parcels handling elsewhere than stations ?

[rob D2]

Hi,

i rather fancied doing some early 80s parcel trains but I haven't the room for a traditional large station,

question is were they ever dealt with elsewhere ? I mean a dedicated parcels paltform, maybe a little way from the main station.

 

The only example I can think of is paddington parcels platform but that was pretty much attached to the station,

 

any help appreciated

[AMJ]

I recently posted a few photos taken in Leeds of the depot. This essentially is a parallel station to the main passenger one. Many of the platforms have now been changed to be the ones used by the Aire valley electrics.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/16467-night-mail/page__p__155725__hl__night

 

Just 2 or three platforms with a couple of storage roads.

[Oldddudders]

Hi,

i rather fancied doing some early 80s parcel trains but I haven't the room for a traditional large station,

question is were they ever dealt with elsewhere ? I mean a dedicated parcels paltform, maybe a little way from the main station.

 

The only example I can think of is paddington parcels platform but that was pretty much attached to the station,

 

any help appreciated

By all means have a parcels platform - when I worked at Dartford in '79/80, the morning paper train was the only service of the day to call at a particular wooden platform away from the passenger station. How about obscure cross-country parcels services? Can you imagine a 6.39 Blisworth to Redhill (Surrey) running every weekday? It did! Arriving at Redhill from Reading via Guildford about lunchtime, it must have gone across to Oxford and round from there. This service ran from the late '50s - maybe earlier - until the early '70s. With parcels services you can design what suits your space and not be wrong.

[woodenhead]

Mayfield in Manchester - it's a little more than a platform.

[Armchair Modeller]

What about Red Bank sidings near Manchester Victoria - I believe they handled parcels and newspapers, at least???

[beast66606]

My local station - Rock Ferry - used to have tail traffic on the staple DMU service to/from Chester, the CCTs (iirc) were shunted around by 101s - might be an interesting concept ? (the track plan for this bit was a double track to buffer stops, with a facing and trailing crossover)

[pete_mcfarlane]

Nottingham London Road low level was used as a parcels depot from closure to passengers in the '40s until the '80s. Not the smallest station, but how about modelling the remains of a larger station that is now only used for parcels?

 

I must have been interesting to work as well, as the platforms faced the "wrong way" for most incoming trains.

[rob D2]

Thanks guys,

I love those photos of leeds - I only have space for one platform face, hence if it was truly a station it wouldn't be big enough to have regular long mail/parcels trains therefore it would need to be a purely parcels set up somwewhere away from the 'main' station.

 

I am incresingly drawn to the variety of stock involved - there were always sidings full of GUVs and various mk1 stuff whereever I went.

 

As an aside does anyone know how the newspaper trains worked ? were they purely for newspapers (thinking of Bachmann mk1 newspaper coaches available fairly cheaply), where did they go to ?

[Oldddudders]

As an aside does anyone know how the newspaper trains worked ? were they purely for newspapers (thinking of Bachmann mk1 newspaper coaches available fairly cheaply), where did they go to ?

The newspaper trains were probably the most closely-monitored regular services on the railway - every minute had to be accounted for. They typically carried only papers, but usually had a limited passenger accommodation and the "customer" was the Newspaper Proprietors' Association - NPA. The ones I knew best were the 3.20 Vic-Brighton and 3.27 Vic-Eastbourne, having in 1967 counted bundles of papers on to the vans at Vic. Other services included the 3.00 Vic-Ramsgate and 3.40 Vic-Dover. Link services ran from junctions to key locations off-route. From Waterloo there was a 1.15 to Ilfracombe, Torrington, Plymouth and Padstow, dividing at Exeter and Okehampton. No doubt the Portsmouth and Bournemouth routes had dedicated trains, too.

 

Obviously north of London similar stories unfolded, with regional printing of certain papers adding to the mix of origins and destinations. Certainly the arrival of the paper train would see a flurry of activity in the small hours as local newsagents and people like Smiths and Surridge-Dawson unloaded bundles with their name on, while station staff fussed to ensure timekeeping.

 

Railway engineers hated the paper trains, as they so often required an overnight engineering possession to be lifted while the papers passed, and they would not have been sorry to see the business lost!

[The Stationmaster]

One thing which might be interesting is a 'seasonal' mail platform. These sprung up at various places as Christmas approached and were ineveitably temporary structres built on lightly used open platforms - sometimes a wooden frame covered with wagon sheets.

 

All sorts of train formations used them as Christmas traffic peaks meant grabbing anything and and everything which could convey mail or parcels traffic. Definitely something a bit different.

 

Newspaper trains (and trains conveying newspapers - which is not quite the same thing) tended to run from passenger stations and obviously from places where widely read newspapers were printed, e.g. London, Manchester and Glasgow.

 

The formation depended on what the train was meant to do and the area it served. Thus if, say, the train conveyed 'packing vans' (they were vehicles in which the bundles of 'papers loaded at starting point were broken up and repacked according to destination orders) the foirmation and requirements were rather different from trains which simply conveyed the bulk packages as loaded.

 

Some examples -

 

May 1970, 00.40 Paddington - Penzance Newspaper Train. (Max Load 420 tons)

 

Front

GUV Penzance MX (conveyed parcels traffic)

GUV Plymouth MX (conveyed parcels traffic)

GUV Plymouth MX (conveyed Parcel Post)

SG Penzance

BSK Penzance (also conveyed urgent shipping traffic for Falmouth via Truro)

BG Penzance

SG Plymouth (fitted with ttrestle tables - for packing)

SG Plymouth

GUV Kingswear (Newspapers)

GUV Exeter MX (Parcel Post)

SG Exeter (Newspapers)

GUV Barnstaple (Newspapers)

GUV Taunton (Newspapers

 

00.50 Paddington - Milford Haven, Newspaper Train. Conveys Sleeeping Car Passengers

 

Front

GUV Cardiff MO (probably for parcels but not clear)

GUV Swansea MO ( ditto )

GUV Swansea MO ( dito )

GUV Milford Hvn (Parcel Post)

SLF Milford Hvn

SLS Milford Hvn

BSK Milford Hvn

SG Carmarthen (News)

SG Carmarthen (News)

SG Carmarthen (News)

SG Cardiff (News)

SG Cardiff (News)

BG Cardiff

SG Newport (News)

SG Newport (News)

GUV Newport (Parcel Post)

 

01.10 Paddington - Worcester (Via Cjeltenham) Newspaper Train.

 

Front

GUV Worcester

GUV Worcester

GUV Worcester MX

BG Worcester MX

GUV Worcester MX

GUV Worcester MX

GUV Worcester MX

 

02.15 Paddington - Bristol Newspaper Train. (Must not concvey passengers from Paddington)

 

Front

GUV Bristol TM (Conveyed parcels)

GUV Bristol TM MO (probably for parcels)

BSK Bristol TM (for train men, and on MO passengers from Bath,

unadvertised)

6 x SG Bristol TM (all news vans, formed by painted number and all

gangwayed, for toilet purposes, i.e they are packing vans)

BG Gloucester (News)

SG Gloucester (News)

GUV Swindon (News)

 

02.50 Paddington - Hayes, Staff and Newspaper Train

 

SPC and DET

 

02.52 Paddington - Banbury, Newspaper Train

 

Front

BG

3x SO

FK

CK

BSK

3x SO

 

03.25 Paddington - Oxford Newspaper Train (Must not convey passengers from Paddington)

 

Front

PMV Oxford

GUV Oxford

BSK Oxford

SG Oxford (gangwayed, Packing van for Smith & Sons)

SG Oxford (gangwayed, Packing van for Messrs W. Mallett)

BG Oxford

SG Didcot (Packing van for John Menzies)

BG Newbury

2 xSG Reading (Packing vans for Smith & Sons, and Pettys)

GUV Reading (Parcel Post)

 

 

Hope that gives you a taste anda bit of variety. An SG is a Siphon G.

[rob D2]

all interesting stuff chaps - I guess a newspaper train could drop off a couple of BGs or siphons and then continue to some larger conurbation.

 

Did the newspaper trains (which clearly arrived very early) go back straight away or were they combined with another service later ?

[The Stationmaster]

all interesting stuff chaps - I guess a newspaper train could drop off a couple of BGs or siphons and then continue to some larger conurbation.

 

Did the newspaper trains (which clearly arrived very early) go back straight away or were they combined with another service later ?

 

The vans were returned during the day in empty van trains, the coaching stock in most cases came back in balancing passenger workings. Then it was all remarshalled ready for the next night.

[70022Tornado]

The old "Riverside" platforms at Cardiff General (Sorry Central) were parcels only in thier latter years.

 

70022

[ColinW]

Tonbridge sorting office had a platform built in the mid eighties, and is still there, which mean't they didn't have to put the TPO into the Bay platform in Tonbridge station. This is about quarter of a mile from Tonbridge station but also had two main lines running beside it! Was stopped being used when the TPO was withdrawn by Royal Mail.

 

Colin

[40044]

What about Red Bank sidings near Manchester Victoria - I believe they handled parcels and newspapers, at least???

 

Red Bank is the depot where the vans were serviced and stabled. No loading/unloading would have taken place there.

 

 

 

From the Liverpool area:

 

WH Smith at Broad Green had a siding where a couple of vans would be detached from an overnight Man. Vic. - Liverpool train, these would then be collected late morning and taken to Edge Hill where they would be formed into an Edge Hill - Red Bank empties. Ended in 1988.

 

Spekeland Road - used to send out a few vans (BGs mainly) loaded by the GPO each afternoon for addition to a Liverpool - Dover service. Ended by 1991.

 

Alexandra Dock - loaded mail and parcels traffic from the Isle of Man/Ireland for the south of England. Ended by 1987

 

Canada Dock - as above until closure in 1982.

 

Wavertree PCD - 4 road shed where trains would be loaded and formed up for destinations all over the UK. Closed to parcels traffic around 1983 then handled international goods traffic for Transfesa until 1991.