Boston Sleeper Works

[Dunalastair]

At a St Neots show a few years ago I remember seeing an interesting model by Graham Morfoot of the GNR / LNER / BR sleeper works at Hall Hills near Boston. This layout is described in the Graham's Railways website. The East Coast location suited import of raw timber from the Baltic to Boston Docks, and onward shipping of seasoned, creosoted and chaired sleepers to the wider network. The GER had an equivalent facility in, I think, Lowestoft, also with a narrow gauge rail system.

 

https://www.grahamsrailways.com/layouts

 

Fine model though it was (is?), and though it included the narrow gauge,  it did not include the characteristic 2' 3" gauge Baguley / McEwan Pratt petrol locomotive (747 of 1915 - presumably ex WDLR), as shown here:

That still seems to have been taken at the same time as this Pathe movie footage:

 

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/64943/

 

My simple 3D printed static diorama depicts the Baguley with a timber wagon between those distinctive sleeper stacks with the steps to allow access to the top - albeit somewhat reduced in height compared to the original, so only two 'flights' rather than three. As it was, those sleeper stacks took a long time to print.

 

 

Note the distinctive dual gauge track. Did the NG loco also move the standard gauge wagons, or could the SG loco get around the very small radius curves without derailing?

Edited September 5, 2023 by Dunalastair

[Dunalastair]

Just corrected the reference to the GER sleeper works - it was at Lowestoft rather than Great Yarmouth. This image shows a similar operation, with a departmental Sentinel.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/285133008260879/posts/5114893908618074/

 

One of the Lowestoft 3' gauge RHs survives at Apedale.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2381251052053077&set=p.2381251052053077&type=3

[009 micro modeller]

Very nice - particularly like the Baguley. Do we know why they chose 2’ 3” instead of 2’?

 

There was a similar operation at Beeston but 3’ gauge: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1841557

 

The Ruston diesel ED10 that worked at Beeston was later used for the Tracked Hovercraft track construction and now is preserved at Irchester (it must be metre gauge now though as it operates on the metre gauge running line there).

[Dunalastair]

36 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Very nice - particularly like the Baguley. Do we know why they chose 2’ 3” instead of 2’?

 

There was a similar operation at Beeston but 3’ gauge: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1841557

 

The Ruston diesel ED10 that worked at Beeston was later used for the Tracked Hovercraft track construction and now is preserved at Irchester (it must be metre gauge now though as it operates on the metre gauge running line there).

 

Thankyou for the kind words. 3' seems to have been the usual gauge e.g. Lowestoft, Cambridge, Beeston. Hall Hills dated back to GNR days, but even so, using a McEwan Pratt you might have expected 2' gauge - perhaps that was not considered a stable enough approach? 

 

That Beeston Ruston was also used on the M1 at Tinsley in Sheffield, hauling box girder sections. 

 

 

 

https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/23/Tinsley.htm

[009 micro modeller]

2 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

 

Thankyou for the kind words. 3' seems to have been the usual gauge e.g. Lowestoft, Cambridge, Beeston. Hall Hills dated back to GNR days, but even so, using a McEwan Pratt you might have expected 2' gauge - perhaps that was not considered a stable enough approach? 

 

That Beeston Ruston was also used on the M1 at Tinsley in Sheffield, hauling box girder sections. 

 

 

 

https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/23/Tinsley.htm

That’s an interesting one as well. An unusual choice of gauge for the broad gauge tracks and makes me wonder why they didn’t use standard gauge with a standard gauge loco rather than the slightly odd system adopted. Unless it’s just a case of using the loco they had available and building the broad gauge as a bespoke thing to suit the dimensions required by the project.

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

 

Thankyou for the kind words. 3' seems to have been the usual gauge e.g. Lowestoft, Cambridge, Beeston. Hall Hills dated back to GNR days, but even so, using a McEwan Pratt you might have expected 2' gauge - perhaps that was not considered a stable enough approach? 

 

That Beeston Ruston was also used on the M1 at Tinsley in Sheffield, hauling box girder sections. 

 

 

 

https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/23/Tinsley.htm

 

Cambridge - Chesterton Junction PW Depot - was 2' gauge and one of the locos (85049) is currently in use on the Quarry Bottom Railway at Mounsorrel Heritage Centre, where I had a ride behind it last Saturday......

 

[hmrspaul]

37 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

Cambridge - Chesterton Junction PW Depot - was 2' gauge and one of the locos (85049) is currently in use on the Quarry Bottom Railway at Mounsorrel Heritage Centre, where I had a ride behind it last Saturday......

 

 

More interestingly painted when at Chesterton J https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/narrowgauge/e53f1306c   https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/narrowgauge/e3a878978  

 

Paul

[Dunalastair]

Indeed, as we discussed when I posted my Chesterton diorama, the first of the series of dioramas (dioramae?) I have posted in this section.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/179774-chesterton-pw-depot-narrow-gauge-diorama/#comment-5197524

 

But I was not brave enough to try the chevron markings on the cab. 

 

Apparently the Boston works replaced the McEwan Pratt with another RH in due course - I wonder what happened to the original machine? Images of those NG departmentals seem to be rare on the web, so always good to see more, thankyou. Gordon Edgar's books (and Flickr collection) are another useful resource. I seem to remember spotter books from the sixties making reference to them, but they were already a dying breed by then.

 

There is a thread on the two (or possibly four) GWR 2' gauge Simplexes at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/171100-simplex-locos-ex-gwr/ and another on the Crewe / Horwich 18" gauge systems https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/149831-horwich-locomotive-works-and-its-18-gauge-railway/ including this fine image:

 

 

Complete with chevrons, this is evidently another of Gordon Edgar's photographs.

 

How many more NG diesel (or petrol) powered departmental locos were there in the BR fleet (not counting the contractor locos which were used for e.g. tunnel widening)?

 

 

[LNERGE]