steve1 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Does anyone have any photos showing a 'typical' S&T siding/depot/dumping ground? What I'm after is pics that show how stuff is kept, the sort of structures used and basically anything that can assist me in replicating such a location. I can't find anything in any of my books and net searches haven't brought anything useful to light. Thanks in advance. steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 12, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2011 Does anyone have any photos showing a 'typical' S&T siding/depot/dumping ground? What I'm after is pics that show how stuff is kept, the sort of structures used and basically anything that can assist me in replicating such a location. I can't find anything in any of my books and net searches haven't brought anything useful to light. Thanks in advance. steve Firstly what era are we talking about as this will have an impact on what you might see Secondly most true S&T kit (even mechanical stuff) is actually pretty sensative and doesn't like being stored outside in the open for long peroids, it also is pretty valuable, especially things like drums of cable, etc. Thus usually the only time you will see true S&T equipment lying about in view (as oposed to being stored away in a stores / wherehouse buildings is when a resignalling or renewell project is iminant. (For the record cable troughing does not count as S&T equipment as such and consiquently will usually be found along with p-way stores, i.e. sleepers etc). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1 Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Phil, Thanks for that. You're quite right about time and I should have thought about that before pressing 'Post'. I'm talking about within the last 10 years. steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
micknich2003 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Steve, the attached is best I can manage, the P Way store at Gylberdyke mid '80's. Not exactly a store, more a collection of "Spare Bits". Mick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1 Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Brilliant Mick! Thanks steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merfyn Jones Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Our depot around 20 years ago, sorry for me being in the way! Not much change since then except the trees having grown all around. Merf. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted October 12, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2011 Sorry, no photos to hand, but a few memories. My running of a depot and site operations was on Major Works between 1988 and 1995, so a bit before your period. What was on the ground would depend on what type of depot, Maintenance, Minor Works or Major Works. Maintenance depots had only a few things outside, usually enough cable to make good after relaying jobs, a few spare mechanical bits for points, some orange pipe and that was about all. Minor Works had some more cable, a few trackside location cases, orange pipe and mechanical fittings, and perhaps some concrete troughing and other concrete items. Major Works would have more stuff, the types depending on the nature and progress of the jobs in hand. When I was a depot engineer, besides a store in the main building I had about 10 shipping containers for things that needed to be kept dry. The compound had up to 100 drums of cable at any time and anything up to 50 location cases. There would also be a number of signal stuctures (in bits), pallets of clamp lock equipment etc. Concrete items in the yard would include various sizes of troughing and equipment bases. There would also be orange pipe, channel rodding etc. Most deliveries from main stores came on pallets, including the box sided type. On large worksites I also used polytunnels to store stuff under cover, and had temporary compounds sometimes made of chainlink and others with Heras fencing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian Smeeton Posted October 13, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 13, 2011 Probably one of the most visible S&T sidings/depots apart from |reading was just to the North (East) side of Leicester station, where, I beleive there aws a signalling school. Several examples of signals, both colour light & semaphore on a short siding, and a large amount of associated equuipment, but much tidier than the photo above. There ust be a few photos around, surely. Regards Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted October 13, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2011 And I forgot the skips. Large rectangular ones for scrap metal, cable, etc. Smaller one for general rubbish. Gasvaults, flamvaults, toolvaults. Spent oil tank. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1 Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 This is grand stuff, just what I need. Many thanks! steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 13, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 13, 2011 Phil, Thanks for that. You're quite right about time and I should have thought about that before pressing 'Post'. I'm talking about within the last 10 years. steve Ok thats helpful in more ways than one as it corresponds with my time on the S&T. Our depot (http://maps.google.c...=h&z=21&vpsrc=6) is a faulting and maintenance one located within a large ASC. Consequently the parts and tools we need are based on renewing individual bits (e.g. the gearbox within a point machine - renewing the machine would be a job for the renewals division). Consequently the stores are mostly inside the building or in a single shipping container rather than outside in the compound. Outside we currently have a selection of cable drums outside, orange pipe, oil store a couple of AWS magnets, some Impedance bonds and ally plate (for 3rd rail areas) waste skip for metalwork, bin for empty oil containers a AHB boom and thats about it (if you exclude the four barrier machines and booms that have been awaiting installation for the past 12 months). Gas bottle are not required by the S&T nor are there stores of concrete toughing or anything p-way related. The renewals division however is based at Brighton, the HQ of the route but even here most stuff is kept inside (http://maps.google.c...=h&z=20&vpsrc=6 ). This is aided by the fact that not only is there plenty of storage space dating back to when the complex was built in the 70s (and now only half used due to the outsourcing of various functions during privatisation) but it is also home to the main stores department for all P-way, S&T & ETE (3rd rail guys) who naturally want to keep everything under lock and key. Thus from an S&T perspective there is very little stored outside which is dominated by p-way requirements. Overall therefore the picture of the past 10 years is that depots generally have very little ‘new stuff’ just lying around compared to BR days. Another point to consider is that in this age dominated by accountants, every bit of equipment sitting around unused represents a large quantity of cash sitting around doing nothing. To resolve this ‘issue’ the railway has tried to move to a ‘just in time’ based ordering system as pioneered by the automotive and retail industry. Additionally as technology moves on, S&T equipment in particular is becoming more valuable, sensitive and bespoke in nature, which naturally is reflected in its storage and issue to depots. Probably one of the most visible S&T sidings/depots apart from |reading was just to the North (East) side of Leicester station, where, I beleive there aws a signalling school. Several examples of signals, both colour light & semaphore on a short siding, and a large amount of associated equuipment, but much tidier than the photo above. There ust be a few photos around, surely. Regards Ian In days gone by, I beieve it was quite common to have a mini training compound set up at pricipal S&T depots but over the years most of these have either been abandoned or been turned into larger training establishments. While i don't have exact data on this my hunch is that the decline started after the Clapham Junction crash where the shortcomings of BRs technical training, lack of perodic re-testing, unwriten and ill defined testing procedures, bad rostering practices, etc with regard to S&T staff were heavily critisised. Privitisation won't have helped either and while some of the new IMCs kept their training locations, others prefered to do deals with the likes of Catalysis (who bought BRs main training centres e.g. Derby, Crewe, Clapham, etc). These days Network rail have taken lots of the traing back in house and built new training schools at various locations but in the main, these are not adjacent to exsisting S&T compounds. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
43110andyb Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 As an S&T worker for the past 22 years I have to say that very little is stored outside now as has been mentioned. The only items that are left lying around up our neck of the woods are troughing bases and lids in large quantities. We have had many break ins to our cable stores that have huge roller doors so storage outside is a NO NO!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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