Industrial shunter identification

[Jenny Emily]

I've been going through some old photographs I have, and came across the following shunter which was at the time (november 2001 I believe) on the section of track in Trafford Park just before the entrance to the Cerestar starch plant. The tracks are still there, but the locomotive has since disappeared.

 

 

Can anyone identify it and provide information on where it went and what its fate was? It seemed at the time a strange place to 'park' a locomotive, and I assumed it may have been either a gate gardian (unlikely) or had broken down and been left there sometime around the time that the tracks were last used (early 1990s?). Any help on ID would be appreciated.

[eastwestdivide]

What does it say on the side? I can make out The Trafford Park around the top, and possibly Community Group horizontally either side of the "P" logo, although I'm only 50% sure on Community and 75% on Group.

[Jenny Emily]

I don't know what the plaques on its side read; I never made a note. As for storage, it was not the greatest of places as it was on a public road with no fencing between the road and the track. The shunter's pole across the front buffers I seem to remember was just placed there. The track was rusted over, though on the frogs of some of the points it was possible to see where trains had passed in the colouration of the rust, but it was unclear how long beforehand. Further down the road the track looked in very dodgy condition with debris and subsidence where lorries had parked on it, and I doubt even that small shunter could have negotiated it without derailment.

[Adam]

It's a Thomas Hill, similiar to but different from this one (which was works no. 181v). Beyond that, I don't know.

 

Adam

[halfwit]

Looking through 11EL, published in 1996,* I reckon this loco could be Thomas Hill 180V, built in 1967. This is the only 6w loco noted in the Manchester area. (Note that 6w means 6 wheels not connected by coupling rods. Otherwise it would be recorded as an 0-6-0. This loco is described as a 6wDH, the DH denoting Diesel Hydraulic). 15EL, published in 2009, makes no mention of 180V suggesting that its been cut up.

 

*EL - Existing Locos - a series of handbooks published by the Industrial Railway Society listing all the locos in industrial use as well as preserved locos.

[Jenny Emily]

Thanks for the answers. I presume it was owned by Peel holdings (hence the 'P' on the plaque on the cab). I'm surprised that it may have gone for scrap, although internally it may have been shot. It seems odd though that it would have been moved away without anyone knowing about it; surely it would have turned up at one of the usual places for scrapping and been spotted there?

[Michael Edge]

It's TH 180v, one of only a handful of chain drive 6wh locos Thomas Hill built. As far as I know it went for scrap - unfortunately before I could measure it up.

Michael Edge

[Jenny Emily]

It's TH 180v, one of only a handful of chain drive 6wh locos Thomas Hill built. As far as I know it went for scrap - unfortunately before I could measure it up.

Michael Edge

 

I presume it must have been mechanically shot. Shame, as externally at least it looked okay. Would have made a more interesting gate guardian for one of the entries into Trafford Park.

[bennyboy]

The shunters on TPE were often parked outside Cerestar in the later days of the rail system as I think that the shed at Mode Wheel Locks had been cut off from the rest of the network by then. Oh and the last train to Cerestar was in about 2000.