aussiebrfan Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Gday there, wondering if anyone can help with or point me in the direction of any info on the abbatoirs at Uddens Crossing? In particular any photos or ideas on what buildings were located there. Also would the traffic flow be as simplistic as cows/livestock in and packaged meat out? Am trying to get an idea of what traffic would be generated for a local pickup goods, Thankyou Cheers Glenn Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dorset Wanderer Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Ditto Definitely, Yes please!! Anything of West Moors would be great. Also can anyone be of help with or point me in the direction of any info on the abbatoirs at Uddens Crossing? Cheers Glenn Uddens abatoire operated by FMC in the late sixties, not sure when they started their operation. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Bayford Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I know the Uddens site rather well (was even there today) i rember seeing pictures of the crossing there but never any of the sidings, does anyone know if there is any book published with them in? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussiebrfan Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Gday Tom and Steve, thanks for your replies. I used to live and work in West Moors (Elephant and Castle). Just wish Id done a bit more research while there on the ground so to speak, is a bit harder now I have moved back home to OZ! I also have seen pictures online of the crossing and signal box. Is there any evidence left now of what was once there? I have ordered a copy of Branchlines around Wimborne which I believe could contain a bit more info. Maybe someone on here will know a bit more or where else to look. Cheers Glenn Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Bayford Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Gday Tom and Steve, thanks for your replies. I used to live and work in West Moors (Elephant and Castle). Just wish Id done a bit more research while there on the ground so to speak, is a bit harder now I have moved back home to OZ! I also have seen pictures online of the crossing and signal box. Is there any evidence left now of what was once there? I have ordered a copy of Branchlines around Wimborne which I believe could contain a bit more info. Maybe someone on here will know a bit more or where else to look. Cheers Glenn Branch lines to Wimborne is the book that has the picture of the corssing house in i think from what i have seen there is very little left of the acctual crossing however the cuttings and even a pway hit still survive in the area Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dorset Wanderer Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 In the sixties I used to work on the FMC vehicles. Six wheel Seddons- were the fridge vehicles, BMC four wheelers were the cattle trucks. Changed the bodies off the Seddons onto Leyland chassis late sixties IIRC. Not aware at that time that rail was used, most abbatoirs were local affairs then and they would have picked up by road. The buildings were fairly basic, one at least was covered with corrugated iron-. Oh memories of steam cleaning a cattle wagon first thing on a Monday morning-stank for rest of the week! Have some local history books somewhere, if I can find them I'll see if any more info. Best wishes Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussiebrfan Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Gday Steve, thankyou very much for the insight, much appreciated. I had assumed that the abbatoir was rail serviced as there is a siding on the signal diagram for Uddens that is marked Abbatoir. This is the only bit of evidence I have come across however as there is not much info on the web. The info on the vehicles is fantastic. Would be very grateful for any further anecdotes or info from your good self, regards Glenn PS. One can only wonder at the horrors of cleaning those trucks!! Errgh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin.divall Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Several years on, but..... Uddens crossing would make a lovely cameo model; have toyed with the idea myself as I remember it in its last, freight-only days. There's a drawing of the very ornate crossing-keeper's lodge in an early 1970s Model Railways (1972, 1973?), one of a series about buildings and structures (mostly) along the Old Road by Maurice Kelly. (His drawing of Wimborne signal box is not overly accurate though, a pity because it seems to have inspired several models.) The FMC took over the siding from the Ministry of Supply, which had occupied the site in 1943 to construct a food depot (there was another fairly nearby, on the Salisbury and Dorset Junction, at Burgate, Fordingbridge). It's not clear whether the Uddens depot was an abattoir from the start or whether the buildings were converted when the FMC took over at an unknown date after the war but which might be ca 1953. The siding was constructed for the MoS. At the same time (I think - working without my notes) the box, which had been downgraded in 1938 to a ground frame for the level crossing and the up (Uddens Estate) siding was reinstated as a block post, although it could be switched out, leaving the block as Wimborne to West Moors. The estate siding was TOU when the MoS siding was built but was reinstated in 1953 and remained (along with the FMC siding) theoretically in use until ca 1965. Interestingly, after the down line was lifted ca 1967, another siding, a few hundred yards to the east, was created by connecting a short section of the former down into the former up line (a trailing connection in the Wimborne direction). This was for a short-lived traffic in clinker etc, said to be from BR steam sheds, for a breeze-block manufacturer. There was no crossover at Uddens, so the FMC siding had to be worked by down and the estate siding by up trains. I'm fairly sure that some, and perhaps most, of the incoming traffic (no idea if anything went out) was live cattle from Ireland. The well-known photo of 34051 at West Moors with a cattle train at West Moors junction coming off the S&DJ was almost certainly heading for the abattoir and might well have been been hauling Irish cattle. In any case it's clear from a surviving copy ca 1960 of the train register from Wimborne box that empties from Uddens were worked first to Wimborne, the first place for reversal, and were then sent back north. Given BR's increasingly reluctance to handle livestock, I imagine that by then this kind of long-distance flow was the only traffic to the abattoir. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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