walleroo; I've never seen any explanation for this, though it sounds more Australian than Welsh.

Alongside the timetables you've published, there were others that covered 'Conditional' paths. The one I had, contemporary to yours, for Swansea, Eastern Depot had about thirty pages, though many of the columns were empty.

 

[BR traction instructor]

…by 1972 WR Conditional traffic had its own WTT, as shown in the 1973/74 WTT for the same route (P23-25 failed to upload and are at the bottom)…

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

West of Swansea was still pretty tasty in 1971/72…

 

BeRTIe

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

[BR traction instructor]

Another failure to upload (from above)…

 

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Fascinating.

I reckon there's a book in this!

(not an easy task I know).

There must be quite a few of us with spotting notes and pictures, and then there's the phantom wagon number taker of South Wales yards!

 

Mike.

[BR traction instructor]

…sounds like you’re volunteering to write it. From experience many like the thought of prototypical but the books don’t sell and much of the accurate modelling/operation just doesn’t happen.

 

BeRTIe

Edited August 29, 2022 by BR traction instructor

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Yet more fascinating detailed info!

Firstly Brian W...50-plus sidings in Margam Yard,with work probably going on round the clock,with all of that coal to sort,seems barely credible now. Jersey Marine is one of those names that seem to crop up often when South Wales freight is being discussed,you've confirmed no pit there but it sounds like it was another pivotal yard.Think I've read that Swansea Docks was just about the last location to handle coal carried in non-MGR wagons.Giants Grave was indeed an apt name for a ship-breaking area,and Port Walleroo wouldn't be immediately connected with Wales..

In case of any confusion,the WTT's were posted by BeRTie,leading neatly to:

Thanks for the further WTT's,more interesting gen which will need careful study.

Hi Mike,fascinating it certainly is.A book on this subject might be considered niche,but I'm surprised at some of the books appearing nowadays on all sorts of obscure topics.As we've seen here,there is a lot of detailed knowledge available,and if there's also relevant pictures to go with text,maybe a book would be a goer.

For me,if I was at Ealing and saw a freight heading to Acton Yard,it would be,well,just that,at the time I didn't know about headcodes and traffic patterns,with hindsight wish I had.

Again,thanks to you all for your replies,

Neil.