Transition to concrete sleeper use - broad dates?

[bmthtrains - David]

To make a small home (in other words, a layout) for a lovely Christmas present (a Bachmann 08) that is an ideal excuse to dip my toe into the world of OO gauge for the first time, I'm looking at a diorama or micro layout set in about 1990.

 

Having looked at various photos from that period, there seems to be a good mix of wooden and concrete track. I realise there is no set date where it all changed (would have been fun to watch though, like the end of Broad Gauge changeover!), but are there any broad dates for when concrete track was in general use rather than wooden?

 

The scene I'm planning would be a southern region (Dorset-ish) station a bit like Weymouth. It would have once been a lot larger, but has been rationalised and recently electrified. I guess my specific questions are which tracks would be wood or concrete:

 

1. Main line (concrete?)

2. Points (wood?)

3. Station lines (concrete?)

4. Yard (wood?)

 

(My guesses in brackets)

 

Any advice much appreciated

 

David

[Kris]

You could get away with a mixture of sleeper work on the plan tracks as you can still find wooden sleepers in reasonably busy stations. Plymouth has (or did have a few months ago) both wood and concrete sleepered lines.

As a bit or pure guessing I given that electrification reached Weymouth in 1988 I would assume that this would have been a logical time to go for track renewal, had the station not have been recently rationalised (1986?). If you used this logic then you might want the all concrete option.

[Pete the Elaner]

Definitely wood for points & yard.

Does everything stop at the station? If not, then treat it as a through running-line.

How busy is the 'main line'? If it is a major route, then it wouldd probably have concrete sleepers from 70's 80's. If it is a minor main line, then it may have retained wooden sleepers until the 90's.

[steviesparx]

I have noticed that concrete sleepers on points are relatively new, so even where a main line may have concrete sleepers, when it comes to pointwork the sleepers would be wooden...

[Fat Controller]

The South Wales main-line around Llanelli received concrete sleepers in the mid/late 1960s. However, there were remnants of wartime sidings around Old Castle Crossing which had concrete bi-block sleepers- these were used a lot on sidings , and also on loops extended or installed during WW2.

Concrete bearers/ 'timbers' wouldn't have been seen much before the end of the 1990s, and then only only high-speed junctions. It's only within the last decade that they've become more widespread.

On the subject of concrete sleepers, I noticed that Tarmac have just announced the closure of their Tallington plant, next to the ECML. I think this now means there is only one source in the UK, at Washwood Heath.

[The Stationmaster]

Concrete sleepers were in use - with chairs and bullhead rail - in the mid-late 1950s (and probably earlier?) but not I suspect on main lines although they were used in running lines on branches. Modern concrete sleepers used with welded flat bottom rail were first seen in experimental use in the early-mid 1960s and were being installed in mainlines on higher speed routes by the early 1970s.

Concrete bearers for pointwork appeared in the late 1980s as far as I can recall but only in very limited use in special situations. They didn't really get into wider use until the late 1990s I think.

Except back in the Edwardian period of expansion - and earlier of course siding relaying (except in the big new yards) tended to use second hand material with some exceptions. In WWII the GWR used concrete pots with a steel bar between them in sidings and these could be found into the 1970s. In addition the late 1940s (and possibly even the WWII period itself?) saw the use of pressed steel sleepers although disappeared from running line use quite rapidly in the 1950s but could still sometimes be found in sidings as late as the early 1970s although most of the ones I came across were in a very poor state by then. The first use, secondhand, in sidings of 'modern' concrete sleepers that I know of occurred in the 1980s.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Apparently the first successful use of Prestressed Concrete sleepers in Britain was in 1943. An article by HPJ Taylor, - The railway sleeper: 50 years of pretensioned, prestressed concrete, The Structural Engineer, 71, 281-295, August 1993, describes design principles of sleepers, as well as the history. There had been experiments with the use of concrete sleepers as far back as 1906 in Germany, and the Lynton & Barnstaple (closed 1935) is reputed to have had the first concrete sleepers in the UK.

In the 1960's I worked on a stretch of track approaching Shrewbridge Crossing near Nantwich where there were LMS bullhead chairs through-bolted to concrete sleepers. They were an absolute nightmare for track circuit performance.

[Black Sheep]

Given that some parts of the Norfolk broads were still on semaphore signals in the 1990's it is easier to claim "they haven't got round to it" for too much wood than having too much concrete!

 

it all looks similar once it's had oil dropped on it for a few years anyway!

[bmthtrains - David]

Thanks everyone, I will go with wooden for the lot then I think, though might include a stretch of concrete on the passing loop, as though it was a brand new addition, just to help give the impression the trackwork has been modernised again.

 

David

[Shamouti Ben Yafo]

All wood here at Gloucester, if that's any help. Some BH in evidence as well, but only short lengths - 2 bolt chairs, except for a short section under a buffer stop in 3 bolt chairs; maybe the stop was constructed elsewhere and installed as a unit.