SED Freightman

Slightly further afield but still SR, 35027 'Port Line' was among the locos displayed and USA tank 30072 powered brake van rides at Woking Yard in 1988. A more exotic visitor to the SED in 1985 was LTE No.12 'Sarah Siddons' which operated a railtour from Victria to Dover Marine in 1985, it could always have ventured down your branchline with a special at some stage. One other unsual service that would certainly have visited your terminus would have been the Chipmans weedkilling train, which by the late 80's was being hauled by Hunslet - Barclay owned Class 20's.

Eastwestdivide & Joseph Pestell, many thanks for the info, sorry to have drifted off topic. Whilst involved in the early days of Gefco traffic from Sheerness, including loading Partner vans in an ex Motorail GUV (in 1997), I had not realised they were subsequently forwarding traffic in the quantities seen in the photo, which is presumably traffic for Corby, Doncaster or Mossend.

Can anyone identify the product being conveyed ? It may be a train operated for Gefco if they are Peugot / Citroen vehicles and the photo was taken in the late 1990's as suggested. This would also tie in with the use of single deck wagons as their Berlingo type vehicles would not fit (at least with a sensible payload) on double deck wagons.

The wagons are used on the FLHH operated service from Grain to Colnbrook.

A further dig through old WTT's has revealed that the Andover / Gillingham service continued to pass via Westbury until autumn 1987 with the trains operating much the same as shewn in my earlier post. SR Section WK Freight Working Timetable commencing 05/10/87 shows trains diverted to run via Southcote Jn and Basingstoke, also the use of Salisbury East Yd was discontinued, revised service as below :- 6O36 1726 (ThO) Ince UKF Sdgs to Gillingham UKF Sdg - Company Service Southcote Jn 03/40 (Fri) Basingstoke 0400 - 0402 Crew stop Andover UKF Sdg 0445 - 0545 Detach portion Gillingham Station 0651 - 0701 Run round Gillingham UKF Sdg arr.0703 6M22 1614 (FO) Gillingham UKF Sdg to Ince UKF Sdgs - Company train Salisbury 1642 - 1647 Crew and pathing stop Andover UKF Sdg 1724 - 1800 Attach portion Basingstoke 1836 - 1837 Crew stop Southcote Jn 18/59 With regard to the banking of services from Westbury, as mentioned by 'Jools1959', the need gradually reduced with the introduction of more powerful locos, and finally dissapeared from the timetable commencing in September 1992.

The sand train operators would have to weigh up the relatively small time saving (which may not actually be a benefit to the overall working) against the track access charges for using the new line, which would presumably be rather high to cover the cost of infrastructure capable of handing 25.5t axleloads compared to much lighter passenger stock. Use of metre gauge would certainly be a non starter if the services are to run onto the National Network, however as a stand alone system using off the shelf stock and equipment from the continent there could well be potential savings, especially if the services were extended on street into the centre of Norwich. What is the potential market for 75mph services Norwich to Kings Lynn ? or would a (say) 50mph light rail network serving the intermediate towns / villages still be competitive with car / bus journey times, especially if services were able to extend closer to Norwich city centre with on street operation.

Only just caught up with this topic so a belated response unfortunately. SR Section WK Freight Working Timetable commencing 13/05/1985 shows the following workings :- 6O36 1726 (ThO) Ince UKF Sdgs to Andover UKF Sdg - Company Service Westbury Down Yd dep.0115 (FO) Warminster 0130 - 0136 detach assisting loco (banker) Salisbury Stn 0211 - 0212 crew stop Salisbury East Yd 0214 - 0250 detach Gillingham portion Andover UKF Sdg arr.0327 6L59 0433 (FO) Salisbury East Yd to Gillingham UKF Sdg - Company Service Gillingham Stn 0504 - 0511 run round Gillingham UKF Sdg arr.0513 6L83 1614 (FO) Gillingham UKF Sdg to Andover UKF Sdg - Company Service Salisbury Stn 1642 - 1649 crew stop Andover UKF Sdg arr.1726 6M22 1803 (FO) Andover UKF Sdg to Ince UKF Sdgs - Company Service Salisbury Stn 1837 - 1838 crew stop Westbury Stn 1914 - ? crew stop Any additional wagonload traffic for Andover would presumably have been conveyed on the Salisbury - Ludgershall trip.

Have found the following services which appear to have been primarily for the automotive traffic and would have given two hours for loading at Queenborough if the wagons were turned round same day. Commencing 01/03/1982 until 16/05/1982 6K47 1145 (SX) Hoo Junction to Sheerness Steelworks - Air Braked Service. Headcode 5G. Booked loco DL. Strood 11/54 Queenborough 1230 - 1313 Sheerness Steelworks a.1328 Loco returned on 6M40 1415 (SX) Sheerness Steelworks to Willesden Brent Sdgs - Air Braked Service Queenborough 1422 - 1500 to attach Commencing 17/05/1982 6K47 1205 (SX) Hoo Junction to Sheerness Steelworks - Air Braked Service. Headcode 5G. Booked loco ED. Strood 12/18 Queenborough 1255 - 1325 Sheerness Steelworks a.1336 Loco returned on 6M40 1425 (SX) Sheerness Steelworks to Willesden Brent Sdgs - Air Braked Service. Booked loco ED to Hoo Jn thence DL. Queenborough 1432 - 1506 to attach.

47447 awaiting the road at Chester with the 1125 (6D04) Ashburys to Penmaenmawr, formed of empty ARC liveried POA wagons on 12/09/1989.

I'm afraid my knowledge of car type / makes is somewhat lacking despite having observed the loading and unloading of several thousand in rail terminals over the years, so many thanks to '108' and 'keefer' for pointing out my error. I had wrongly assumed that as the first vehicle loaded (top deck leading) had a Mazda badge they would all be the same, however closer inspection of the leading vehicle on the lower deck shows a Polski badge and most if not all of the other vehicles loaded appear to be similar. Sorry to deviate from the original topic but I had not realised that Polish built Fiats had been loaded at Queenborough, perhaps those with more knowledge of car types can identify the remainder of the load in the photo below. Another view of the trial loading on the Pier Sdg at Queenborough, thought to have been taken in 1981, and showing the empty Railease Carflat positioned between the Autic and loading ramp. The assembled staff indicate the importance of the occasion, with from right to left - Terry Knight, SR Regional Loads Inspector (adjusting a scotch); Basil Wilson, SED Terminals & Cartage Inspector; Unknown (in light suit); Stan ?, Supervisor Ashford Freight Gang; Ron Box, SED Freight & Terminals Officer (note his umbrella hanging on wagon); the three men on far left are probably the other members of the Ashford Freight Gang.

I remember the SED Loads Inspector N. (Ron) Aylen complaining about his new BR issue macintosh, it had a hanging loop made of fine metal chain which had jolted him in the neck as his coat tails brushed over the juice rail during damp weather !

25285 at Birmingham New Street on 29/05/1982 after rescuing the 0949 (1M80) Norwich to Birmingham New Street service from Nuneaton due to a loco failure. Caption edited to incude additional information provided by 'stovepipe'.

Managed to find my only photo showing a Railease Carflat (just), which I believe was taken in 1981 during a trial loading of Mazda cars onto a Railease Autic (RLS 92028) standing on the Pier Siding at Queenborough. This occasion was clearly of some importance as the Regional Loads Inspector, Terry Knight, is in attendance. Judging by the number of MAT Cartic scotches laying around this may perhaps have been the first appearance of Railease wagons at this location.

The painting of intermediate cab ends black may have been initiated on the South Eastern following an unfortunate incident during an evening rush hour at Cannon Street. Empty stock had arrived from Slade Green, however when the outgoing driver entered the country end cab there were no controls as someone had inadvertantly split a 4CAP to make up the 6 or 10 car train.

Railease were a subsidiary of the Standard Railway Wagon Co Ltd, who were a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mercantile Credit Co Ltd, who were a subsidiary of Barclays Plc - info obtained fron Railease / Standard Wagon Co Ltd documents.

The customers at Queenborough were (as I recall) Pre-Delivery Inspection Ltd and Mainland Car Deliveries Ltd, with rail wagons being provided by MAT (Machinery & Technical) Transport, whose automotive division later became MAT Transauto, and Railease whose wagons were often labelled CarTrain. My only photo of a Railease Carflat at Queenborough was taken during a trial loading of Mazda cars in 1981, although the carflat is empty and appears to have been used simply as a barrier between the Pier Sdg loading ramp and a Railease Autic, possibly due to an issue with deck heights. I think the single low deck wagons may have been Comtics. As far as I recall, the only complete trains of Carflats from Queenborough were formed of BR wagons which were loaded in the Bone Yard (Shipbreakers Sdg).

25200 shunting at Manchester Victoria on 10/04/1982.

Here are two in Leicestershire... 60087 'Slioch' waits among the weeds at Leicester Depot whilst a classmate stands at the fuel point on 01/09/1999.

David Ratcliffe's book 'Private-Owner Wagons in Colour' contains a photo showing Railease Carflats loaded with Ford Transit vans loaded at Eastleigh en route to Garston, it also states that they were used to convey Renaults from Goole to Perth and Vauxhalls from Luton to Bathgate. Additionally, they were loaded at Queenborough with traffic for Scotland (Bathgate & Stranraer I think) which passed via the Speedlink network.

Pure guess, but could the locos have been en route to / from the Longmoor Military Rly where, amongst others, 35028 Clan Line was preserved for a while.

Further to the information provided above by Brian and Ernie, the grey POA's were used to convey spoil from major track renewals in Kent associated with the Channel Tunnel construction and a photo of one such working is appended below (apologies for the poor quality). On 11th January 1992 and running almost two hours early, 47975 'Institution of Civil Engineers' approaches Gillingham (Kent) with the 1105 (6Z80) Folkestone West to Hoo Junction conveying POA's loaded with spoil.

If the Acton Yard Receptions are still within a DBC lease area, then FLHH can seek a Facility Access Agreement to allow continued use for a suitable fee, provided of course that DBC do not suddenly find additional services of their own (or other operators who get in first) to occupy the spare capacity (eg. HS2 construction / spoil traffic).

Thanks for sharing your photos, they brought back happy memories of many trips on the RhB. With regard to your photo of Ge2/2 No.161 this is in the sidings at the north end of Poschiavo station and the photo of Ge4/4 1 No.608 is at Samedan. I look forward to seeing more of your Swiss photos.