mozzer models Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 would the solid waste from the setalment tanks be taken out by rail as i am after a narrow/standard gauge interchange in steam days Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Story from more than 20 years ago from Minworth Water Treatment works during the time that they had Hewlett Packard Control equipment that my then company use to sell them. Minworth was (is?) the largest treatment works in Europe. Chap came up an asked if he could have some sludge to fertilise his lawn. They just needed to get rid of it so they let him have anything he wanted. He took quite a lot because he had a large lawn. Few months later he came back playing merry hell as his pristine bowling green lawn was sprouting tomatoes all over the place. He had discovered that tomato seeds are very resistant to human digestive processes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 ...hence tomatoes in the four-foot. Minworth had an extensive narrow gauge railway network too, but I've never established if there was a mainline link towards the Park Lane Jct triangle close to Old Kingsbury Road. Maybe other West Midlanders have gen on this. There always was a suspicious looking embankment going off in the direction of the main line, that was bisected by the Water Orton road, but maybe this was to conceal a huge diameter sewage pipe...? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium petethemole Posted December 6, 2009 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 6, 2009 Just this evening on Discovery Turbo was a repeat of the Salvage Squad episode featuring a WW1 'protected' Simplex narrow gauge loco. It was originally preserved from Leeds Knostrop Sewage Works in the 60s. The programme included clips of it hauling solid waste in side tipping skip trucks. It's on again at 3.50am! Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzer models Posted December 6, 2009 Author Share Posted December 6, 2009 thanks everone Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjh Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Industrial railways have been used occasionally on the largest metropolitan sewage works to move sludge around to the tip / drying beds. I don't know, but I doubt that it was ever taken off site by rail. It has a fairly low agricultural value, and in steam days was rarely treated to a level that would make it safe for agricultural use anyway. Add to that the smell, human health risks and difficulty in handling the stuff and most railway companies wouldn't handle it with the proverbial barge-pole I would imagine! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 838rapid Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Sheffield waste was taken from the sewage works near Meadowhall by rail,through what is now Rotherham Central station and tipped in a siding just off the Thryburgh line. The points and junction on the Thryburgh line was removed following the flooding that took place a few years ago. Will see if i can find out the name of the junction if that helps. There was still a sewerage rail wagon in the sewage works until recently,however i understand it has been preserved by the NRM. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Sheffield waste was taken from the sewage works near Meadowhall by rail,through what is now Rotherham Central station and tipped in a siding just off the Thryburgh line. The points and junction on the Thryburgh line was removed following the flooding that took place a few years ago. Will see if i can find out the name of the junction if that helps. There was still a sewerage rail wagon in the sewage works until recently,however i understand it has been preserved by the NRM. These wagons were BR registered, and issued with a BR Diagram- I was given a weight diagram for one some years ago, when someone was clearing out stuff from Newcastle Control. I believe they were the only wagons in the Diagram Book with dumb buffers. In the wool-producing areas around Leeds and Bradford, the sewage plants used to seperate the lanolin that came from fleeces being washed from the rest of the waste, and sell it on to be refined for use in industries such as cosmetics. I suspect some of these plants were rail connected. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 "....... sewage plants used to seperate the lanolin that came from fleeces being washed from the rest of the waste ........... " . I had to read this twice Brian, having watched Tony Robinson (in The worst jobs in history) tramping fleeces (not faeces) in vats of urine !!!!! . Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 "....... sewage plants used to seperate the lanolin that came from fleeces being washed from the rest of the waste ........... " . I had to read this twice Brian, having watched Tony Robinson (in The worst jobs in history) tramping fleeces (not faeces) in vats of urine !!!!! . Brian R I think it was done mechanically...... Prior to WW2, my great-aunt kept a pub on Bryn Terrace, Llanelli (it's the building on the LHS of the photo of the cover of the book on the Nevill's Dock and Railway)- she told me that there was a man who would collect the urine from the pubs to be used in 'pickling' steel prior to galvanising or tinplating. I believe he was known as 'Dai yr Lant' Over time, the old pickling vats would build up a layer of nitrate salts on their walls- many years later, after the works had become derelict, we would scrape these off to make home-made 'flash powder'. 'It may be s*** to you, but it's our bread and butter...' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 In the wool-producing areas around Leeds and Bradford, the sewage plants used to seperate the lanolin that came from fleeces being washed from the rest of the waste, and sell it on to be refined for use in industries such as cosmetics. I suspect some of these plants were rail connected. Esholt Sewage Works was connected to the Midland Main Line near Thackley. The internal railway system there was used to take sludge from the press house across the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to the drying grounds where it was tipped and dried, then bagged as fertilizer. So much wool oil was extracted from the sludge that the two locos used, Nellie and Elizabeth, were converted to burn it. The sewage works was built in what used to be Esholt Estate and were (are) surrounded by woodland. Apart from the smell it was really quite pretty. After the various local government and water board reorganisations Yorkshire Water now run the sewage works and Bradford Council manage to woodlands and sawmill. I had a holiday job in the sawmill in 1986, we were always stumbling across bits of the old railway system. Nellie is now in Bradford Industrial Museum, Elizabeth is at Armley Mills in Leeds, both are well worth a visit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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