AntonC

Amazing, thank you very much for going to such effort - the pictures are great. Any more would always be a bonus but to have these is extremely welcome. 

 

I'm going to continue to mine your knowledge and ask:

 

Did the MGR coal wagons discharge into the same unloading facility as the limestone wagons (seems unlikely?) or did they have a separate under track discharge point? Also, presumably the coal traffic ended at some point as coal power was replaced with, eg oil?

 

I have noticed that if you look at the current Winnington site on google maps the sidings that curve to the left after the roadbridge split into two, on the right side there is the current unloading pit and limestone storage but on the left side there appears to be what could have been coal unloading facilities and a large heap of coal (?). Conveyors lead from both areas into what I presume is a screening plant, which itself has a conveyor to the lime kilns so my assumption is that there are separate discharge points from which raw materials (coal, limestone) pass (but are kept separate) into a common screening plant before being fed into the kilns?

 

On a related note, another area I am really struggling to get any photos or even much info on is Gorstage sidings/Wallerscote light railway in general, have you come across anything that covers those areas? Would be particularly interested in anything that shows the relationship between the sidings and any junction/connection to the WCML (I can't even find any relevant track plans). 

 

Hopefully if we put out some feelers for the archives we might get some information, or at least know to stop looking! It would be great to find them, not just from a narrow modelling perspective but because of their general importance in terms of industrial history. 

 

Thanks again for all your help. 

Thank you so much for posting these photos - I've recently bought (and am reading) your ICI hoppers book and these additional details of the actual operations from my proposed period of modelling are incredibly helpful

Anthony