Nestle siding, Carlisle

[Karhedron]

I have found references to "Nestle Siding" at Carlisle. The nearest Nestle plant I can find now is at Dalston but the article implies the company once had a siding near the station. Can anyone shed any light on this please?

[Wheatley]

Is this actually the Metalbox siding at Durranhill ?

 

There was a Carnation Milk factory at Dumfries (Maxwelltown), and a McNeil & Bibby creamery at Milnthorpe. Both finished up owned by Nestles (the Milnthorpe creamery bizarrely being used to produce 'Um Bongo' in later years), and both were served by the weird BR dia 1/214 end door vans from the  Durranhill Metalbox factory. The factory was served by a fan of three sidings where cartons of condensed milk tins were (I believe) loaded into the end door vans by conveyor. The unloading arrangement at the other end were a little less slick and (at Dumfries at least) consisted of a bloke standing in the four four handballing them off. 

 

I could be adding 2+2 and getting 214 of course. Failing that there is a Carlisle emigrant at work who knows more about the freight lines around there that I do, I'll ask him. 

[Wheatley]

My Carlisle contact has come back with "Does he mean the oil siding at Dalston ?", so no apparent joy there. 

[Karhedron]

Just for a bit extra context I was read that the Carlisle - Willesden milk train was made up of tanks from Express Dairy at Appleby, MMB at Aspatria and tanks from Nestle Siding at Carlisle. The first two I am familiar with but the only Nestle factory I have been able to find in the Carlisle area is the current one at Dalston. I was wondering if there had been a previous site nearer the city centre.

[big jim]

Has the McVities factory ever been part of nestlé, or indeed rail served? 
 

EDIT: a quick look at railmap on line does show the factory as once having a rail connection 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by big jim

[Wheatley]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

Just for a bit extra context I was read that the Carlisle - Willesden milk train was made up of tanks from Express Dairy at Appleby, MMB at Aspatria and tanks from Nestle Siding at Carlisle. The first two I am familiar with but the only Nestle factory I have been able to find in the Carlisle area is the current one at Dalston. I was wondering if there had been a previous site nearer the city centre.

Ah, got you. 2+2=214 indeed.

[Alex TM]

Knowing Nestle, the location and function of the siding will be a trade secret!

[jjb1970]

The only Nestle plant I know of in Carlisle is the Dalston one, that's not in Carlisle but it's very close, I used to regularly walk and cycle from Carlisle to Dalston and once clearing the city around the Pirelli factory it wasn't much even of a walk to Dalston. So I can see how some might use Carlisle for convenience and as somewhere people not from the area might have heard of. No sidings there though, and it's not that close to the Cumbrian coast line, it's sort of between Dalston and Carlisle and isn't particularly near the oil tank siding.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

I've read that the Dalston factory was rail connected. It's right next to the line - I don't know why @jjb1970 should think it isn't - so a rail connection seems obvious, but none is not shown in my mid-70s rail atlas. The factory opened in 1962 (does this fit in with your dates?) and was involved in milk production, which sort of fits, but I can't see why it should send tankers to London. The milk it bought in was sourced locally, and the factory made condensed and powdered milk, which would have gone out in vans.

 

I can't think of any other Nestle presence locally. Nestle bought Libby, McNeill & Libby (Milnthorpe) in 1970, but the factory continued using the Libby name and closed in 1995. Carnation wasn't bought out till the 1980s.

[jjb1970]

I've just looked at a map and the line is indeed much closer than I remembered it. Either way I think Nestle in relation to Carlisle means Dalston unless it was a transfer facility remote from the plant.

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

I've read that the Dalston factory was rail connected. It's right next to the line - I don't know why @jjb1970 should think it isn't - so a rail connection seems obvious, but none is not shown in my mid-70s rail atlas. The factory opened in 1962 (does this fit in with your dates?) and was involved in milk production, which sort of fits, but I can't see why it should send tankers to London. The milk it bought in was sourced locally, and the factory made condensed and powdered milk, which would have gone out in vans.

 

Opening in 1962 would be too late for the article in question (1950s). Still, thanks for sharing as that does imply there was another Nestle facility in Carlisle at one point. I think this earlier one was involved in the dispatch of fresh milk rather than making processed products.

[Karhedron]

Ah slightly more info here. There definitely was a Nestle factory in Carlisle itself in the 1940s (and possibly going back further). One Mr Edward Farish used to work there and keep the boilers running. The photos below show they definitely handled dairy traffic. Maybe Carlisle library should be my next port of call.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-31130822

 

[Karhedron]

In an amazing stroke of luck, I have found it. It was located on Currock Road, just by the bend, more or less where Topps Tiles is now. This is right by the line so is it certainly plausible that it had a siding (although this particular map does not show the lines unfortunately). Now I wonder if I can find any more photographs.

 

[SED Freightman]

The 1956 BTC Hand-Book of Stations lists Nesmilk Ltd as having a siding at Carlisle on the former Maryport & Carlisle, with the position or parent station given as Bog Goods Depot.

[Buhar]

On a 1901 OS map, there is an oil depot and (possibly) brewery siding between Bog Junction and Rome St, but nothing serving Topps Tiles which is actually a little bit elevated over the surrounding area.  If the Nestle site was more towards Crown Street then there are a couple of sidings off the M&C, diverging before the still extant goods shed and unlabelled on the map.

 

Nestle would probably arrive later than 1901, so that's not conclusive and they could have built their facilities in a way that they were able to use the M&C lines below or access those existing sidings.

 

Alan

[65179]

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.7&lat=54.88791&lon=-2.93073&layers=193&right=ESRIWorld

 

Bog Goods  certainly had immediately adjacent sidings at one stage.

 

Simon

[Karhedron]

Here is is, just on the western side of Bog Goods yard.

 

[Buhar]

This is the 1901 map.  Is it possible Nestle used the existing sidings just under BM54.7? Or maybe just one of them and is there some sort of shelter there?

 

Alan

[Mad McCann]

I was never aware of the Dalston Nestle plant ever being rail served and not did I see any evidence of a rail connection during my time there. 

However there was a plant in the city that produced something like Nesquik, over in the vicinity of the former Bog Yard, so perhaps this is the source of the 'Nestle siding' description.

 

Davy.