J25

Looking at the photographs of DVLR Platforms, the brick piers supported the cross members, so the reference to 1' 1 1/2" x 1' 10" timbers must refer to these cross-members. The dimensions of these timbers seem a little large for the job, but 1' 1 1/2" depth would seem to match up with the photos. The top line of bricks on the piers were laid on their side The cross member and planking would account for 1' 4 1/2 inches, so the brick piers would be 1' 7" from rail level, about 5 brick courses to rail level and maybe an extra two courses to ground level. Another traffic that is mentioned in the Stockwell book is scrap from Clancey's scrapyard at Murton. He makes mention of an occasion when Clancey's sent out 15 wagons of scrap a week during a steel shortage, but give no dates, but I do recall seeing a train of 16T mineral wagons loaded arriving at Layerthorpe. This would have been in the early seventies, but I can recall nothing else of the occasion. The loop at Murton seemed to be used solely for storage of Tankers, so any loaded wagons of scrap would have to have been hauled to Dunnington for running around.

This is the platform specification from the original documents: Platform specification - Dunnington: Original platform length 200 foot 16 Piers 14 ft 1 ½ inches between piers Upper (timber) element of piers: 1 ft 1 ½ inches x 1 ft 10 inches. Brick base of pier: 1 ft 6 inches x 2 ft 2 ½ inches. Platform was 3 ft above the rail and the edge was 2 foot 3 inches from nearside rail. The timber edging to the platform was made up of 3 inch planks, each 3 foot long. The platform itself was hardcore surfaced (initially) with cinders. With platforms situated beyond the loops, none of the major DVLR stations lend themselves to compression, length-wise.

If you look at the photos, the tariff shed has phone lines going to it, and additional doors fitted, so was possibly an office in the seventies. I didn't answer the question about the van as I was looking to find a link to the the discussion about it on RMWEB, but I cannot find it. It was a fish van. I have the specifications for the platform, piers, etc but not here with me now-I will let you know what they are, all I can remember off hand is that the sleeper edging to the platform was 3 foot wide. There is also the loading "hump" that was added to the platform between the station building an the crossing gate in 1963-possibly in readiness for the demolition of then loading bank and extension of the siding. Incidently, Highlight Engineering Ltd, not Yorkshire Grain Driers, were the owners of Churchill.

The caption to the photograph is misleading in that it states that the crane was "seen at Layerthorpe in July 1974" but also that the photograph dated from November 1973. What it doesn't say is that the photograph was taken at Sledmere Siding (which it was). There were no high level loading docks at Layerthorpe. This is my poor instamatic shot of the Great Central van at the same location.

There was also an ex GCR van in black that spent some time at Sledmere Siding-I will post the photo here.

The access was in place by the time of the 1949 survey, the concreted area was used to store Dunn's plant in the 1950s, and may have done so earlier. The engineering works was built later on the northern edge of this area of concrete. The loading banks were as you described-I think they were all the same length and they were designed to be used in one direction-i.e. the carts went up a 1 in 12 slope at the station building end and the empty cards exited down a 1 in 10 slope at the far end of the ramp. The sleeper edging of the extension can be seen on one of the photos in the book, and the timber frontage can be glimpsed in front of the stabled class 04 in one of the 1971 photos.

I think you are right about the repaint date for the Thompson brake. It was certainly grey by 1971 and a repaint at the time the 04s were purchased seems likely. The SECR brake was probably green when acquired and simply faded over the years. In 1975 I came across loco no. 2 with a solitary wagon. The wagon held gravel, sand & cement and the crew were installing "whistle" signs which were car number plates. This wagon was effectively a flat but had been a 3 planker . It had a 1921 SECR makers plate. This may have been the green wagon that appears in Mr Stockwells book. The SECR brake was part of a gas decontamination unit in London early in the war. It was not the obvious candidate for acqusition by a railway in York-except for the existence of the Mustard Gas plant at Cottingwith. I wonder if a decontamination unit was sent to the DVLR because of this plant and was sold to the DVLR at the end of the war. This may explain the presence of a second SECR vehicle on the line and the green livery for the at least one of the internal wagon fleet.

I have had a further look at the photos of Dunnington. The extension to the beet loading dock was sleeper built, similar to that at Sledmere Siding. As the latter dated to the late 1920s, the extension at Dunnington may date back that far. The concrete block edge to it seems to have been put in place to allow a roadway across the siding and running line to access a concreted area between that line and the boundary fence.

The SECR van carried a green livery throughout its time on the DVLR. It moved to The Chasewater Railway in 1968 before the DVLR painted everything grey. I have not been able to find out what livery the LNER pigeon van ran in before it was painted presumably BR Maroon.

If you look at the picture above the one you mention on page 85 you can see that there is a structure behind the lorry which will be one of the two on the loading platform. These seem, therefore, to have been conventional sheds, not nissen huts. There were two lots of nissen huts on the long siding-the two you mention, plus others to the other side of the potato/carrot warehouse-the corner of one can be seen on plate 81 in the Middleton book, which shows the original grain drier and the first extension to the drier. The 1965 ordnance survey map shows the platform these huts stood on, but the huts had gone, as had the two huts you mentioned. At some time around 1965 the drier was further extended right up to potato/carrot warehouse (you can see on several photos the difference in roof colours between the first extension and the second, larger one. The potato/carrot warehouse remained intact into the mid 1970s at least. I have found a note that the high-level loading bank was removed in 1974. The assertion in "Rails along the Derwent" the track plan at Dunnington saw little change prior to the 1970s is not quite correct in that a kick-back siding was built from the long siding in the 1950s to serve the grain drier, the empty wagons were propelled through the loading point and then shunted under the loader "by a lorry using a rope" (1959) though the Middleton Press book shows a tractor near the loading point which may have served the same purpose. There doesn't appear to be a surviving construction plan for Dunnington, but the evidence is that the short siding would originally have run behind the small goods shed and terminated in an end loading dock. This would have been obliterated when the station building was extended. The siding was then shortened and re-aligned closer to the running line. at some point in the early sixties the station platform was shortened, the loading bank and sheds removed and the siding extended.

The van had a ramp leading to it and was used to store oil barrels in the 1950s when the short siding was used as an oil depot. At the time of the 1949 survey there were 3 separate loading banks on the siding. The first was the original beet loading bank, the second is that that appears as a grey rectangle on the plan in the book. This was separate from the platform on which stood the two Nissen huts. The middle loading bank was cut into the ramp of the original bank and was probably a different height above the rails. I don't know what traffic was handled at Dunnington during the war, but presumably this ramp was installed to handle it. I will PM you some images of the area.

The cutting back of the platforms and the removal of the store did not take place at the same time. The platform was shortened first, possibly when the grain drier was extended c. 1965, but certainly by September 1971. The platform store remained until at least 1976 (it can be seen in photos of "Hardwicke" at the station in that year), but had been removed by the summer of 1977. The loading dock had also been shortened at the station building end by 1971, ending with a retaining wall of concrete blocks. I have a recollection of the grain dryer side of the embankment being cut back and walled with sleepers. The loading dock was removed by 1975, the siding being used to used for the unloading of bagged fertiliser on pallets. The short siding remained in place in 1976, but had gone by 1978. There was a Great Northern 8 ton van on the part of the platform. This was moved to stand in front of the original grain drier where it remained until at least 1977. I was then moved to the side of the carrot washery between the Grain Drier and the station masters house,where it remained until well after the line closed.

This photo dates from 1912 and shows the station when newly completed. The photo appeared in the NER magazine of June 1912.

The North Eastern Railway Association will be able to supply you with the original NER track plan. The station was closed to passengers in 1930 along with most of the small stations on the York-Scarborough line as stopping trains serving them were getting in the way of through holiday traffic (The competing bus services into York from Strensall and Haxby having been acquired by West Yorkshire Road Car Company, which was partly owned by the LNER).

It will be Thorganby station as this has been left to decay for some time (possibly after a planning dispute over a proposed change of use many years ago). The building at Wheldrake was, indeed, dismantled and most of it reconstructed at Murton.

This is to the south of the station, the complex of buildings around the former locomotive works, the site of the original York Railway Museum-The city walls can be seen in the background.